Anyone else not striking?

[goingpearshaped]

I am not in UCU so not striking. Anyone else? I can sense the divide already between those striking and those not in our dept, I really hate this. Agh, what a mess all round.

Ours are still pissed off about nobody asking them about the strike dates or, you know, checking term dates on the website.

I’ve got another load of ballot papers.

My university was one of the ones balloted twice and both times didn’t reach the50% threshold. Thank goodness.

I’m now wondering about tactics - to vote and vote No to ongoing strike action, or not to vote at all, thus helping to stay under the 50% benchmark.

Any ideas?

Not voting at all seems more effective, in my institution anyway....

I got my ballot papers followed by a text from my branch demanding to know if I'd received them

I think these tactics are coming from central UCU, we had this at my branch, too, when I was still a member. The best strategy for avoiding another strike IMO is to throw those ballot papers in the bin. If you can be bothered, you can tell your branch zealots that you do not appreciate their ‘reminders’ and/or the careless use of your personal data.

BTW, UCU has to publish the number of votes cast by institution after every ballot. It is quite a reality check when you see a) that not that many academics are in UCU and b) that it only takes a minority for strike action to be called. IIRC only about 10% to 15% of academics at my institution voted ‘yes’ last time round ...

I logged into my UCU account and removed my mobile number when they announced via email that they would be pestering on text!

@ExMachinaDeus if you look at ballot numbers, most institutions are around the 50% mark for voting, but then among those who vote Yes tends to be in the majority (ca. 70-80% in many places). So I would say not voting can make more of an impact than voting no - in which case your vote is unlikely to make a difference if the threshold is crossed.
@ExUCU can you point me to numbers regarding UCU membership? A couple of times I tried to calculate how many academics (as a %) are actually members of UCU but I couldn't find any helpful information.

It's difficult to calculate since professional services staff can be UCU members, so I can only work out that no more than 37% of academic staff are UCU members where I work, and no more than 16% of academic staff voted in the November ballot (the threshold wasn't reached).

Can't believe that FGEN event with Rad Prof Hines is going ahead on strike day. I was bullied into cancelling an equally outward facing small scale activist event, partly hosted via the uni, as it contravened the bloody 'digital picket line' - one of the panellists tweeted about it - cue within 30 seconds a Twitstorm of abuse . And yet some UCU members have talked themselves into finding this one AOK. One rule for some...... I wonder if the great Grady has pronounced.

Yeah but TWAW and the most oppressed evah

There was some abuse criticism from Jo Edge (she always seems only too happy to find yet another reason to shout abuse at people) but, overall, much less than you would have expected. I imagine that anyone calling Hines and Kennedy out would have to face accusations of being transphobic? And yet, even if we accept the premise that the event is "urgent", aren't there other things academics do that can be regarded as equally if not more urgent? Like research going into developing cancer treatment, or initiatives, that some UK academics collaborate with, aimed at getting refugees safely out of Ukraine and settled into European countries.

I can only work out that no more than 37% of academic staff are UCU members where I work, and no more than 16% of academic staff voted in the November ballot (the threshold wasn't reached).

What about PhD students? How much did their input affect the outcome?

@aridapricot
Here is a link to the 4 Fights ballot results of November 2021: www.ucu.org.uk/fourfightsballot2021

It handily gives you the number of those eligible to vote per institution, and you can approximate unionisation if you cross-reference with the number of academic staff at your uni. Of course, as @GCAcademic says, some PS colleagues will also be in UCU. But without doubt, the strikes, causing immense disruption, are called by a minority. Now imagine what would happen if we did not have legislation requiring a 50% turnout.

I’d also like to know more about the situation with PhD students.

Thanks @ExUCU. I was quite surprised to see that (according to the official staff numbers provided by my uni) only about 1/3 are in the UCU - we are supposed to be one of the most unionized campus. Of course it is highly likely that the % is even lower, since many of those "entitled to vote in the ballot" will be PhD students, which the uni doesn't count in its official staff numbers.

[quote aridapricot]@ExMachinaDeus if you look at ballot numbers, most institutions are around the 50% mark for voting, but then among those who vote Yes tends to be in the majority (ca. 70-80% in many places). So I would say not voting can make more of an impact than voting no - in which case your vote is unlikely to make a difference if the threshold is crossed.
@ExUCU can you point me to numbers regarding UCU membership? A couple of times I tried to calculate how many academics (as a %) are actually members of UCU but I couldn't find any helpful information.[/quote]
I find this so frustrating, though - taking a look at that link, if everyone who abstained voted no, we'd be less than 50% in favour. Yet 70% who do vote, vote yes - and it seems we're still comfortably into the 50% threshold. I feel like people do vote want the strike. Hmm, although if everyone who voted no abstained, we would be below 50% turnout...

