When do you think the strikes will be?

[JasminaPashmina]

Just that - when do you think the strikes will happen?

Before Christmas by chance?

I have read that and don’t think it complicates things beyond the fact that some people who should have been named haven’t been. I know the release is connected to the in-fighting in this joke of a union but the fact remains that the named people, especially Jo McNeill went to great lengths to stick up for and protect a sexual abuser and alleged rapist. Why should anyone have any faith in them now? Especially on issues such as sexual harassment in the workplace. I’d like the other bullies named too but at the end of the day it shows that this isn’t a union that respects or supports its members. There are other examples of misogynistic bullying in other UCU branches.

I am also highly concerned at the number of women’s officer candidates who say fuck all about women in their tweets and manifestos but are all promising to centre transwomen, ie males. I presume you like UCU Left and Grady4GS has drunk the kool aid and think this is great but it’s fucked up on many levels and ordinary members can see this, despite the culture of fear that UCU has helped spread.

If I were you, I’d be more concerned that there are now two pieces in THE which outline that members have serious concerns about the union, its tactics and its leadership.

I am enjoying spending my extra £25 a month though. Anything is an improvement on what it was spent on before.

A union colleague has intimated to me that there’s a strong possibility that the strikes may be called off. Does anyone have any insight into this or is it just mollification?

Really? I haven’t heard anything but I’m not in the union so I wouldn’t know I guess. Is this because an offer is to be made or because so many people don’t want to strike?
Have been following Alex Douglas on twitter and he’s written lots of great stuff about how this is misguided. Many responses call him a traitor and go on about solidarity though.

I think he was just trying to make me feel better about the mess that’s about to envelope our module...

Well, you never know. But from the sounds of the Ucu lot on twitter, it doesn’t sound very likely. Good luck with your module. The module I am teaching this semester has just two teachers and neither of us is striking.

I'm certainly seeing more dissent than has been the case previously, or perhaps people are speaking up more (although still a minority). If they were to call off the strike I'm not sure how they'd justify it to the hardcore members.

I agree. The UCU Left already think Jo Grady isn’t being hardline enough. I don’t think the strike will be called off but I think if it’s unsuccessful and they want to do another round (which they’d have to), that they will have some serious issues.

I’ve just stumbled across this by an academic philosopher, Alexander Douglas, writing about the strikes:

I think there’s a very real possibility that these strikes were pushed for by a leadership that cares more about grandstanding and broadcasting its radicalism to the world than actually effecting change. People do a lot to glorify themselves. I fear that that the reputation of the bold and radical UCU leaders will be the only benefit coming out of this strike, which in the meantime will impose enormous costs on UCU members, students, and other bystanders, such as support staff (some of whom have reported to me that their administrative loads become nearly unmanageable as a result of the disruption of strikes).

I couldn’t agree more.

That totally sums it up. I am not sure they even know what they want out of the strikes.

Yes, I've been following Alex Douglas on Twitter, and absolutely agree with what he says.

Clinging onto membership of the union, only just, because I'm part of a group of feminist academics who are fighting for free speech through te UCU. I can't do much but feel that by staying in the UCU and voting for them, I can do a bit to break the stranglehold of the SWP on the UCU leadership

Absolutely agree 100% with that quote, thanks for pointing us in the direction

Thank you MNers. I have just resigned from UCU.

I have been battling with the point of these strikes since December and your discussions have cemented it for me. It feels weird as I've been a union member since I before I had DC1 (joined in a panic about being pregnant), though I have never had to call on UCU's services. I have always fundamentally supported the concept of unions. As a relatively senior academic now I simply don't recognise the greedy robber barons picture being painted by some in UCU. I actually see senior management in my University and at UKRI acknowledging that there are problems and by and large working really hard to understand how they can do things better. (e.g. EPSRCs £5M 'Inclusion Matters' call to fund actual research into interventions that work to support underrepresented groups). epsrc.ukri.org/funding/edi-at-epsrc/

It's not all sweetness and light, but there are a lot of people across the sector trying to implement changes in working conditions, policies around ED&I, implementing flexible working etc, so painting employers as the baddies is just so black and white.

ReallyRatherNerdy welcome to the dark side! I also support trade unions in principle but I can’t support this one for a list of reasons as long as my arm.
Agree with you totally that it’s definitely not as black and white as it’s being painted.

I took part in the last action in 2019 but have, for various reasons, decided that I'm not striking this time. I'm still in UCU - partly because I'm junior, lost a lot of wages & will apply to the strike fund - but reading this thread, resigning now is probably the right thing to do?

Daca it depends on your reasons for wanting to resign. I wouldn’t tell anyone to do it, just explain why I haven’t felt able to continue being a member of the UCU. For me, membership of the union is as useful as a chocolate fire guard and it costs me £300 a year. Its GS and other members ridicule and bully feminist academics, so I cannot count on any current or future support from them.

As an aside, I wonder how many members UCU has lost in the past few months. They have mentioned getting new members but I reckon there will have been a sizeable number of resignations too.

