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).

Same here never. Utterly cowardly on the part of the VC to get someone else to do his dirty work, in order to wash his hands of the business. But I didn't expect anything other than appalling leadership from the guy. Fortunately, he is leaving soon - hope we get someone less bonkers.

We've had very little communication from the university (I'm not in the union so there has probably been plenty from UCU to members). We have a department meeting this afternoon, curious to see if it's raised.

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

Yes indeed. Certainly in mine.

The UCU is also complicit in this over re-scheduling assessments etc: they are telling members to refer it to he HoD - which would seem to imply that the UCU think HoDs are "management" not "one of us."

It's not fair on my HoD who works her socks off. And I'm glad I finished my term as HoD last year.

I've heard accounts of two HoDs resigning over the last two weeks.
The pressure must be immense and they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

None of our union communication mentions the HoD at all... But the management do put pressure on the HoD.

I’m a HoD that was panicking further up the thread. Feeling much better about it now that I know most other HoDs striking and Faculty leadership either actively in solidarity or loosely sympathetic. Following an initial request to report to University on who would be striking/what our mitigation plans were, the collective response has been that any mitigation needs to come from Uni to be fair/equitable. I haven’t been asked to take any actions such as amending assessments or rescheduling teaching. I think I’ll tell my dept that I’m striking and why shortly before we start (we’re not joining until next week). Of course, I’m not looking forward to asking them to report their action knowing that their pay will be docked.

But with revelations in last few days re Oxbridge and contributions holiday, surely UUK are going to have to come back to table? I can but hope.

dimpanico I think for us our HoD is asked by management to ask us but we don't have to tell her/him beforehand what we intend to do. After the action we can tell management directly.

Our organisation has said that all lectures have to be rearranged within 2 days, and that if people don't do it in 5 days, they will be docked 100% of pay. HoDs - including my husband- are supposed to police this policy. I think most of them are feeling pretty mutinous over it.

It's coming from HR because the VC is too poor a leader to own his own management's policies, despite his massive fucking salary. He's just sending out vanilla pronouncements that bear a striking resemblance to Sir Humphrey's rhetoric in Yes Minister "On the one hand.... on the other hand..."

I don't understand how teaching could realistically be re-arranged?
My first year module has 400 students, there is just no way that lectures and workshops can be rescheduled for all of them.

On a slightly lighthearted note though, for the students at my institution and my course who are petitioning for compensation, I would love to see their attendance records. I have heard some noises from some students about this, but on average, we get maybe a quarter of the total turning up at lectures. I am fed up of trying to teach students who have done absolutely no preparation, so for my seminars this term, I have said don't come if you haven't read the material (or come, sign-in, and then go and read the material).

On average, as a result, I get about 5-8 students out of 25, and the students who turn up, do so regularly. For the rest, I can't help thinking it would be quite punchy to claim they require compensation, since they hardly use the contact hours in any case.

Oh, I’d imagine the ones who never turn up will be the ones complaining most loudly. They’re always the ones that complain bitterly that they didn’t get enough assignment support (forgetting that they just didn’t attend the sessions) and similar.

The really diligent students are always much more realistic. In response to a cancelled class they do things like organise their own seminar session based on the outline on the VLE.

The complaints are actually helpful, though. They increase the pressure on the university to end the strike and come to some arrangement. It would be useful if all students wrote to the VC complaining!

Yes, agree complaints are useful. The most depressing thing of all is that increasingly it makes hardly any difference whether you do the work or not, or know anything or not, use contact hours or not, as we are essentially told to give the whole lot 2:1s regardless. I know this is possibly a dangerous thing to say on a public forum, but there it is.

"...we are essentially told to give the whole lot 2:1s regardless."

Well. That should make our lives easy. Why even bother marking exams?

I was quite when I found out that this is A Thing. Everyone is crazy about league tables. Have they compiled league tables on which university has the best coffee? Then lecturers will have to be baristas as well as advisers on visa applications, housing problems, health issues, CV-writing, entrepreneurship (what a peculiar looking word) etc.

Well I said they’d be complaining loudly. I didn’t say complaining effectively. Alas they probably aren’t doing it in a way that inconveniences the university management.

The good students probably would. And still organise their own study session.

we are essentially told to give the whole lot 2:1s regardless

Yes. So much pressure to ensure they all get 2:is regardless whether they deserve it. It’s shocking, and so unfair in the students who’ve worked to earn their 2:i.

Yes - really unfair on the hard-working students. But it's just a stupid system all round. It needs a complete overhaul but not in the way that this (stupid) government thinks, by simply trying to slap a price on everything and expecting an apparently rational market to determine its 'value.' That's just bollocks.

