UCU again

[CatandtheFiddle]

Has anyone seen the moves they're making to suggest another round of strikes?

Activists in my branch seem up for it. I maybe should send them links to some of the really VICIOUS posts about academics here in MN. Or the petition with over 300,000 signatures about refunding fees for 2019-20?

Led by donkeys, in all sorts of ways ...

I was always slightly baffled at how when someone pointed out on Twitter that maybe 22 strike days weren't affordable to many people, the reply was always: "Fighting fund! Duh!". At the same time, not sure if it's only me, but I always got the sense that those of us who are in FT, permanent positions should not only not claim from the fund but actually donate to it if we can (on top of losing our wages) - this is of course not official policy, as it would be discriminatory, but certainly it's the vibe I got from many UCU types on social media and IRL. When people were directed to the fighting fund, I always thought at the back of my mind: "But surely the fighting fund isn't a unlimited pot of money, and it can run out at some point". Now it seems UCU officers didn't consider this.

It’s negligence at best, outright dishonesty at worst. The GS kept telling people that the strike fund was in a healthy state and she is the one who called on the membership to vote for strike action, explaining that it was necessary. I can only imagine the outrage that would ensue if someone other than Jo Grady had done this. They would be baying for that person’s blood as they (including Grady and chums) did when they turned on Sally Hunt after she had run an actually successful strike that led to a definite gain for the union. Grady’s strike cannot be described any other way than as a failure. The offer on the table now is worse than what would have been achieved if settlement had been reached before the strike started. This has nothing to do with Covid and everything to do with the fact that the strike was uncoordinated and unrealistic. In order to get as many people out as possible the UCU made wild promises about being able to pay from the strike fund without doing even the most basic of sums. They now have less than a month to find a million quid or they can’t pay the people they promised. Utterly incompetent.

As for Jo McNeill, she lives on a different planet. I admire her tenacity but she is unrealistic in the extreme as are the rest of UCU Left. In my view the GS and the HEC should resign immediately over this because it raises serious concerns. If it was anyone else as GS, people would be saying the same but I guess they don’t want to admit how badly they got it wrong by voting for someone with no experience and no substance. You live and learn I guess.

Oh and the way Grady’s buddies on the incoming NEC have reacted to this (as well as how they behave generally) makes me think that things are not going to get better at all. The problem isn’t going to go away by removing the UCUL majority because the rest of the leadership is just as clown-like, they just aren’t as blatant about it all the time.

Perhaps if UCU hadn’t turned itself into such a hostile union for female members to the point that many of us earning enough to pay higher rate subs have been forced to resign and join other unions, their financial position would be better? I’m not the only person in my small department who has left because of UCU’s active denigration of the principles of academic freedom. Offering free or very cheap membership to PhD students, modern apprentices, etc, who have no stake in academic freedom issues, and letting them set the agenda was the start of this rot, imo. It’s no longer fit for purpose as a union for academics.

Yup, they’ve prioritised appeasing the student ‘activists’ who can’t contribute financially at the expense of those more established paying higher rates. That’s now massively backfired because so many of them have sought to claim in full from the fund. If the UCU hadn’t taken such an anti-women and anti-academic freedom stance, I’d still be a member and they’d be getting my subs.

What fraction of staff have resigned from UCU in the last year? I am aware of quite a few who have - not for academic freedom issues (don't come into play so much in STEM disciplines), but because they don't agree with the strikes and the overall strategy.

Yes I'm just the sort of person (mid-career, good salary, both children now at school so much lower childcare costs than a couple of years ago) who would happily have contributed extra. Two years ago I was a union rep for my department but I left UCU last year too.