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UAthens Staff Extends Strike Again

Greece_049_University_of_AthensAdministrative staff at the University of Athens, one of eight Greek colleges where workers have been striking for two months to protest government layoff plans, said on Nov. 8 they would continue the work stoppage even as authorities said they would go to court to try to force them back to their jobs.
Education Minister Constantinos Arvanitopoulos has taken legal action to deem the strike illegal and abusive. Next week it will enter its 10th week and the academic year has yet to begin, with administrators barring professors from going to classes or meeting with students, many of whom are said to be becoming increasingly frustrated.
A meeting of the university’s staff, who are protesting government plans to place some 1,300 administrative workers in a civil service mobility scheme, is scheduled for Nov. 11, where they will decide how to proceed with their action.
Academics at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) said they will defy their administrators and return to work on Nov. 12. They had been off the job for eight weeks, some in support of the administrators while others said they were prohibited from working although they wanted to.
It was not clear whether professors at the University of Athens would be backing the call to continued action by administrative employees at that institution.
The NTUA professors accepted an appeal from the government to return after they were told the entire school year was in jeopardy because it was starting so late, and with the Christmas and New Year’s holidays on the horizon, although the first semester could be wiped out. It wasn’t clear how that would affect students, although there are no four-year terms as in the United States and university students in Greece can stay years, or decades, without graduating.
It was unclear whether professors at Athens University would follow the example of their NTUA peers. Meanwhile a prosecutor ordered an investigation into whether the rector of Athens University, Theodosis Pelegrinis, should be charged with violation of duty. Until now, the government has done nothing to force the strikers back to work although they are being paid to stay home.
 
 

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