University of Amsterdam employees to go on strike for improved demonstration rights

Employees of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) are probably going on strike from next Monday to Thursday due to their displeasure with the way the university is handling the right to demonstrate. Members of the union FNV had set an ultimatum for an extension of those rights until Friday afternoon, but the university did not respond to the FNV's demand in a way that the union deemed acceptable.

It is presumed that 150 to 250 employees will stop working but there has been no clarity regarding this. The strikers also want the university to stop cooperating with institutions that may be involved in human rights violations. “For example, Israeli institutions.”

One of the demands is that a committee has to look at the possibilities regarding this. The collaborations in question should be suspended until the committee has reached its conclusions, the FNV added.

The university maintains that new rules for demonstrations have been drawn up. A proposition about this will be sent to the works council and the student council. According to the UvA, the options for demonstrating will be expanded, "including the space for demonstrators to choose the time, place and way they wish to demonstrate."

The university has also said that it has created a framework for evaluating and preventing cooperation with those alleged to have violated human rights. An advisory committee will review potentially controversial situations and issue a decision on the matter, the UvA stated.