Major cuts in education and research are still on the horizon. At the end of last year, the cut - which was initially 2 billion - was reduced by 748 million euros. The remaining 1.3 billion will stay, according to Education Minister Bruins. Unions and action groups are resisting this and have now announced a 'relay strike'. "The cuts are not the same as they were in the beginning, but what is left is still a huge blow," says Bernard Koekoek of the FNV union.

The idea of this so-called relay strike - set up, among others, by FNV, the General Education Union (AOB), CNV, WOinActie, and the National Student Union (LSVB) - is that higher education institutions will lay down their work on different days. Currently, there are local meetings with staff members to decide when to do so. “Employees are the ones that decide when to go on strike,” Koekoek explains.

First three

Meanwhile, three universities have already set their dates. Leiden University will kick things off and cease work on March 10, followed by Utrecht University on March 11 and Radboud University on March 13. Koekoek: “I think people at higher education institutions, are well aware that now is the time for them to stand up and not to wait until it hurts.”

What the strikes will exactly look like remains to be seen. ''We do not intend to make others on campus unable to work. But we do make a heavy appeal to all students and employees to support the action," said Willem Halffman of WOinAction in an interview with Vox. Koekoek: "An employer never likes it when there is a strike. But in this case it is also in the interest of employers to do something about the cuts."

Eindhoven no date yet

Besides Leiden, Utrecht and Nijmegen, the remaining eleven Dutch universities have not yet announced a strike date. So, when Eindhoven will strike is still unclear. According to Koekoek, the radio silence does not mean that there will be no strikes in these cities. "We're seeing that now that the first dates are set, the reaction from many places is: 'when will we strike?' We're also hearing that from Eindhoven," he says. “We are now engaging with members to talk about that.”