Casual UvA to suspend strike & monitor implementation
by Anonymous
PRESS RELEASE:
7 June, 2022
Amsterdam, NL
For Immediate Release
CASUAL UVA TO SUSPEND STRIKE & MONITOR IMPLEMENTATION
On April 1, Casual UvA announced a marking strike to demand fairer working conditions for teachers at the UvA, namely for those on temporary contracts. Over 120 teachers from eight departments across the university participated in the action. We were supported in our efforts by numerous stakeholders, including many of our own students, and worked tirelessly towards a resolution with management. Our actions, like those of Casual Academy and 0.7, are aimed at elevating the issue of casualisation on the national agenda and helping bring about local change.
In our discussions with the CvB, FMG Dean, FNWI Dean, and various department management teams, we lobbied for better contract scope, workload transparency, and professional development opportunities, some of which will take immediate effect with the newly released central HR policy. Casual UvA admires the precedence the CvB is aiming to set with these needed changes. Preceding the CAO negotiations, the policy has the potential to improve working conditions for all teachers, especially those on temporary contracts. The central HR policy neither ends casualisation nor resolves all of our concerns, but it represents a step towards bettering our workplace and combating the negative impacts of precarity and overwork on students and teachers.
Thus, in good faith and a spirit of partnership, we have agreed to suspend the marking strike. Block 5 grades will be released as planned, following the standard turnaround times for final assessments and other graded work in consultation with course coordinators.
As a condition of suspending the strike, Casual UvA will closely monitor developments of the policy at various organisational levels, paying careful attention to how specifics are taken up in different departments. We will strengthen our network to ensure the interests of our members are fairly represented. We look forward to working with management to oversee the implementation of the policy.
We would like to congratulate and commend the incredibly brave population of junior teachers who have been on strike for over eight weeks and have helped bring about this change, as well as the volunteer members who run Casual UvA in their own time. Our gratitude also goes to those who supported us in solidarity, colleagues and students alike, including the ASVA and Autonomous Student Struggle.
Casual UvA is here to stay and evolve into a powerful action group, as has been demonstrated throughout the strike. We look forward to working with management to implement the policy and better education for ourselves, our colleagues, and our students.
In solidarity,
Casual UvA
Striking Departments: Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, Interdisciplinary Social Science (ISW), Future Planet Studies, Béta Gamma, Human Geography, Communication Science
With Support From: Media Studies, PPLE, Psychology, Psychobiology, Artificial Intelligence, Information Sciences