Staff and Students Strike at the UvA
By Roshni Ravi | News | February 15, 2025
Cover Illustration: Frans Ruiter/Unsplash
Reporter Roshni Ravi uncovers the significance of partaking into the protest movement against UvA ties with Israel from a staff and trade union member’s perspective.
The Roots of the Protest: From Student Encampments to Union Action
From the 9-12 December, around 300 members of staff at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), working together with the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV), went on strike to protest the university’s ties with Israeli institutions and to demand the right to demonstrate on campus. Over the four days of the strike, staff, students and union members picketed outside different campuses, including Roeterseiland, P.C. Hoofthuis and Science Park. Over the first three days, members of staff organised teach-ins, focusing on topics like institutional complicity, the right to protest and political uses of scientific knowledge. The strike ended on December 12, with a sit-in at the Roeterseiland campus followed by a demonstration and a march to the Maagdenhuis, the administrative center of UvA. At the end of the march, union members and students delivered speeches and read out a letter sent by the Palestinian Health Service Union, thanking the FNV for their solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Moreover, numerous participants shared their thoughts about the importance and significance of this strike.
Dr. Rébecca Franco, a researcher and teacher in the Sociology department of UvA, traces the roots of this grassroot movement back to the student encampments in May. She believes that the university made grave mistakes in meeting students and staff involved in those initial protests with police violence. “Over the course of negotiations with the students and the police violence happening on campus, staff understood that we would have to mobilise ourselves as well,” Dr. Franco says, “One of the avenues we chose was to get the union involved because as a formal institution, they could protect us legally.”
Three Core Demands: Protest Rights, Transparency, and Institutional Accountability
Dr. Franco explains that the demands put forward by the FNV are threefold. “The first is to ensure the right to protest on campus without unfair or unjust limitations,” “For example, the university wanted to have the requirement that you identify yourself when you protest, and we believe that is a violation of the right to protest.”
“The second demand has to do with the broader process of evaluating collaborations with institutions and third parties … It has taken seven months now and [the university] has kept on saying that they were doing something without us knowing what. At the same time, the genocide is unfolding and getting worse.” Dr. Franco believes that this is a stalling tactic and calls for transparent and democratic evaluations. The third demand, following from the second, acknowledges that this evaluation process can be lengthy and calls for the immediate suspension of ties with Israeli institutions until this process is complete.
Four Days of Protest: Perspectives from Staff and Union Officials
“About two or three weeks ago, we had a meeting and we discussed how little progress has been made,” explains Bernard Koekoek, a union official, “The conclusion was that we, as FNV members, need to put more pressure on the Executive Board (CvB) to take a step.” FNV members sent an ultimatum to the CvB stipulating that they comply with the demands before noon on December 6. When the CvB failed to meet these demands by the deadline, FNV members took the decision to go on strike.
Mathijs Janssen, who has been working in the Faculty of Economics since September, expressed frustration with the CvB’s inaction. “They’ve made gestures that appear to be in good faith, but they’re dragging their heels,” he says. “The university has symbolic power in this matter. They are in a special position, which makes this an important step to take.”
However, this movement has been met with some opposition from the UvA. “The university has said that the strike is unlawful because you can only strike for your labour environment,” Dr. Franco explains , “The FNV’s counter argument is that working at an institution that forces us to be complicit in human rights violations is very much about our labour environment.”
Dr. Franco speaks further about the importance of striking. “We have to think about the spheres of influence that we can have and where we can make a difference,” she says. “Doing that within your workplace might be a very fruitful way to hold the people in power accountable for their complicity in atrocity crimes.”
And, indeed, this strike was particularly relevant “This is a four-day strike at UvA, which is a historic feat in itself,” Bernard says, “The last time there’s been a multi-day strike in higher education in the Netherlands was back in the 80s. So, this is quite something, and I’m very proud of the two or three hundred people showing up and protesting every day … There is a large group of people showing that they are willing to take this historic step while the CvB is showing no steps at all. They can’t stay in that position much longer. That’s not what we should expect from the Executive Board of the largest university in the Netherlands.” Looking forward, Bernard emphasises the need for more members of staff to join their cause. “We need to have even more people join and make a fist,” he says, “We’re drawing a line in the sand … I already mentioned that this is a historic feat. I’d like for the Executive Board to give a historic answer.”
Roshni Ravi is a university student in Amsterdam. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Amsterdammer.
