Anyone in the UCU?

[Closetlibrarian]

And striking at end of Feb?

I joined UCU after the last strike, so this will be my first. Even though I voted in favour it, I'm now in an utter quandary. I have an absolute monster of a semester coming up and I'm fretting about all the lectures, tutorials, etc, I'll have to cancel as part of the strike.

If you've gone on strike before how did you present it to your students so that they didn't just get really pissed off with you for cancelling lectures (that we're then, according to UCU, not supposed to reschedule)?

Also, how did you mange with the loss of income? I'm the 'breadwinner', so 14 days of strike action is going to massively impact us (i.e. I'm not sure we'll be able to pay our bills).

It's hitting us really hard. First world problems and all, but we've just completed an extension on our house. We don't even live in a nice area- signs of the difference between generations in academia are that we live in a cheap, working class suburb of the city, and not in the naice Victorian streets of the area closer to the university where many older academics live. The old kitchen was the size of a cupboard, quite literally, so we have spent some money on a bit more space.

The money we will lose on the strike was literally money we needed to put basics into the new space, like flooring. So it means we will be living in total chaos for quite a bit longer than anticipated. Given that we've had a tough 6 months of a house that's been without heating and power for a considerable time, and without any cooking facilities at all for 4 months, it's really depressing.

closet - that's really strange that there hasn't been any kind of brouhaha about it - maybe get on the Twitter wires, tweet UCU and ask why this isn't being highlighted?

I take that back. We are on the boycott list now (but weren't when I checked a few days ago, I'm sure). And our local UCU branch just set up a petition to get the VC to change stance.

That's rubbish about your kitchen situation whisky. I'm really really hoping this gets resolved this week. Now that Oxford has capitulated, surely Cambridge is not far behind. Surely UUK don't have a leg to stand on any more.

Actually, the picture is highly variegated. Some of the universities in UUK - indeed, some of those with the hardline positions - would not struggle at all to pay extra into the pension. Others really would.

I think you are being incredibly naive - as is UCU's publicity on this issue. Some universities have indeed offered to pay extra, but the implication in the medium term (particularly given the political climate, the freeze and perhaps reduction in fees) of significant increases is inevitably going to be cutbacks.

You really think Oxbridge can't afford to pay extra into a pension fund? They own half of Wales, FFS!

And I don't think it's a good argument to say "Oh, well the result of this is cuts!". What's the alternative? That we all accept our pensions being cut to the bone, our wages falling, the general terms and conditions of our employment worsening, because otherwise there will be cuts?

Surely what we need to do is to have an open, honest national conversation about the way that universities are funded but also to protect workers' rights and conditions?

(Also, let's remember that there is a dispute over the valuation at the heart of this! That's not about cuts or no cuts, it's about interpretation of a set of figures and a set of risks).

A complete capitulation from Oxford. Odd message from Cambridge VC, but looking like backing down too. Wow!

I know it's a negotiating tactic designed to put pressure on these talks, but I can't be the only one who thinks that UCU are overplaying their hand calling a further 14 days of strike action?? I expect solidarity to start to crumble next week, let alone in a few week's time.

I am getting annoyed at the lack of clear communication from the union as to what counts as a success sufficient to allow us to get back to work. We are losing a fortune, we deserve better.

Honestly, I think they would be better to suspend the strike while the talks go on. There is no way the strike will hold firm for even the rest of the current 14 days. Better to have a threat of the strength that the present strike has hanging over the universities than have it peter out, which is what is likely to happen.

The extra 14 days will be in May/June, not now.

I don’t know. The impression I get (from my social media bubble) is that resolve is hardening (from those on strike) rather than crumbling. I think the other side is faring far worse, from a pr perspective, as things drag on.

Resolve is hardening round my way. People are so unbelievably, and rightly, fucked off.

Good to hear of some hardening of resolve. I think I am the only one of my department striking, which is hard, and feels a bit pointless as well as unfair to my project students.

Yes hurry up and reach an agreement UCU/UUK. Now we've started we've got to carry on tho. It's so stressful. I don't feel there is much urgency among the negotiating parties tbh. It's stressful on the ground!

Does anyone understand why there has been such poor national media coverage? A bit of interest at the start but relatively little since, it feels. I saw a Twitter feed calling for Woman’s Hour to cover this and I couldn’t agree more.

Our local rag meanwhile has been as much use as a chocolate teapot.

yes, coverage quite poor really. The Guardian has run some stories but not much else. I want it to stop as it’s become torturous for people at this stage. No teaching is fine but no outreach, research, school visits and so on is tough. It does not hurt the university in the slightest but puts us in very difficult situations. I’d say a straight marking/admissions ban next would be a good bet. That really hurts departments and can slow everything down, even if only a few people are involved.

