The two largest unions representing professors and non-teaching staff will carry out the strike until Friday, affecting more than two million students, and are considering escalating actions, including the possibility of suspending exams and the start of the 2026 academic year.

The National Council of University Faculty (CONADU) and CONADU Histórica, which are part of Argentina’s two main labor federations, decided to break their strike after the national government’s decision to suspend the law that funds public higher education, which was approved by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress.

In the preliminary deliberations, some unions went so far as to propose, with mandates from their rank and file, a week-long strike or even an indefinite strike with the suspension of final exams.

However, the university workers’ unions affiliated with the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), for their part, decided not to support the measure, awaiting dialogue with the government.

Regarding the University Funding Law, it mandates an update of salaries and operating funds for universities in accordance with the official inflation rate and therefore implies a maintenance of resources, not an unjustified increase. The demanded salary increase amounts to slightly more than 43%, which would allow salaries to be restored to the level of November 2023.

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