Academic unions call one-hour strike over R&D funding

Baltic News Service and ERR News 01 June 2019

The council of Estonia's academic trade unions has called for a ‘warning’ strike in protest at the coalition government's announcement that it would not be boosting research and development (R&D) spend, report Baltic News Service and ERR News.

The previous administration signed an agreement at the end of 2018 that the research spending would reach 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the coming year. However, the Centre-EKRE-Isamaa coalition announced, following its state budget strategy discussions last week, that the figure would be frozen at the current 0.71% of GDP for the next few years.

The warning strike, which will last one hour, on 5 June, was announced after a meeting of the Academic Trade Union Council and the extended board of the Universitas trade union association of Estonian universities, research and development institutions last Tuesday evening.
Full report on the ERR News site

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