I think it is perilous to think that the twittersphere represents the majority of academics. The virtue signalling stuff on there is lovely, but I think we are looking at a vocal minority, not the majority.

What I suspect will start to happen is that people will stay away from work but will still claim pay. They will strike only on days where they are teaching and "work from home" the rest of the time. This is and isn't a problem. It hurts the uni financially while causing massive disruption. But it also vastly reduces the signal of solidarity around the strike, which is the only metric many places are using to measure support.

In my place, this is already happening. Around 2/3 academics in DH's department have supported the strike,very few have done so on all days. He expects to see the total nosedive in the next week.

UCU had a sweet spot earlier in the week to call off the action while talks are ongoing and they should have done so in my view. Not least because any negotiation that involves a regulator and 200+ institutions is going to be protracted. There is surely plenty of time left in the mandate they have to pause now and to resume after Easter,with an assessment and marking boycott??

The idea of differential strikes is just fuck off stupid. Do they really think it's fair to ask people who are at institutions that teach after Easter to strike on behalf of institutions that don't?! That is not how solidarity works.

I can't help thinking that our union aren't the sharpest tools in the box.

Could not agree more. The strategy is very foolish I think.

Yes, I'm filled with trepidation about the post-Easter dates (when will they be announced). My institution has four weeks of teaching after Easter. If those are strike weeks, my students will essentially miss out on almost an entire semester's worth of teaching. I feel especially badly for my lovely final year students over this.

I also don't understand why we're still on strike when I thought the whole point of the strike was to get UUK to return to negotiations. That has happened. Why are we still striking? More communication from UCU is needed to update us on the progress of the talks. I'm guessing that they're not going all that well, if further strike action has been called.

closet - That's exactly the problem. We've been given no clear indication of what, precisely "the resumption of meaningful talks" means.

My guess is that it is being defined as "talks that revisit the valuation issue". That would make some kind of sense.

The problem, though, if I've understood the situation correctly, is that for the ideal solution (a proper panel to look at the valuation, including academics, as suggested by the VC of Imperial weeks ago)
would involve agreement from the regulator to alter the 30 June deadline for finalising the valuation. I don't know what the precedent is for changing this legal deadline, but I imagine it is fairly slender. The regulator comes out of this looking about as useful as a chocolate fireguard, but they still have a load of power, and will be thinking about the precedent any action now sets.

Part of the reason this is a problem is that the union had 30 meetings about this before calling a strike - they wasted a load of time. I would like to know why they didn't take action at an earlier point. If anyone knows or can explain this, I'd be grateful.

Tell me if I’ve got this wrong, because it’s annoying me. A colleague, a union member, who is not on strike because “she has too much teaching to do” keeps telling me she hasn’t crossed a picket line. She’s using all sorts of back entrances etc to avoid doorways with pickets. In my mind the picket line is all round the building, even if physically it is just at the main doors. So she had crossed the picket line and hasn’t she? She moans more than anyone I know about pensions as well.

Of course she's crossed a picket line! It's a virtual line around university premises.

The pension regulator's deadline isn't fixed in stone - they have been flexible before and have indicated they would be again as long as talks were progressing. Sam G could also give them a small nudge...

UCU update talks of ‘constructive engagement and progress on the challenging issues of the dispute’. Talks to continue on Monday and both sides working over the weekend.

That sounds positive. Cautiously optimistic here.

I really really hope that we don't have to do the full 5 days next week. Especially as my institution is one of the few who have an additional 2 days immediately following the 5 days next week. I can't see how UUK's position is tenable with the amount of VCs (not mine unfortunately) who have distanced themselves from it's position, including those who originally backed it. Come on and sort it out!

(Also, let's remember that there is a dispute over the valuation at the heart of this! That's not about cuts or no cuts, it's about interpretation of a set of figures and a set of risks).

Indeed. As a mathematician who works in this area I understand this very well. I also know a lot about the finances of my own institution - and of at least one other (top) UK institution. So I know that increasing costs (significantly) without increasing income does mean cuts, even at high ranked institutions that are currently running in profit. There has to be a compromised reached. That doesn't mean DC instead of DB, but it does mean compromising about DB, thresholds for DC cutting in etc.

What really bothers me is how little UUK understand of the actuarial science involved. A proposal was passed to them by members of UCU who are mathematicians (this was in THES the other day) but the UUK negotiating team does not have the expertise to understand the technicalities of such proposals.