There is zero point in voting if you’re going to vote no. Other than in very few cases, Yes always wins. If you don’t want to strike, don’t vote and avoid the threshold being reached. Ours was reached but only by a few votes so if a few no-voters chucked theirs in the bin, they could have saved the wages they will now lose. I know it’s anti-democratic to do this but I don’t care at the moment - I’m just sick of UCU and most of the problems can’t just be resolved with a snap of the VC’s fingers and all this action is doing is bleeding people dry.

@aridapricot

There was some abuse criticism from Jo Edge (she always seems only too happy to find yet another reason to shout abuse at people) but, overall, much less than you would have expected. I imagine that anyone calling Hines and Kennedy out would have to face accusations of being transphobic? And yet, even if we accept the premise that the event is "urgent", aren't there other things academics do that can be regarded as equally if not more urgent? Like research going into developing cancer treatment, or initiatives, that some UK academics collaborate with, aimed at getting refugees safely out of Ukraine and settled into European countries.

Oh god, she’s just so awful (although in this particular case, abuse is warranted and at least she’s not as much of a hypocrite as the rest of them, although I bet she held back because it was Sally). But in general terms, I can’t believe someone this unpleasant is an elected representative. I saw one thing where she said something like ‘fuck off, the union doesn’t work for you - get off your arse and do stuff yourself’. The union doesn’t work for its members? Why are they all paying £25 a month then? Not to mention her anti-women stance and her mocking of Kathleen Stock’s harassment. Really nasty.

In the past I have abstained rather than voting no to strike action. In the last two ballots at my institution they didn't get 50% in the first one and then got 51% on the reballot. I do feel a bit guilty about thwarting democracy though. We had a recent ballot on a local issue in which I voted yes but there was only 43% turnout. That wound me up so I have decided to vote (no) this time but I definitely won't be striking re the 4 fights. I really should leave UCU though. I am just feeling a bit vulnerable about local changes.

Me. I left UCU due to their treatment of Kathleen Stock. My colleagues weren't aware so I've had a few questions but no hostility, although some have said I don't need to be in a union to strike? I am working to rule in solidarity but can't help but feel it's a bit futile. Academia is all just a bit of a shit show at the moment.

I think that you can strike even if not a member but you would be silly to do that because you won't get the union's protection if your employer takes action against you. So I would not strike unless I was a member.

I think the pension changes are a done deal now. They are due to be implemented this week and I can't see that changing. I think that even if the employers agreed to a new valuation (which I don't think they will), it is still their intention long-term to shift it to a largely DC scheme, as these are cheaper than DB ones. I note that UCU has shifted from their initial ridiculous position of no detriment to one that requires you to have actuarial qualifications to understand. There is an academic called Michael Otsuka, who is part of the USS negotiating team who regularly posts 30-thread tweets, explaining obscure and minute details about the scheme that simply aren't comprehensible to most people. I also saw that part of the UCU proposal was to raise member contributions to nearly 14% to save the DB scheme, albeit only for a fairly short period of time. But even for a short period, that huge increase in contributions will be really hard for people to bear. Not everyone has the luxury of prioritising retirement income and many need every penny they get from their monthly salary. Even if the employers had gone for the UCU deal, I'm not sure that would have been particularly popular (I would definitely not be happy with even a year of increased contributions). And even if the UCU proposal were accepted, the longer-term costs of DB schemes are still an issue that USS is going to continue to raise, so this constant cycle of strikes looks set to continue.

I appreciate that it sounds defeatist but sometimes you do have to admit defeat. Lots of industries have endured huge pension cuts - no, it's not a race to the bottom but USS pensions are still one of the best you can get and far far better than what you'd get in the private sector. UCU strikes have been going on for several years with no effect. The best we got was a brief reprieve (under Sally Hunt) and what we are getting now is a fat zero under Jo Grady. It depends on how long people are prepared to carry on losing salary (it's now around 4k lost by someone who took part in all the strike action since 2019). It's clear that employers don't care very much about token withdrawals of labour and as pp have pointed out, the majority of academic staff don't even take part in strike action.

Yes I agree that the eventual endgame is almost certainly a move to full DC. The difficulty with doing it right now is that a good chunk of the contributions for each employee are going to deficit reduction. There's at least an argument for that if everyone contributing has a stake in the DB part. It would be impossible to justify continuing to do so if it was DC only and more junior staff had little/no DB pension to support.

Have you seen this? God they’re an embarrassment.

twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1509158382892105741?s=20&t=w_UuE7G-y2_F7ui41SBE4A

A union agitating for making it easier to harass staff at work. You couldn’t make it up.

I saw that @GCAndProud It's shameful.

But I've been heartened by many of the reactions here and on the original tweet from Prof Stock

It looks like the motion has been withdrawn but its telling that it was ever put forward in the first place. And its tabling makes me feel very very reassured and confident in my decision to leave and stay out.