When do you think the strikes will be?

[JasminaPashmina]

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

Before Christmas by chance?

Striking today but not tomorrow. Apparently my department is so ridden with toxic relationships that we have to have a new head of department appointed and the interviews are tomorrow, I want to see what we’re getting.

@Pota2 Yep, she's most definitely a Grady uber-fan and in with that crowd. It's all very mean girls.

Jasmina yup, mean girls is the perfect analogy here. Definitely.

chemenger interesting. I guess whoever applies for that job won’t be striking either. At least not on that day.

I am hoping there is some back-down by the employer but as I have said above, I think the strikes were poorly thought out so I don’t hold out high hopes. There was quite a good atmosphere on the picket this morning though but it got a bit much after a while.

Just popping in to send solidarity to the strikers - and a reminder that you don't necessarily have to be in UCU: your institution will recognise other unions for other types of staff, and there's no law to say which one you can join.

I left for the final time in 2011 (also did in and out with AUT previously) and spent time with ATL and am now GMB. I was suspended for my discriminatory stance (ie being mildly GC in public) and threatened with summary dismissal for gross misconduct over this. My GMB rep was fucking brilliant - came from branch, didn't meet him until the hearing, openly admitted that he knew nothing about an academic's job. And then brilliantly handed senior management their arse in one, pithy sentence. The grovelling after was so beautiful, sometimes I slightly regret having walked out a few months later

I usually lurk and don't post on this board, but as a lifelong Trades Unionist, it saddens me that people feel they have no other option than UCU. That's fine if you have weighed everything up, and on balance, feel they are right for you - but if they aren't, you do have other options.

Hefzi wow that sounds amazing! Maybe it’s good to have representation outside the sector. I can’t imagine UCU reps being that effective (DEFINITELY not at my branch anyway). I sort of always thought that it had to be UCU or possibly Unison or Unite due to collective bargaining rights. But I think my main reason for wanting to be in a union is to give protection if I was ever hauled up for calling a spade a spade. It sounds like you got that though. I will definitely look into it. That’s given me some hope.

Is that the Leverhulme Fellow castigating Mary Beard?

I do wish people wouldn't use Twitter for nasty gossip about other people whom they don't know (bitter personal experience).

Away yeah, I think she tweeted something about that. Sociologist. Part of the lecture walk-out when a gender-critical feminist dared ask a question at a recent ‘feminist’ conference. I wasn’t at that conference because I knew my head would have exploded and I would have found it hard to keep quiet but I could have predicted how it turned out (which came true).

Oh good luck @chemenger - horrible situation.

I was brought into a department where there'd been a bullying HoD. It's been interesting watching over the last few years to see the slow difficult healing process.

@Awaywiththepiskies Yes, that's the one. She called bullshit on Mary Beard's 100 hour week. I'm inclined to agree with her on this as I do find it very hard to believe that anyone works for 14 hours solid every day.

For me there needs to be a debate about what we mean by 'work' when we talk about academic work. I suspect most academics do work close to 12-14 hours per day but that includes things like thinking time, discussing how politics might impact your personal research area, having coffee with colleagues etc. which are work related but not necessarily hardcore work.

Anyway, I digress. That's the one!

I was suspended for my discriminatory stance (ie being mildly GC in public) and threatened with summary dismissal for gross misconduct over this

@Hefzi that is appalling! Whatever happened to academic freedom?

And thanks for the info about alternative unions.

Pota2 it's well-worth investigating: I got on really well personally with the UCU reps at my former institutions, and they don't really understand why I chose my particular hill to die on, but that's OK too.

Hefzi the rep in my faculty is super-woke and has tweeted about TERFs and stuff and also goes by they/them pronouns. So I know for a fact what sort of ‘support’ I would get if anything happened. There are others like him who are reps in other faculties and very few women hold branch roles. Says it all.

It’s awful though that you got disciplined for having GC views. What are these people playing at? Universities are nothing without academic freedom. The woke idiots don’t seem to realise that they could very quickly become casualties themselves, depending on the political climate at the time. It’s all so Handmaids Tale isn’t it.

I suspect most academics do work close to 12-14 hours per day but that includes things like thinking time, discussing how politics might impact your personal research area, having coffee with colleagues etc. which are work related but not necessarily hardcore work

And posting in here?

Away I don't think we have freedom to disagree with groupthink

Pota2 it was a woke bro who reported me . I had two trans colleagues at the time, who were called in for supportive meetings with HR, in case I had been bullying them with my outdated and transphobic ideas. One refused to attend, the other had a disciplinary for telling HR to "get tae fuck"

Strangely, neither thinks that transitioning has changed their chromosomes, and both fear TRAs a lot more than "TERFs" . Both have also moved on, largely because the people who kept telling them that gender reassignment wasn't an issue at all kept fetishing it

Hefzi that is REALLY interesting. I googled both of those! I vaguely remembered something in my contract about unions and the wording is I have a right to be in a union, and also that UCU is viewed as "appropriate". So I guess that means I'm fine to join any I want.

