I am a lecturer meant to be on strike next week

[PicketPickle]

wwyd? I hate academic strikes. I think they punish students who are paying huge money for lectures they never get back. I am in sympathy with the cause - terrible terms and conditions for many of my colleagues including no job security, and our pensions being decimated - but I think there would be other ways to strike. Not to set exams for example, or not to mark them, or not to participate in research thus impacting uni funding. I just can't justify the refusing the teach.

So, do I cross the picket line, teach my students and be a scab (and, er lose nearly a month's pay). Or join my colleagues in action I do not support? Or the third way, in which no one is happy, and put all my course materials online for students to self-teach?

Oh, name change, for obvious reasons.

My daughter is 1st year and next week her 2nd set of strikes are happening. She is really struggling. I think there is a meeting to explain to the students why it's happening but that does not make it better for her or other students. She is considering moving university next year as the one her friend goes to do not strike.

Won’t your union top up the pay?

My experience of university at a Russell group in the U.K. has been that good tutors simply don’t stick around because they don’t get paid enough for that shit so most lecturers/module conveners end up either being a bit shit or they are really passionate about what they do and have an alternative source of funds (obviously a minority). Most of my tutorials and lectures felt like a waste of my time to be really honest. For that reason I support striking (provided that students are encouraged to complain). I don’t have much hope that the tertiary system will dramatically improve the quality of teaching because that would require a huge jump in salaries and working conditions. However wasting less student time while also preventing or attempting to prevent worsening conditions for the people who work in academia isn’t something that I could disagree with.

If you are in the union, you strike (or leave the union).

I sympathise. I lost a lot of money in the last one, despite voting against.

Are you in UCU? If so, strike. One out, all out. It’s half a month’s pay for full-time staff. Hopefully that will be spread over several months (or you can declare it over several months). If you’re fractional, you will lose less, plus there are local and national strike funds to help.

Please don’t undermine the strike. None of us want to go on strike but it is what it is. There’s a mandate and we are a union and we stand together. If you can’t do that, leave the union.

Queenie24 that could all change in a different ballot and the other university could also be affected. Unless there are other reasons your daughter wants to move, I would urge her to not be hasty.

As a student, I would say strike There might be ways to mitigate the impact on students - offering more drop ins, offering a catch up lecture etc. I don't know many students who don't support the strike action

I’m academic related and UCU meant to be striking but also meant to go on maternity next month and really struggling with the idea of losing a chunk of mat pay, have never not taken part before and it’s causing me real anxiety. Can imagine it’s much worse if you’re student facing

With 2 student dcs, one taking finals this year, I'd say put your stuff online.

I'm a mature student and I support my lecturers striking. If you're a member of the union I do think you really ought to strike.

Won’t your union top up the pay?
Not sure where this idea comes from. The whole point of a strike is that you don't get paid. Those in hardship (and this is often junior lecturers and those on temporary contracts) can however apply to the union hardship fund.

Our students will not be assessed on work they have not been taught, which seems to me to be the fairest way. It actually means I have to set an extra practice exam question because one module now has more work I've taught in the exam than work I haven't taught, and it was supposed to be 50/50. But them's the breaks.

Offering a catchup lecture seems rather to miss the point. It is possible though to swap a really important class for a less important class (we are doing that with one module). And clearly any appointments with students will be held outside strike days.

I have missed loads of work this year due to being ill and I will not be crossing a picket line to go to work but I will work from home on some days (and some of that will be meetings with external people who are not my employer and nothing to do with my employer, so it is no skin off my employer's nose if I don't meet them! and also not at other UKHEIs).

Do what you need to do but make sure your students are ok. Some are struggling enough to afford university with poor job prospects when they leave. They are the ones I feel sorry for.

If I was missing any lectures (I'm not as it happens - mostly exam prep sessions and the like) but was in work a day when I'd normally put my slides online, I'd do that.

Hopefully that will be spread over several months (or you can declare it over several months). If you’re fractional, you will lose less, plus there are local and national strike funds to help.

Annoyingly our university is one of the employers that is dragging its feet on this - the Nov/Dec strike was all deducted in one month.
And if you are fractional it gets really complicated. My union rep's advice has been that if you are striking on a day you only work a morning, to take another morning off in lieu because you are likely to get a whole day's pay docked.

Yes, we’re still waiting for a decision on deductions this time. If it looks likely that they aren’t spreading deductions then I will probably declare over several months, e.g. 5 days one month, 5 days the next, 4 days the third. (This was deemed do-able at my previous institution and I’ll check to see if it still holds.)

Ooh that's interesting. However we've just been told we must declare on return to work; I wasn't THAT efficient last time but I don't think I can hold off for months.

My uni deducted every thing in December last time, we were asked to declare on first day back.

There’s some local UCU branch guidance on how to stagger declarations:

goldsmithsucu.org/2019/11/24/gucu-advice-to-members-concerning-strike-declarations/

warwickucu.org.uk/how-to-and-not-to-report-strike-action-to-your-employer/

Depends. Will you refuse any improvements to pay and conditions the union negotiates on the basis that you didn't join in?

If you wouldn't refuse them, then you should, as a union member, join in with the action.

I've always been 'lucky' in that when I literally could not afford to take a minute unpaid, strike action has never been called for my part of the union. But if it does happen, I'll have to, because I'd be a massive fucking hypocrite to take any pay awards, changes in terms and conditions or even back up from them with employment issues otherwise.

I don't know many students who don't support the strike action
Because they get time off! Of course they’d support it! It’s the university equivalent of having a snow day

‘Won’t your union top up the pay?
Not sure where this idea comes from. The whole point of a strike is that you don't get paid. Those in hardship (and this is often junior lecturers and those on temporary contracts) can however apply to the union hardship fund.’

That’s actually incorrect in this instance. There is a national strike fund that anyone in UCU is entitled to access, with a maximum amount that will pay out. The union don’t want anyone to not strike because they’re worried about money. There are also local hardship funds for anyone who can’t manage on the standard strike payout.

Presumably strike is last resort in Education , I would support it. The whole point of a Union is collective power. Sometimes that might mean action you dontcoersonally agree with but a Union doesn't work effectively with every member opting in and out Go with you your peers decision . Rights and conditions are hard fought for !,

Support the strike. If you are part of a Union, you support its action, not just pick and choose what suits you best.

Please do what you can to help the students.
My DD who is in her final year is worried as she has no more lectures before her final exams. Support for course work is not being given and revision sessions are cancelled. She’s due on a fieldwork module that needs work’s completing before she goes but tutorials to discuss and plan fieldwork have been cancelled. All marks count towards her final grade. I know her peers are in the same situation but she worried as this comes at the end of her degree.

She supports the lecturers in taking action but this may affect her degree classification and therefore what she goes on to do.

I don't know where this idea has come from that students won't care. Some students might not, but some students are very much aware they are getting into a huge amount of debt for this. Mental Health among students is a massive concern and things like this have a potential for massive and difficult knock on affects on student wellbeing, particularly at this time of year.

Before striking I would find out how many attempted suicides there have been among the students at your university in the last month. How many students were sectioned or hospitalised. How long are students with suicidal thoughts or actively self harming waiting for support? I bet you would be surprised how high the numbers are.

I suppose lecturers' unions would argue the universities should have thought about this when negotiating pay deals etc and its nothing to do with them. But it is. (When I was a teacher I was in a non-striking union. Although it went out on strike after I left. I wouldn't join a union now.)