TIRANA, Oct. 31, 2022 – A strike led by the union of academic workers at Albania’s public universities is now in its third week, with the union announcing it would start a hunger strike this week if the government does not respond to its demands of a 50 percent salary increase and more funding for academic workers in general.
Albania’s government refuses to change its decision of a 15 percent salary increase, with only 7 percent coming from the government and the rest from universities’ own funds.
The union has been striking for nearly three weeks, leading to partial disruption at the start of the academic year for some but not all public university students.
‘Not just for wages, but for dignity and quality’
The union has a nine-point list of demands, which include the wage increases and funding for research, a review of rewards for career years and scientific titles, as well as transparency about the finances of public universities.
“Today we have with us many deans and heads of departments, who are here and who are with us. It should be clearly understood that the leadership of the universities are with us,” Ardian Isufi, an arts professor, said at the protest.
The union members say their salaries are insufficient and that funds for scientific research are minimal, and that for several years they have been letting the authorities know that they cannot do their work appropriately under these conditions.
Representatives say wages have not increased since 2005 and are now less than half the regional average. They want their salaries to be at least comparable to Kosovo’s wages. For example, associate professors in Kosovo make about 1400 euros per month, while their counterparts in Albania make about 821 euros a month after taxes, with many academic workers making much less.
An economics associate professor, Mimoza Manjhari, said that, among other things, the protest is not simply for a salary increase, but for the return of dignity and an increase in the quality of higher education.
“The multidimensional qualities and values of higher education are for us a call to come together and to insist that our demands be met, and not to be satisfied with simply stating what the issues are,” Manjhari said. “This reaction is a call to the conscience of any holder of political governance and administrative governance in all institutions.”
Hunger strike in face of government’s deaf ear
Prime Minister Edi Rama has said the union was “crying to the moon” and that public universities have the needed autonomy to raise funds and salaries on their own.
However, academic workers say autonomy is on paper only, with the government deciding the salary and funding levels.
The union says the extreme decision of a hunger strike comes after being faced with “government arrogance” instead of any understanding of their plight.
“The proposal was approved that the protest should take the form of a hunger strike or protest as the only form of peaceful movement, which is allowed by the law and international conventions, which at this stage can have an effect on sensitizing the domestic and international opinion to force the Albanian government and politics as a whole to place Albanian education and university education in particular as a national priority,” said Aleksandër Kovaçi, president of the university union.
As soon as the union’s petition was published at the beginning of the month, the government increased lecturers’ salaries by 7 percent and allowed universities to match the other 8 percent increase with their own income, making it a 15 percent pay increase starting inOctober.
The increase led to dividing the strikers, with the University of Medicine and several others deciding to go back to normal teaching hours, while other public institutions continued the strike.
UPDATE, Nov. 1, 2022:
Prime minister says strikers have ‘no fatherland,’ are ‘ruble takers’
Prime Minister Rama indicated Tuesday he saw the strike as supported by a Russia-friendly opposition, an unfounded accusation that the prime minister has been using to attack the main opposition Democratic Party and other critics of his governance.
“Hunger strikes over wages are done only by people who have no religion and no fatherland, rubble takers without clue … mud throwers that are of no service to Albania and Albanians,” Rama wrote on social media in his usual colorful and biting language that makes it hard to translate for international audiences.
Rama’s comments came after the union issued a statement Tuesday that ten professors were ready to start a “symbolic” hunger strike on Wednesday.
