When do you think the strikes will be?

[JasminaPashmina]

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

Before Christmas by chance?

Oh I totally agree. They should consider using what is left in the strike fund to help hourly paid staff who now will get no income. There are full time permanent staff claiming the full maximum from the fund to tide them over for a strike that was evidently pointless a long time ago and this will exhaust the funds.

The virus will have a huge economic impact on universities and it is really not the right time to be making demands that will primarily affect those already very privileged. The UCU should realise this and drop this particular action for the time being. Literally nobody cares about their ballot at the moment. I am more concerned that they deprived many of 22 days of pay that would have helped them at this extremely difficult time.

Yes, the actions of the union in calling precarious workers out these past weeks when there was already uncertainty over Brexit and maintaining the strike this past week when the concerns over Coronavirus became very real is nothing short of scandalous. Sorry if that is an overstatement but I am honestly shocked at the level of disconnect.

At my institution, at least graduate teaching assistants are going to get paid for work which they would have done in the next few weeks, but that will not be the case everywhere.

coronavirus is going to cost the sector hundreds of millions, going on the figures which came from a colleague on our senior management. The stock market has crashed and we are going into a recession. We need to pull together to support each other and our students at what is going to be a difficult time. I understand that people went on strike in good faith (although some of my left wing colleagues go out just because they are asked to) but it is not the time right now.

As for full time permanent staff claiming on the strike fund, I would have done this as a single parent. But as a single parent, I also decided I could not afford to strike and I was actually pretty lucky to have my job and be able to work flexibly to look after my children. Full time permanent staff will have bills to pay as well; and I do think there was a pressure to come out on strike in support of precarious workers. So damned if you do, damned if you don’t kind of thing.

I think the casusalisation issue is even more at the forefront now that coronovirus impact will start to hit. How can the union best protect hourly paid staff and those on fixed term contracts?

I might imagine for example requesting maintained pay at average of last 3 months for hourly paid staff. Automatic extensions for fixed term contracts expiring over or soon after any shut down period? Protections for those who are heavily lab based and so can't do their job from home to avoid them being made redundant?

Katy yes I totally realise that being full time and permanent doesn’t mean that money isn’t an issue. But I think especially in the past few weeks when it was incredibly clear that the strike would have no effect and as Coronavirus became an increasing issue, that not striking would have been the best course of action. Now I would imagine that the funds are drying up somewhat.

I agree that pulling together is the way forward now and that means dropping issues that are not a massive priority now. I am totally unconvinced that the UCU appreciates this on any level.

Sensibly it looks like the ballot has been called off for now. But strike action continues at 13 branches apparently, without physical pickets. If I worked at one of those places, I would refuse to strike for the remaining days. It’s totally unreasonable given the national emergency.

And continuing ASOS at the current time is insane.

I agree that the current situation requires a very different approach from UCU. One of my friends is on a casual contract without any guaranteed hours and can be made redundant any time. This friend went on strike in good faith and now feels rather betrayed. UCU is really in no position to accuse universities of inaction regarding the pandemic when it’s not prepared to shift its own stance.

I'm also very uneasy about this @ehtelp. I have defended asos as a superior alternative to the strike, because (among other reasons) it allows us to visibilize just how excessive and bureaucratized our workload can be in normal circumstances - but clearly not in a situation like this. The bulk of the work for me will likely come in the next few weeks/months (impossible to say) and, if I didn't pull my weight, I know that it would be administrative assistants who would have to do it, I couldn't bring myself to do that.

Yes, I think this is the time to pull together. If we don’t, there might not be any jobs left to strike over once the pandemic dies down. This will push us into recession and there will be huge repercussions. If people don’t pull their weight then others will end up shouldering the burden. It’s no time for negotiations either so it’s better to park the dispute until a more suitable time.

Presumably the strike means that some of the members of HEC were blissfully unware of all the work that's going into setting up remote teaching. But surely it doesn't take much imagination to realise that a different kind of collective action is needed now??

At my institution, even core UCU members who seem to have a permanent ASOS email reply enabled have removed it.

People are scrabbling hard to change plans, re-schedule and reformat assessments etc.

Yeah, I think many people have jumped ship from this strike action. There are masters students who have taken out bank loans to pay fees for a course where they have only had a few weeks tuition. There will be repercussions for the universities from this.

I have seen some morons suggest that ‘the employers can meet our demands and then we’ll stop ASOS’. I don’t know on what planet you live where you think that a global pandemic and a crashing stock market is the perfect time for an employer to write a blank cheque to keep pension contributions low. It’s probably gutting for people to accept that they were sold a lie and that all the strike action was for nothing but it’s the truth.

Harsh but true, Pota, harsh but true.

Certain things attract certain personality types and some of my colleagues who were the most vocal strike supporters are now very vocal about the pandemic, in some cases spreading panic and misinformation while patting themselves on the back for what they regard as leadership.

I'm appalled at the selfishness of continuing with ASOS, including refusing to teach online, when we have students, some stuck far from home, in a panic at having shelled out 1000s of pounds, not knowing how they're going to complete their degrees. Essentially that means refusing any contact with students. Where's the humanity?

Well someone (from a top university actually) was vocally demanding in Twitter this morning that universities should stop any teaching, online or not, and just give everyone a pass... great idea if you want to spend the next few months confined at home writing your book with no distractions, while getting full pay of course.

(For the record I think that learning and teaching is inevitably going to be disrupted, and universities should put extra mitigation policies in place, to an extent we haven't seen before. But trying to keep some sort of routine and "normalcy" might actually be more helpful for many than mindlessly succumbing to panic).

I’m sure my final year students, many of whom were relying on exams to pull up their overall grade, will be delighted with just a ‘pass’. These people don’t seem to live in the real world or have any awareness of how their actions in pursuing a hopeless cause have had a very real impact on students. They can seriously fuck off.

Surely teaching online IS in our contracts?

@worstofbothworlds I think the union people are arguing that the process of converting face-to-face teaching materials to online is beyond the scope of your contract. Obviously I disagree, especially in these unprecedented times.

I think the point is that if in normal circumstances you were asked to move your teaching online, the university should allocate time from your normal duties to familiarize yourself with the technology, re-consider materials and format used, etc. They cannot expect you to do it at the drop of a hat. But the key word here is "normal", and in any case the sense I get from my place is that the expectation at this time is simply "good enough" (as it should be) - not "excellent" or "top class" or "innovative", which you'd be expected to deliver if you were given the proper time and resources.

I'm doing a drop in chat session this week which needs no prep, but I could deliver a lecture via video link without much additional prep TBH. We close on Friday though there may be the odd meeting with students.

I am vaguely thinking of going in (in the car, just for the meeting) for one or two of them as it's SO much easier to show students some things (mainly analysis - I'm STEM but not lab based) in person.

Helpful stuff

Right ... using a global pandemic to essentially blackmail employers and make things even worse for students. It’s bringing our profession into disrepute. Utterly counterproductive. In 2018, even the Financial Times was sympathetic to lecturers’ demands, cannot see that happening now.

I have no idea who this David Stewart is, but, as @Daca says, this is blackmail. Embarrassing doesn't begin to describe it, when entire industries are going into receivership. My friend's son has just heard he's lost his job at Carphone Warehouse, as just one example.

Son of a friend works in pub, was told not to come in. No contract, no money.