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).

Do you have a link for that soupy? I'd love to circulate!

Here you go whisky medium.com/@mikeotsuka/oxfords-and-cambridge-s-role-in-the-demise-of-uss-a3034b62c033

"They want out on grounds that last man standing exposes them to too much risk arising from “weaker” universities. In their submission to the September consultation, Oxford writes that “the level of risk being proposed is not appropriate for all institutions and allowing weaker institutions to rely on the strength of other employers in a manner which makes their pension benefits appear affordable must be addressed”. They conclude that a “DC-only structure…would help reduce the University’s concern regarding underwriting the risk of future benefit accrual for other institutions”.

fuckinell.

It seems they want the supposedly 'risky' pensions off their balance sheet so they can attract more shiny investment and build more massive white elephants on campus. While passing all the risk over to individual pension holders.

All heating up a bit where I am, multiple emails from each side. Tbh the ones from the uni only served to make me feel more strident rather than I presume their intended effect to dissuade us from striking.

Oxford does have come cheek. The average Oxford college is far wealthier than the average RG university.
They would be better off developing their own pension system, rather than trying to reform the system as a whole.
They pay their junior staff peanuts so it really has become the preserve of the rich. And yet they are the largest beneficiary of public funding.
Ruling classes gonna rule, I guess.

I do find it funny that HR and senior management emails apparently trying to be nice end up winding people up like anything. Is it a special skill?

Emails saying of course there won't be that many people striking because you all care about your students.

Emails saying oh thank you so much for holding open days on weekends you work so hard thank you.

Emails saying oh thank you for working so hard to get us in a good position in the league table for teaching/research/being a mug.

And so on.

That oxbridge information is just depressing.

"They would be better off developing their own pension system, rather than trying to reform the system as a whole."

I think that's precisely what they intend to do. They don't want to buy out of the scheme, though, because that's expensive for them. They'd rather destroy it first. (According to that Medium article, anyway).

And on the subject of senior management - senior person in the Faculty sent all students an email alerting them to the probability of strike action, yet saying it would have no effect. Cue incandescent heads of department, furious that the problem had been raised in this way right in the middle of NSS, and a huge rise in support for strike action amongst the rest of the staff.

I am feeling relieved (for now) that I am in the TPS scheme. I think there needs to be more sympathy and understanding for people who genuinely cannot afford to lose 14 days pay. People should not have to get into debt, risk losing their homes, or be unable to feed themselves and their families over a strike. There is pressure put on people on temporary contracts and GTAs and I think there should be much greater sympathy and understanding that these people simply cannot afford to strike and that joke of a fighting fund will never be able to compensate what people will lose. It's all well and good if you have a well-paid permanent job, a partner, and savings in the bank. If you don't, things look very different and I am not sure all academics understand this.

I remember striking last year on more than one occasion about the pay. As far as I recall, UCU backed down and I was out of pocket as a result. I am not so sure that UUK will back down on this one. University strike action is really not very effective. It hits students the hardest, but they have already paid their fees, so there is very limited impact on the university. There is very little knock-on impact as well, compared to e.g. school teachers striking and parents having to take time off work as a result. The UCU strikes last year were a joke as they took place during the summer, post-marking and exam boards and basically had no impact. I think the university was laughing because it got to save some cash on salaries and the strike had no impact anyway.

At the same time, I do support those striking. I think the raid on pensions is terrible and unfair and I dread the same happening to the TPS. Although I guess that would affect school teachers too and there may be more of an outrage about it. Good luck to all on here who are striking.

Government is now saying student can claim financial damages against their universities. A couple of universities have told lecturers that they could be held legally liable.
The Mindgames begin...

How can the lecturers be held liable for taking legal strike action?

"In emails seen by the Daily Telegraph, staff at both Reading University and City University, London, were told that by opting to take part in industrial action, due to start on Thursday, they could be liable for damages if students sue for breach of contract."

It sounds like they are bluffing; I doubt lecturers are liable.

There is a lot of advice that is actually flouting the law. People at my institution have been told they HAVE to notify HR if they are striking in advance. Pretty sure that this is not consonant with the legal position, which is that you only have to notify afterwards. People have been told that if they don't reschedule lectures within 5 days of striking, they will be docked 100% of another day's pay - this doesn't sound legal either.

The VC is basically hiding in his eyrie, issuing the odd vanilla pronouncement, and letting HR run the show. With typical cluelessness about the way that academic life works, they are asking HoDs to 'police' whether people are actually working when they say they are working from home.

However, in some good news, the VC of Essex, Anthony Forster, has nobly broken ranks in defence of his staff:

www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/universities-must-pay-more-protect-pensions

This is a really great article, behind a really shit title

medium.com/@ukacademic/why-i-dont-want-to-go-on-strike-e4a18bed6438

I think some VC don't understand that some HoDs are one of us. In some department more so.

I am really pissed off about the "working to contract" being taken as "partial performance". But apparently it's legal for employers to take such a position.

It’s absolutely ridiculous that working according to the terms of your employment contract can be viewed as ‘partial performance’. Clearly you’re supposed to sign your entire life (and possibly your soul) over to the university.

I would be interested to hear a proper legal opinion on the nuances of working to rule. I suspect it is not as clear-cut as HR departments are making out.

My university has now backtracked on its previously-declared 25% deduction for working to rule.

In which direction, terfy?

Whiskey - They've said that as long as the contract is performed, there will be no deduction of pay (and noted that UCU is not asking members to take ASOS if it would put them in breach of their contracts). However, they've told us to prioritise teaching and assessment.

We get really strident emails from HR interleaved with "nice" ones from the principal. TBH I've stopped reading them...