UvA ‘surprised’ by ultimatum union FNV
The UvA believes the possible actions announced for next week by union FNV are ‘unnecessary’ and is ‘surprised’ by the ultimatum given. According to president of the Executive Board Edith Hooge, progress has actually been made on the points where the FNV demands improvement.
“It comes as a surprise to us that the FNV chooses this path,” president Edith Hooge writes in a letter to union FNV. The latter gave the university an ultimatum this week and is threatening a strike on Monday if the UvA does not end ‘controversial collaborations’ such as those with Israeli institutions and if the right to demonstrate is not expanded.
According to Hooge, progress has actually been made on these issues. “New house rules, with extension of demonstration rights, and a new assessment framework for cooperation with third parties will be sent to the co-determination committees this week. That is also the democratic path of decision-making within the UvA.”
The new assessment framework should prevent “education and research from contributing to human rights violations, misuse of knowledge for unwanted military purposes or serious damage to the environment,” the UvA writes on its website. “Until now, the assessment framework only covered cooperation with fossil industry and knowledge security.”
The framework is currently testing three cases: student exchanges with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, cooperation with the Chinese Scholarship Council and student exchanges with universities in Hungary. The advice on these three collaborations will be finalised soon, the UvA says.
According to the UvA, unions also had the opportunity to express their views on the new rules in recent months. “All this input has been taken to heart and also in the future the employee participation remains closely involved in this process,” Hooge said. “Therefore, we consider any actions unnecessary.”
