Argentina’s university workers are on strike for the entire current week, as the national government refuses to comply with a law that guarantees funding for public institutions of higher education.

The Human Capital Ministry, for its part, urged rectors across the country to “submit a contingency plan” and “a guarantee of access that includes faculty members who do not participate in the strike.”

According to the communiqué released on Tuesday by the ministry led by former journalist Sandra Pettovello, the government is viewing with “deep concern” the suspension of academic activities and requires rectors to think of “alternative methods that allow students to make up missed classes.”

Franco Bartolacci, the rector of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario, said the government should “act with reason and prudence at this very delicate moment.”

“It is a world turned upside down — instead of issuing ultimatums, the government should recognize the extraordinary effort that faculty, staff, researchers, and students make under such precarious conditions to keep the universities open,” Bartolacci told the Herald.

The strike was organized by the National Federation of University Professors (CONADU) and CONADU Histórica, with the participation of grassroots unions. In addition, the unions called for a nationwide march on May 12.

CONADU Histórica said “the magnitude of the decline in wages is undeniable, with a loss of purchasing power ranging from 42.5% to 49.1%” since Milei took office in December 2023.

Last August, Congress passed a public university funding law that established pay raises for university staff, which President Javier Milei has repeatedly refused to implement due to budget concerns. 

The government vetoed the law days after it was approved, then both Congress chambers rejected the veto, but the administration nevertheless suspended its execution through a new decree. 

The National Inter-University Council (CIN, by its Spanish initials), which groups rectors from several public universities, filed a writ of protection following the 2025 veto, demanding the judiciary declare Milei’s decision not to implement the law unconstitutional.

On March 31, the Federal Administrative Litigation Court ordered the government to immediately implement the provisions of the law that establish salary increases for professors and other university employees, as well as scholarships. The ruling called the executive branch’s appeal “frivolous.”

The government did not comply.

Bartolacci, who is also the head of the CIN, said the government should “start by enforcing the law, which was passed more than 180 days ago.”

“Funding transfers to the university system have fallen by 45.6 percent from 2023 to the present,” he told the Herald.

“We are at the lowest investment level in history — 0.4 percent of GDP,” he said. He called it “unprecedented and somewhat perverse” to transfer “only half of the resources to the universities and demand that the system continue to function as if nothing were happening.”

© Buenos Aires Herald