EKPA / The vengeful prosecution and the massive response of the students

The students were behind the banners for another day yesterday, this time for the right of Dimitris Antoniou, a man who has been working as a contract worker for 19 years at the University of Athens and is being prosecuted for his participation in an action that had been decided collectively by the general meeting of the administrative employees of EKPA. A symbolic, controlled blackout of the tele-examination server, which lasted one hour.

With its announcement, the management of the EKPA made it known that it had suspended the employee, as well as that after the incident, the rector immediately ordered an urgent Sworn Administrative Examination (SOE), through which trade unionists of all levels are expected to pass: the entire Board of Directors of the administrative staff of EKPA, the presidency of the general assembly that took the decision to exclude, but also two members of the central council of the Federation of Administrative Staff of HEIs. With the temporary shutdown of the system, the administrators wanted to react to the bypassing of the student movement and the occupations that are decided in packed auditoriums through the electronic conduct of the examination.

The easy victim

Their initiative caused great concern in the government camp. Sabotages were discovered on the premises, even the injury of a student due to violence by his colleagues. However, apart from the usual slander (as it emerges from the on-site report of AUGIS, as we were together with those gathered outside the locked IT Department in Zografou throughout the intervention), setting an example was deemed necessary. Its victim is the most vulnerable worker, that is, the one who does not have a permanent employment relationship. “I don’t go through disciplinary procedures. As soon as the administration of the institution decides, I will be fired” said D. Antoniou on radio station 105.5 To Kokkino and on the show “Episendese”. He “paid” for the fact that he made statements: “However, I do not make them on my own as an individual. I do them with a specific role. I am a member of the central council of the Federation of Administrative Personnel of Higher Education”.

In any case, D. Antoniou is being prosecuted for what he said and not because he pulled the plug on the system. After all, the download of the server was done remotely and after informing the vice-chancellor of EKPA Efstathios Efstathopoulos, who was consulting by phone with the administrative employees and the students in an open hearing.

The fact was recalled yesterday by the delegation of trade unionists and students who met E. Efstathopoulos in his office at the Rector’s Office, asking the administration to stop the prosecution of the contracted trade unionist, as well as the EDE. He declared himself incompetent, referring to the rector, while he had nothing to answer either for the fact that D. Antoniou was suspended before the investigation process of the incident had even begun. “Tomorrow we will all be Antoniou” was the phrase that was heard louder yesterday in the Rector’s Office, where the students brought their protest from the forecourt after the initial refusal to accept the delegation. It was the epilogue of yesterday’s protest rally and at the same time the introduction to today’s sixth consecutive march of the students, starting from Propylaia at 12 noon.