I wish we could go back to a system where education was just considered valuable, and not in measurable monetary terms. And I know this is not fashionable, but also a recognition that higher education is not necessarily valuable to everybody, because I also think it's unfair on the many students I teach who are paying for the privilege, but just don't have the (academic) ability or interest to particularly benefit (they have lots of other abilities though, and I don't mean that in a patronising way).

But I am in danger of derailing this thread!

Well, I get the impression that this is all going rather well. The strike is really well supported at my institution. Previous strikes have been very half-hearted but the department has a well-staffed picket and everyone is staying away. VCs seem to be split quite radically over the issue too.

Do I detect a softening of the rhetoric from UUK in their statement released yesterday?

Yes, I’m almost optimistic. I voted for action short of a strike but the strike action seems to be having an effect. The information coming out about the crazy actuarial model being used - that ALL 68 UK universities fail at the same time- is changing people’s views I think.

Sorry but I haven't rtft. Dp is a lecturer who isn't striking and the e mails he has been getting have been absolutely jaw dropping. Lots of threats of partial payment if non striking members don't cover lectures for striking members, if they refuse to help with the (not inconsiderable)back log after the strikes. How the hell can this partial payment thing be legal?? The attitude amongst non striking staff seems to be 'if you're going to take 25% for 100% working to contract then I'll joint the union today, you can fucking take half and I'll go out too'.

Apart from the threats from senior management, this whole "working to contract" issue has brought to the fore how much workload academics actually have - and how this is being increased year on year.

Academics are, by definition, high achievers. If you give us a goal, our natural instinct is to meet it and exceed it. But this has led to a culture of using academics as free labour - cut back on administrators (and make academics do it), spend a lot of time on REF and TEF preparation (and make academics do it for free on top of everything else), run weekend open days and make academics do it for free etc etc.

And academics still have this unconscious belief that achievement will be valued - in the world of research it mostly is. Over the last years, we have worked harder and harder for no extra pay or appreciation, without acknowledging to ourselves that this is just not appreciated - and the higher we jump this year, the still higher we will be asked to jump next year.

I worked out that from Monday until Wednesday evening I had already worked beyond the 35 hours that I am paid for working in a week, mostly on management tasks for the university. The idea of docking my pay because I "only" do 35 solid hours of work and don't do my "usual" workload of 50+ hours per week is insane. Like many academics, I am being abused. We, as departments, should stand together and simply refuse to do tasks due to lack of time, rather than absorbing them, and showing how wonderfully we can do everything, in the vain hope that it will be appreciated.

InDubious I hope your DP does join the union. I was motivated to join after similar types of emails during the last strike action. HR/ Senior Management don't seem to realise that all these threatening emails do is stir up more resentment/ support for the union/ strike.

‘SusanBunch* as a single parent with two DC after leaving an abusive marriage, I understand what you are saying.

It says in the papers today that Sally Hunt earns £138 000 a year. She is not an academic, so she won’t be losing fourteen days pay. Is she donating her salary for any of the days to the strike fund?

Genuine question. There is a lot of heated debate on both sides, but it is between negotiators who can surely afford their monthly bills.

user150463 Yes, same here! I worked three horrendous days Mon-Weds last week and hit 37 hours comfortably. Not all of it was awful - occasionally even enjoyable - but it was work, and most of it grunt work because of the time of year. I'm aggrieved because it's been months since I've done any writing; too much urgent stuff since Christmas. And this week, student and admin requests all piled in suddenly because of the imminent deadline.

I've realised I 'm feeling a bit itchy because I don't know what to do with myself at the moment - have no hobbies any more, don't even watch TV, and can't do anything that costs money because it's financially so tight. This a sign that I've let my work-life balance slip. So the next couple of weeks are all going to be about catching up with housework and trying to do jobs myself that I was hoping to outsource. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong with the car, boiler, laptop etc this year.

Onward though comrades. It does seem to be working - we could hardly roll over and take it.

stricken I am off to my local library on Monday to get some non-work reading, I'll be picking up DC1 from school (DC2 is still in nursery so some unusual one to one time) and I'm doing an exercise class in the morning instead of the evening.
As well as housework of course!

Good luck to everyone picketing tomorrow, Tues and Weds in the snow - looking out my thermals this evening

@SoupyNorman yes me too. I had to dig out my thermals for Friday after the Thursday! And it will be even colder, we're trying to organise a brazier.
But nice people/students kept bringing us food and hot drinks. Great atmosphere though and I got to know my colleagues better (I'm acad-related and mostly support by email)

Anyone at a loose end: Join your pickets!