Sana’a University professors threaten strike

Professors converge on the university president’s office.

The Academic Staff Union of Sana’a University has been holding intermittent strikes and sit-ins in front of the office of the president of Sana’a University, to demand the independence of all Yemeni universities; land promised them by the university; and the reinstatement of salaries to retired professors and the families of deceased professors.

The union issued a statement for the professors of Sana’a University and their assistants.  The main point of the statement is that the union wants all Yemeni universities to be independent of the Ministry of Civil Service and Insurance and the Ministry of Finance.   They want total financial, administrative, and academic independence for the universities.   The union began its strike on Saturday March 31, and began a sit-in at the same time in front of the presidency of the university building in the New Sana’a University.

The strike is held for two hours every other day.   Now, the union has decided to strike only for two hours twice a week, on Sunday and Wednesday.  The union workers have delayed their meeting with the Minister of Finance to discuss their demands because of the new governmental reshufflings.  “We hold the strike because the university presidency and the Ministry of Finance always postpone the rights of Sana’a University professors,” said Mohammed No’man, a member of the Academic Staff Union, and the reporter of the Observation and Inspection Unit for the Residential Organization.   

“If they do not respond to our demands, the strike will turn into a total strike, and study at the university will completely stop,” said No’man.  “We have not yet affected the progress of study at the university, as this partial strike represents a warning to the administration of the university,” No’man said.   The university administrators do not care enough about scientific research or give it the priority and financial support it needs to be able to promote the educational process, the union’s statement said. 

The salaries of the retired professors and the families of deceased professors, which had been suspended since January, were finally released under court order last Saturday, in response to the strike.   President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 1991 ordered that members of the academic staff receive residential land to build homes close to their workplaces, but the professors still do not have these lands.  “The chancellor of Sana’a University says the obstacles to obtaining the land come from the Ministry of Finance,” said Saleh Abdullah al-Sanabani, the Financial Officer at the Academic Staff Union.  

The union also demands to be given the remainder of the 1,000 computers promised them by Saleh. Only 300 of the computers have been distributed.   “There were 1,000 PCs, but the university administration and the Ministry of High Education and Scientific research have distributed only 300 PCs and confiscated 700 PCs,” al-Sanabani and No’man said.
 
“Now there are orders from the university to give the professors of the university 300 PCs from the Ministry of Telecommunications, as a first installment of the remaining PCs,” said al-Sanabani.    Union members also want the law of academic and administrative appointments applied. This law holds that the best person in a batch of applicants must be hired.  Currently, the appointments of lecturers and professors do not apply this law. “The university should appoint the best people, but it takes the worst people because of nepotism and the like,” said No’man.  

The union also demands a housing allowance for members of the Assistant Academic Staff Union, lecturers and teachers.  The union previously held a strike in May, 2005, and the result was an agreement with the university that all of their demands would be met. However, most of the demands have not been met.  They also agreed to a 40 percent increase in the salaries, from the beginning of January 2005, as well as the adoption of the housing allowance increase.  But the professors only received the 40 percent increase from July 2005, and they demand the rest of it, said al-Sanabani.  The union also is demanding improvement of health services and health insurance for union members.  

“The administration of the Academic Staff Union on Saturday discussed the demands and the main points of the union’s statement with university chancellor Tumai,” said al-Sanabani. “The meeting concluded that Tumaim will go with the professors on Sunday April 1 to the Ministry of Finance to sit-in and meet the minister to achieve our demands because he is one of the union and our demands are fair,” said al-Sanabani.

“We will raise the independence of the university, the land problem, and the taxes of housing. But we postponed the meeting with the Ministry of Finance because of the new governmental reshufflings,” he said.  At the meeting on Saturday, the union and Tumaim agreed that the professors should receive YR 30,000 per month for housing. “But the Minister of Finance tries to take taxes from this amount, and we refused that because the amount can not be less than YR 30,000,” said al-Sanabani.      

Tumaim told the media that he accused the Ministry of Finance of obstructing the demands of the union.  He said that the university understands the demands of the members of the union, and it has decided some of those demands and it aims to respond to the others.  If the university fails to respond to the union’s demands for financial, administrative and academic independence for Yemeni universities, the union plans to file a lawsuit against the ministries of civil service and finance, according to the union’s statement.

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