ATL now appears to be NEU and very much focused on Schools. Does GMB do much, or is it just sort of around for support? How do you find out if there is any representatives actually near you? Do you know if there are other academics or Uni-releated staff as part of it, like is there any kind of community?

I’m striking but still need to get a bid completed because there haven’t been extensions to deadline and I would let down colleagues in ODA countries if I didn’t do it. Seems a bit selfish that they would lose out when I’m striking over pensions yet their working conditions and salaries are much tougher.

Same with some outreach stuff I do - I would be letting down children and their teachers and as it is off campus I feel it isn’t too much in breach.
But it is still making me feel very conflicted.

@JasminaPashmina Re teach-outs, my sense is that they are meant to cover topics related to labour, the workers' movement, etc.? E.g. about significant contemporary or historical strikes, or even on more 'fun' topics like songs that strikers have historically sung, etc. I find that my students' knowledge and awareness of labour issues and the workers' movement is pretty low, and it's not something we can include in the curriculum, as the intersection between my own field and Industrial Relations is pretty remote, so teach-outs might be an opportunity for a range of students to learn more about these issues? I can also see a rationale for doing lectures on topics that aren't strictly about the workers' movement but rather about other progressive, radical causes (e.g. women's rights, Civi Rights movement, enviromentalism), although others will not agree. I've seen a few teach-out programmes on Twitter and a significant number of sessions seem to be along these lines, although others left me scratching my head.

Anyway, I am on strike today and have been on the picket line . But all the while I'm trying not to get too demoralized at the passive-aggressive behaviour of the'mean girls' collective (brilliant phrase!) on Twitter, as well as the strike-related posturing by colleagues in lower- and middle-level management positions who push the inflated demands from senior management onto junior colleagues without even giving it a second thought.

@aridapricot Yes, sorry I should've been clear. I know that teach-outs are meant to be a space for exploring the history of unionisation, labour movements, workers rights etc. but there's a talk on at my university tomorrow about the neolithic period. Unless there were also disgruntled academics waving witty banners about pensions around at that time, I think the teach-outs have been co-opted for a different purpose

Sorry to hear of your shit experience @Hefzi Shit and sad and horrible unsurprising in our current climate.

You honestly think most academics work 12-14 hours a day?? I don’t. I think most work 9-5 with an hour or so in the evening, including me (as it should be). Twitter - and here, to a lesser extent - is full of people exaggerating how long they world and self reporting is absolutely notorious for over estimation of hours worked. By a long way. I’ve worked in four universities btw.

Not that that’s got anything to do with the strike, but it grinds my gears.

During term time, I have two heavy days of teaching. I know I work 13 hours on each of these. I start at 7 and finish at 8. Then on other days it’s pretty much 9-5 but I do work some weekends too. I do maybe 50 hours a week which is a lot but it’s nowhere near 100. I don’t work like that when I’m not teaching though. Then it’s definitely 9-5 and I try to have most weekends off. I don’t take all my leave though and I do sometimes work on holiday. I don’t think it’s excessive and other than on some days, I do feel I have it more or less under control. 100 hours is insane and impossible as it’s 7-9 every day with no break and no days off ever. If you allow one day off a week, it’s 7-11 with no break on the other days. Can’t see how that works.

I work pretty much 6 days a week, and do 9 hours most days - rarely finish before 7pm. I suppose it's a 60 hour week.

Have others been told how to communicate to the uni if you are striking? I've had an email from the union saying not to fill in anything in advance but haven't been sent a form yet.

We've been told to tell the admin office manager either day by day or at the end of the strike period. This information has only just come through, though, so maybe decisions/arrangements are still being made.

another yes, I left ATL because of the creation of the new union: there was a lecturer space previously, but it looked like that was going to go completely.

GMB in our place is active with various campaigns etc, but are mostly manual labour staff - at the time I was moving union, I went there because I got on really well with the porters in my building, all of whom were very active in the union etc. Where I am now, I am the only academic staff member, I think, but the union is active and friendly, if slightly baffled that I am with them . I also know that there's a fair few academic staff in Unison here and elsewhere - if they are one of the recognised unions by your institution, that would be another option. I know that's where most professional services staff tend to be.

We come together for various campaigning issues and things like that, but don't generally see much of the other unions in between. So there's some TU community and also the general support from being in any union.

Solidarity to anyone on the picker lines today, anyway -