Official promises to raise the income of university professors have failed to contain their anger, reports Mona El-Nahhas Teachers at state universities staged a largely symbolic work stoppage on Sunday in protest at low salaries and pensions. Heading towards their offices in the morning, they stayed there until noon, leaving lecture rooms and labs empty. They then proceeded to the administrative buildings of their universities where they stood for an hour chanting slogans, among them "together until we gain our legitimate rights". In several universities students issued statements in solidarity with their professors' demands. The strike was only the second in the history of Egypt's universities. The first action took place in 1984, and the demands were similar. Yet despite more than two decades of ongoing negotiations the issue of low salaries has yet to be resolved. At Cairo and Alexandria Universities the Work Stoppage Committee says around 80 per cent of academic staff took part in the strike. The turnout at Mansoura, Helwan, Zagazig, Ain Shams and Beni Sweif universities ranged between 20 to 50 per cent. The Al-Azhar University branch in Assiut saw little disruption, while at Banha and Sohag universities teaching went ahead as normal. Sunday's work stoppage and stand-up protests were approved at last month's fifth general conference of university professors. The conference established a 20- member committee to oversee plans for the work-stoppage and stand-up protests with a majority of members drawn from the 9 March Movement for the Independence of Universities. The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, says the committee, played no role in the strike. The official assessment of Sunday's protests contradicts the committee's account. In a statement issued on the day of the strike Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Hani Hilal said only "a small minority" had taken part in the protests. Yet Mohamed Abul-Ghar, professor of gynaecology and obstetrics at Cairo University and a founder of the 9 March movement, told reporters that "the turnout exceeded the expectations of the government, university professors and the Work Stoppage Committee itself". Abul-Ghar underlined that Sunday's action would be the first in a series of escalating measures should the government continue to turn a deaf ear to the professors' demands, with a boycott of final term exams not ruled out. "I think it was a success, bearing in mind the pressures to which professors were subjected by faculty deans and university presidents," Hani El-Husseini, professor of chemistry at Cairo University and member of the Committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly. According to El-Husseini, some university presidents threatened to take punitive action against staff who failed to take their classes on 23 March. The heads of the various university teaching staff clubs also made it clear that they were opposed to the work stoppage. Adel Abdel-Gawad, the head of the Cairo University Teaching Staff Club, told the Weekly on Saturday that the work stoppage was inappropriate at the moment, an opinion shared by Menoufiya Teaching Staff Club head Meghawri Deyab. "The club cannot adopt the idea of a work stoppage," Deyab told the Weekly, adding that he would not be taking part even in his capacity as a university professor. He called upon academic staff to give the government another chance to respond to their demands. Both Abdel-Gawad and Deyab argue that the action is inappropriate at a time when Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has already promised to raise the salaries of all university teachers starting next July. During a meeting with university presidents and the heads of the teaching staff clubs on 18 March Nazif agreed in principle to salary increases but insisted they be performance-based. Such conditions were dismissed by a majority of university teachers who are seeking a 100 per cent increase in basic rates of pay. "The conditions they set for bonus payments will open the door to all kinds of abuse," says El-Husseini. "It's no secret that a majority of faculty deans were not appointed because of their academic records but because they met certain security criteria. In preparing assessment reports they are unlikely to be objective." Tareq Desouki, the head of the Work Stoppage Committee, says the lack of support from teaching clubs was expected. "They were obliged to act in such a way. The alternative would be to see the clubs themselves dissolved." El-Husseini takes a less conciliatory view, arguing that the heads of the clubs had failed to reflect the views of their members. "Whatever the reason behind their stand they should not remain in the chairmanship seat," he said, noting that their presence threatens unity in academic ranks.
