This Monday, January 16th, when the restart of academic and administrative activities at the University of Carabobo (UC) was scheduled, professors, administrative employees and workers marched from the rectory at Bolívar Avenue in Valencia, to Cedeño Avenue to demand decent wages and better working conditions.
By La Patilla – Rosimar Sánchez
Jan 16, 2023
The Rector of the University of Carabobo (UC), Jessy Divo de Romero, assured that the Top educational Institution in Carabobo State will keep its doors open, but the authorities will support the fight of university workers who demand their rights.
She stated that it is increasingly difficult for them to get to their jobs and carry out their teaching and research tasks because of the low salaries they earn.
She explained that the worker with the highest monthly income earns approximately the equivalent of 35 U.S. dollars (a month), while the administrative staff earns between 12 dollars and 37 dollars per month.
In the case of professors, Ms. Divo de Romero specified that the salary of an assistant professor is 23 dollars a month, while the highest level professor, with more than 40 years of seniority, earns the equivalent of 71 U.S. dollars a month.
“The University of Carabobo is a public institution that is at the service of the country, we train professionals who work in the private and public sectors to support the development and progress of Venezuela. However, without a dignified salary, without minimum conditions, how can our workers fulfill this important task if most cannot afford to get to their place of work?” She said.
She informed that those of the staff who do not show up to their work site will not get discounts nor will be penalized.
“We have to put the heart and humanity before anything else. And what is human obliges us to consider the situation of these workers,” stated the Rector of the UC.
She indicated that this week Faculty Councils and an expanded University Council will be held to address the salary issue.
“Genocide To Wages”
During the so-called “March of the empty bags”, the President of the Association of Professors of the University of Carabobo (APUC), Euclides Querales, asked the administration of Nicolás Maduro to dollarize salaries.
He pointed out that the salary of university workers is not enough to pay for public transport fares.
He regretted that the teaching, administrative and worker staff have to dedicate themselves to other economic activities outside the UC in order to survive.
“This government applies genocide to salary (…) A university professor should earn more than $2,000, because we have prepared ourselves for that. We are an elite of intellectuals who have formed the human resources with which the public and private administration work. I do not envy the salary that senior government officials have, what I want is for me to be at their level, because they always level us below,” he claimed.
For her part, Maritza Colmenares, a retiree from the University of Carabobo, expressed concern for workers who do not have social security and her pension is not enough to cover her medical expenses.
She commented that she depends on the collaborations of her brothers to buy treatment for the heart condition she suffers.
She mentioned that during her years of service at the University of Carabobo, she was able to buy her house, but now the salary is insufficient to pay the 25 dollars service fee of a condominium.
“It is impossible for a Venezuelan to subsist on 10 dollars a month (paid in Bolivars, the local currency). To retirees, who have more needs for food, health, our benefits are decreasing more and more, they do not comply with the collective agreement, we do not have insurance, we do not have any of the benefits we earned. We are not going to accept more miseries or bonuses that are a gag for the workers. We want a salary that dignifies us,” she said.
In the “March of the empty bags” also participated the unions of education, nursing, workers of the electrical sector and employees of the Government of Carabobo.
The coordinator of the Carabobo Education Union Coalition, Juan Tortolero, pointed out that a teacher in category six, with a postgraduate degree, earns almost 20 dollars, a figure that is not enough to cover even 10% of the basic food basket.
…
Read More: La Patilla – Workers from the University of Carabobo led the “march of the empty bags” demanding better wages
…