University workers planning strikes in March against Cabinet's education budget cuts

Staff members and students of universities have announced their intentions to walk off the job in a series of strikes at different higher education institutions next month. They intend to take turns closing their universities for a day in protest against the cuts of more than one billion euros per year that the current Cabinet wants to implement.

The first strike is scheduled for March 10 at the University of Leiden. The University of Utrecht will follow a day later and then workers at the Radboud University in Nijmegen will go on strike on March 13.

Organizations involved with the strikes, including the education union (AOb) and the national student union (LSVb), will announce the dates for their strikes on Thursday. More strikes will follow, LSVb chairman Abdelkader Karbache has promised. “The idea is that we go on strike for weeks. We want the strongest possible action against these cuts. It is about our knowledge and the future of our children,” he said.

After the initial plans were severely criticized, the Cabinet decided to abandon the plan to reintroduce a fine for people who take too long to finish their studies. However, the most significant part of the cuts on education and research remained.

The AOb has described it as “the destruction of higher education.” The education union has said that there is a huge willingness amongst their members to go on strike. This will not only happen at universities but also at colleges.

Around 25,000 people protested on the Malieveld in The Hague in November against the Cabinet’s plans. Education workers' organization WOinActie concluded that “this was not enough to convince the reverse their disastrous cuts on education and science.” That is why the tougher actions are necessary, the group said.