University teacher works as ride app driver to survive

Nicolás Pozdzik, a university teacher, revealed he supplements his salary by driving for apps like Didi amid rising competition due to economic crisis. He criticized labor precarity and public education funding cuts under the current government. He announced an overwhelming and indefinite teachers' strike.

Nicolás Pozdzik, a university teacher holding two simple positions, earns 455,000 pesos monthly, but teaching accounts for less than 25% of his income. In an interview with Futurock, he explained that he spends more time driving his utility vehicle as a Didi driver and occasionally does small freight jobs. “I dedicate more time to the car. I work as a Didi driver,” he said, adding that there are months when he only works through the ride app. “Today trips are paid very little and there is a lot of competition due to the industricidio the government is doing; the apps take advantage of this situation. There is no tool provided by the apps and all tools are our own. Labor precarity is absolute,” Pozdzik stated. He criticized the constant depreciation of teachers' salaries since 2015, but claimed that “the attack by this government” on public education and universities “is much more intentional and directed.” According to him, the government withholds over 55% of university salaries: “Out of every 3 salaries, they paid us two and the law says they must pay us the 51% owed.” Therefore, he called for an “overwhelming and indefinite strike,” convinced that “society and students will support us as they did in 2024 and 2025.” “They are robbing us right in our faces,” he concluded.

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