Teachers and students from the University of the Republic (Udelar) cutbacks rejected in budget matters included in the Accountability which was voted last week in the Treasury and Budget Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
In a press conference held at the headquarters of the Federation of University Students of Uruguay (FEUU), the unions expressed their “deep concern” by repeal of the Solidarity Fund additionalan item that represents $600 million annually, an amount similar to the operating costs of the School of Veterinary Medicine or the School of Economic Sciences, and demanded the approval of “compensatory measures”.
“An effective reduction of Udelar funds is being confirmed. We believe this is extremely serious.”expressed the leader Víctor Martínez, who pointed out that several legislators had said that they would seek to compensate the resources but that did not happen.
The unions also They rejected that the government did not summon the Udelar workers to negotiate to correct the “salary inequities” as happened with the National Administration of Public Education (ANEP).
“Workers are condemned to helplessness. With the government’s proposal, a wage loss in this period of about 2%. We lose budget in salaries and investments”, said the leader Victoria Amaro.
Camilo dos Santos
Udelar rejects budget cuts
The unions emphasized that this decision “will continue to go deeper” the inequity between teaching hours and students, since university enrollment has been increasing unequally to the budget allocated to teaching courses.
The leader of the FEUU, Andres Fernandeznoted that “do not give resources” it is to show a political vision about the role that the University of the Republic has and criticized that they entered the discussion with “$0 increase and we left $15 million below”.
At the conference, the unions announced that during the week They will study measures that can range from carrying out active strikes until teach in the streets to show the situation.
In turn, they called for the mobilization that will take place this afternoon from the esplanade of the Udelar to the Plaza 1º de Mayo in the framework of the Student Martyrs Daydate that remembers the assassination of the leader Bast Maple in 1968. The slogan this year also added “the defense of public education” for the discussion of Accountability.
The rector of the Udelar, Rodrigo Arim, had also rejected the cuts in the budget. In a column published on the university’s website, Arim pointed out that Udelar “will not be able to face many of the works that it already had defined” and that “it will be impossible to dream of new concretions.”
He also stated that the university was “the only public body subject to a reduction in its permanent nominal budget, despite the efforts of the faculty during the years of the pandemic.”