I think my reasons are quite similar to yours but I'm in a very unionised Department. Leaving UCU would be a big statement. I'll mull it over.

I just wish we could have a union that defended the rights and interests of its members without taking sides in political debates. Maybe I'm naive for wanting that but for me it was a really low point not to hear a peep from GS Jo Grady when Selina Todd had to be protected by bodyguards because of threats to her personal safety. I know Grady disagrees with Todd but it would have been the right thing to say 'we disagree but personal threats to academics are not OK, universities have a duty to ensure staff welfare'. Is that so hard? It seems we are being led by union officials with the emotional age of toddlers, maybe sixth formers at a push. And then there is the timing of the strike, the fact that it is a big ask of those of us in junior posts (and it's even harsher on academics on fixed term and part-time contracts, especially those without a well-off family or partner in the background). I'm also a bit resentful over the money UCU seems to spend on frivolous expenses such as the various conferences that they host when we are about to engage in very costly industrial action. Finally, I am also disappointed on behalf of my students who inevitably lose momentum and motivation for their studies. Strikes should be a last resort. That's a pretty long list ...

twitter.com/flibitygibity/status/1229119125185875969?s=21

Have you seen this? This is encouraging and I am actually pretty surprised that HEC passed it. I won’t hold my breath for a statement from Grady though. Rosa Freedman, an Orthodox Jew, was likened to a Holocaust denier by some academic at Essex on holocaust Memorial Day. You couldn’t make it up.

I also saw that Jo was tweeting about how much she loves luxury spas and how we can ‘win the fight one luxury spa break at a time’. I thought that was so out of order and disrespectful to the many strikers who will struggle to pay their rent as a result of her actions. She’s beyond belief.

Sorry, that’s confusing. The good thing is not the photo (that’s the bad thing). It’s the twitter link. The photo relates to my second para.

Oh FFS. Spa breaks on strike days. Yeah sure, good for you. I have zero time for this ‘fun’ faux activism. What a plonker.

I made the mistake of looking at Grady's twitter account yesterday - lots of retweets of "radical" Valentine's poems to show how though and hardline she is, vague claims about the strike and not much more else.
Something I always found quite amusing to on Twitter is how lots of woke academics who do not hesitate to ramble on about "populism" if electoral results are not what they want, or about how university study encourages "critical thinking", then at the GS election fell for nothing more than a quirky public image and a well-crafted social media campaign... well amusing isn't really the word, seeing the consequences... (I'm still paying £30 a month to UCU).

Yes, arid, I’ve lost a lot of respect for my colleagues over the last few years because of a pronounced lack of critical thinking. I disliked Grady’s campaign, it was so fluffy and built on a personality cult. A bit like the academic version of a reality TV show. I think there are still sensible people in UCU but it needs urgent reform.

Her Twitter is dreadful. She’s very vacuous. I also can’t believe that people fell for the campaign and thought that this was the change we all needed. I wasn’t a huge fan of Sally Hunt but I can’t see how this is in any way an improvement.
The spa thing is part of a cultivated image of ‘I’m a serious academic/trade unionist but look at me, I’m also really into lipstick and nail varnish and spa days’. Maybe it’s an attempt at being relatable or cool, I don’t know. It doesn’t sit very well with also ignoring women’s concerns and condoning bullying.

Pota2 - I, too, am very interested to see if Grady will issue the statement in support of Rosa Freedman. It was passed unanimously, I gather, at HEC. I do not think she will.

UCU is no longer fit for purpose. I really hate to say this, but I could see what was coming when they started offering free membership to PhD students. There have been a number of attempts in local branches to pass motions in support of academic freedom, and what usually happens is that the misogynistic wokebeards gather a group of PhD students and modern apprentices and bring them to the meeting to vote down what they are told is a "transphobic dogwhistle". Academics' interests and students interests are not the same. And filling the union with lots of people who have no stake whatsoever in academic freedom, or who don't yet see how its restriction might affect them, has had the effect of ensuring that vast numbers of academics are now unrepresented or treated with active hostility by the union which should represent them.

The spa tweet is utterly pathetic. Grady comes across as a complete dimwit on Twitter. How is anyone (the employers, the public, students) going to take UCU seriously when that is the level of discourse that is being presented publicly?

That’s a very good point, GC, I hadn’t thought about the impact of the influx into UCU of low stakeholders. A minority of PhD students goes on to secure an academic job, so why should they change the direction of our union? Bit like the Labour Party, really ...

Yes, I hadn’t thought of that point. I think phd students who are teaching staff should be represented but not a blanket allowance for all PhDs because they are students rather than staff. It also creates conflicts of interest because strike action will adversely affect their studies but they are the ones striking, limiting their recourse in terms of complaints or compensation. I think a separate union for graduate students would be better for them.

I also think the luxury spa comment on the eve of strike action is inappropriate because for many many academics, luxury spas are out of the question, not least so because they are set to lose a huge chunk of pay. I don’t earn a bad salary but I can’t afford them either. Really crass and self-absorbed and reminds me of the idiots who say that feminism is all about exercising your right to be a pole dancer.