The University has a high rate of precarious contracts. The real salaries do not
even reach the minimum wage. The isolation of precarious personnel complicatesmobilization. But precarious collectives and struggle unions already have somevictories to their credit. ---- The number of students in higher education hasbeen growing for more than twenty years, rising from 2.1 million in 2002 to 2.8million at the start of the 2020 academic year (figures from the Ministry ofHigher Education and of research). Far from anticipating this increase by hiringstaff, successive governments have only reduced the number of places open to thevarious competitions for civil servants. For example, between 2012 and 2021, thenumber of open positions for Maîtres de Conférence has decreased by 43%.The consequences are clear: falling supervision rates, an ever more pressingselection of students, overwhelmed administrative staff and ever more overloadedteachers, crumbling under overtime. In response to these problems, the Universityhas found the parade. It is about organizing and exploiting precariousness.700,000 more students in twenty yearsThe lessons at the University are not all provided by holders of civil servantstatus. Part of the services are provided through vacations. These are hourlycontracts paid at a flat rate, intended for all kinds of people. The profilescarrying out these vacations are very varied: they can be high school teachers,or people working in companies coming for the time of an intervention. Veryoften, these are doctoral students who are preparing their thesis at the sametime. It is estimated that 20% of teaching at the University is carried out bycontractors.The hour of tutorials (TD) is paid at 41 euros. However, being present in frontof the students is only part of the work done, which also includes preparation,correction, answering questions, etc. According to the calculations of theministry, one hour of TD is equivalent to 4.2 hours of work. This sets theremuneration at 9.85 euros per hour, below the hourly minimum wage. This estimateis only an average which hides the diversity of the time devoted to theseteaching hours, since the contracts do not set the scope of the mission. Anothermajor problem: contractors are not statutory employees of the University, but aresimilar to service providers. Consequently, if the service is not performed,there is no payment... Which excludes sick leave !These difficulties do not impact everyone in the same way. The situation ofdoctoral students is extremely heterogeneous: one party has a doctoral contractwhich guarantees a salary for the three years that the theses are supposed tolast. However, another party does not have this type of contract and does notenjoy any income for its research. It is found in its vast majority in theHumanities and Social Sciences, a revealing point of the interest that ouruniversities have for these disciplines... These doctoral students then depend onadditional income such as that obtained through vacations. Late payments thenhave dramatic consequences. This situation is aggravated by Pôle emploi, whichrequires the declaration of income at the time the work was carried out, a timewhich does not correspond to the payment of the payroll. This discrepancyautomatically leads to loss of income. Temporary workers in a critical situationhave been threatened with deregistration because they were waiting for theremuneration to be actually paid before declaring it.One hour of TD equivalent to 4 hours of workFaced with this situation, personnel face the presidency of universities toobtain decent conditions. This is the case in Grenoble. Although the problem hasbeen known for several years, the fight in the University of this city began inDecember 2021, through the action of doctoral students and doctoral students, oneof whom had found herself with her back to the wall vis -vis Pôle Emploi. Thetemporary workers are organized within a collective which brings togetherdoctoral students and administrative staff (who may also be required to carry outvacations). Some of the people who entered the fight are also unionized withinthe CGT Ferc-Sup, or even Sud-Recherche.By dint of chaining negotiations with the presidency, public meetings, rallies,the collective ended up gaining some notable improvements. Thus, doctoralstudents without a doctoral contract have from this start of the 2022 academicyear a monthly vacation contract which specifies a teaching service. Thisguarantees social contributions, as well as sick leave. However, this partialvictory does not imply an increase in remuneration, nor a generalization of themonthly payment to all vacations.An important phenomenon, the struggle is also structured at the national level:different collectives of precarious workers are trying to establish links andbuild common actions. Within the CGT Ferc-Sup, the need to advance questionsrelating to the doctorate is gaining ground. A national collective was recentlycreated to coordinate the action of doctoral students. One of the primaryobjectives of this collective is to share information and propaganda material.Building and strengthening mobilization is difficult, however, in a context whereprecarious staff only work at the University for a short time, and are cruellyisolated from their colleagues. Overcoming this isolation and creating realsolidarity between precarious workers, but also with the incumbents whose statuswe seek to destroy, will be the necessary condition for the outcome of this struggle.Nico (UCL Grenoble)*- This article was written and reread with the help of the valuable informationand argumentation work carried out by the Collective of temporary workers fromthe University of Grenoble, which has been leading the battle for almost a year.https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Universite-Les-smicards-se-rebiffent_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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