Today [April30], on the day before International Workers’ Day, we occupied the Service and Information Centre of the University of Amsterdam to demand attention for the exploitation and precarity of workers within the university, and outside of it.
In a phone call with the temporary head of the board Dymph van den Boom, we confronted her with questions concerning the insecurity and pressure under which workers are forced to produce and transfer knowledge in the neoliberal university.
We were not satisfied with her repeatedly vague reaction that a Human Resources technocrat will “look into these issues”, nor with the fact that the only concrete measure she was able to name was the reduction of the amount of flex-contracts- after which she refused to clarify whether these people will be fired or not. This is not an answer.
In the meantime we received messages from the outside that later in the afternoon a celebration honouring workers who will leave the university in the near future was planned. Seeing as we are in solidarity with workers like them the only logical decision we could take was to leave swiftly. Furthermore our arrests would not add anything more to this action – our voices will be heard louder on the streets than in a cell.
As long as the university is being run like a factory and treats its employees as a “resource” or “means of production” actions will continue until it is shut down.
Students and workers – unite and fight!
