Labor struggles in academia
We support labor struggles in Israeli academia; we develop critical knowledge on the conditions of precarity and exploitation in the Israeli context, as well as work towards the establishment of broad cooperation and better coordination between various de-centralized struggles and among various labor unions representing the most vulnerable sections of the academic and the administrative staff.
Academia for Equality believes that one of the most crucial conditions for achieving a more equal, democratic and just academia is a labor force that is organized and unionized. Our position is that all who are employed in academia - from cleaners to tenured professors in both universities and colleges - have a right to unionize and deserve to enjoy good conditions of employment and academic freedom ultimately serving the interests of the academic community as a whole. In order to fight current exploitative employment conditions, and encourage unity amongst the labor force in academia, we support labor struggles across institutions, we help local unions and struggles disseminate information about their conditions and demands, and in an extremely fragmented field of labor struggles in Israeli academia, we aspire to promote greater coordination and collaboration between the various labor unions overall. Some of our activities include assistance in coordination across institutions, as we did during the strike at the start of the 2018-2019 academic year of staff at state-funded colleges. We supported the demand to open immediate labor negotiations at Tel Aviv University, against the backdrop of management pressures and threats on the adjunct staff union in order to force it to return to work without signing an agreement. In addition to this type of coordination and support, we encourage our membership to organize as a voting block and advance together important resolutions on matters concerning our vision at professional associations both in Israel and abroad.
Head team: Matan Kaminer, contact: info@academia4equality.com
