Ricercatori Determinati (precarious workers network)
The Italian university system suffers from structural precarity of the academic staff. Recent reforms and low investment levels aggravated the situation with the number of precarious academic staff now exceeding the number of tenure and tenure track positions. Precarious teachers and researchers in universities are not covered by collective agreement and they have hardly access to union’s representation at the workplace. To voice the concerns of precarious academic staff, in 2009, FLC-CGIL initiated a Forum for precarious workers in Higher Education and Research. Ever since, the Forum has been a platform for self-organising, analysing, advocacy, servicing, and campaigning. It is in this context that the campaign “Ricercatori determinati” was kicked off in 2018 mobilising academic staff locally, regionally, and nationally and building alliances with community organisations, student associations, and other groups. By organising and building solidarities across the profession, with academics, research fellows, adjunct professors, and Ph.D students, the campaign has raised the interest of media and the public and has succeeded in bringing the issue of academic precariousness to the attention of the government.
Read the full FLC-CGIL case study here
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