Secondary teachers’ unions in Greece decided yesterday to go on a five-day strike starting on Monday 16 September. Their strike coincides with the opening of the school year tomorrow.
Teachers are up in arms about recent staff suspensions and transfers.
Last May, the government used mobilisation orders to force teachers off a strike, a path the education minister says he will not be using this time.
“Mobilisation orders were necessary because the national state examinations were being threatened,” Kostas Arvanitopoulos, Minister of Education, said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, university administrators at a number of colleges have voted to start 48-hour strikes, startingtoday..
The strike will affect the University of Athens, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki and the Thessaloniki Technical College (TEI).
Unions say that of the 6,239 administrative staff at third-level institutions across the country, the government is seeking to place 1,765, or 25%, in its mobility scheme, which will end in dismissal if another job for them cannot be found in the public sector.
They say colleges cannot afford to lose staff. At the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, for example, there are 750 administrators for 2,200 faculty members and 70,000 students.
Source: Kathimerini
