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.

Agreeing with most everything said, though I don't see this supposed exploitation of PhD students. I certainly don't use mine as research assistance fodder. The self-funded ones have their own research about which we might publish on or after completion. The rare funded PhD (I'm not in a lab) is a different matter, they will contribute to my research, as they're paid to do so, but they also benefit from fees and stipend. They're not expected to do anything additional. Indeed that's how I got my own PhD. Couldn't have afforded the fees, let alone no income.

I saw on twitter that, with this announcement of new strikes this month, it will have been a total of 54 days since 2018 and it has achieved nothing (apart from postponing the pensions issue in 2018). It is so abundantly clear that the employers don't care, so how long will UCU continue to expect staff to lose pay for? How many days will it be until they give up or do people still think that this will eventually work? Will it be 75 days? 100 days? I know UCU Left talk about indefinite strikes but I was always secretly hoping that they were kidding.

I have given up being political but I am deeply pissed off about the pension.

Did you see this one? USS over the last 5 years performed WORSE THAN IS THEY HAD DONE NOTHING!!!

twitter.com/JosephineCumbo/status/1495731586318450689

and this one

The revaluation was published too late to inform negotiations but the shortfall has massively reduced

www.pensionsage.com/pa/USS-deficit-cut-to-2-9bn-long-term-challenges-remain.php

I'm not going on strike, but at the moment I am pretty pissed off about both of these

Oh and I am on a very precarious contract and that pisses me off too. Even though I have been pottering along in the same way for years.

Don't get me wrong - I am not happy about the changes to the pension. I don't think anyone is. I still don't think striking is the answer. They are determined to bring these changes in. Striking will lose us pay but it won't change the fact that these changes are being implemented. Weeks of strike action and no willingness to even negotiate shows that. You have to accept when you are defeated. I have seen some USS members talk about being better off in the TPS so if they wish, I guess they could try to move to the post-92 sector to get better pension provision.

I don't like having my pension cut any more than anyone else does but if it's a choice between that and losing thousands in pay from strikes and ending up with the same result, I know what I would choose. The small positive is that the UCU has exaggerated the losses and it's highly unlikely that anyone with a USS pension will be spending old age living in poverty. 95% of the population has DC schemes and their employers contribute far far less than universities do.

so basically, you are prepared to accept a race to the bottom, because others have it tougher?

i m not there yet.

@Marasme

so basically, you are prepared to accept a race to the bottom, because others have it tougher?

i m not there yet.

But do you realistically think that this action will work? That’s the point. If 50+ days of action doesn’t motivate employers to even sit down to negotiate, does foregoing thousands in salary make any sense? Because it doesn’t to me. Employers don’t care about the strike and when employers don’t care, strike is not an effective tool. Academia is so hideously oversubscribed that even if a few leave in protest, there will be hundreds eager to fill their shoes. Employers know this.

It’s not about a race to the bottom (and by the way, when the USS scheme moved from final salary to career average, there wasn’t the same reaction at all, despite this also reducing expected pensions). It’s about being realistic about what the UCU can achieve here. It won’t win this. It just won’t. If you want to carry on sacrificing pay to indulge the socialist fantasies of an idiot on a six-figure salary (who constantly talks about other idiots getting 6 figure salaries but doesn’t realise the irony), be my guest. I and others have had enough though.

i m not particularly enamoured by JD s leadership - yet i won't call striking a socialist fantasy.

I have not heard anyone come up with an alternative to strike or ASOS, which makes me wonder if people are therefore happy to capitulate and accept these conditions?

you are right - academia is way oversubscribed, and the romantic bubble of what academic jobs are is yet to pop; there will always be someone willing to replace us, it s the nature of this market.

When the workload finishes us off, we won't be missed for more than 5 minutes.

Personally I think a marking and assessment boycott has the potential to be much more disruptive than a strike. I don’t know why this wasn’t implement before the strikes were called. As GCandProud says I’m not sure what this next round of strikes will achieve that the last rounds have not. The issue academics face is that our labour isn’t time critical and withdrawing it results in neither a loss of income for employers or a disruption beyond the workplace. It’s very different from the tube strike or a strike in a factory, for example. This is why I don’t understand UCU returning to strikes as a tool. The time surely has come to be more creative to achieve their goals.

Yes. I can see a proper marking/assessment boycott bringing many universities to their knees within a few weeks. In that circumstance I would grit my teeth and do it, even with 100% pay sacrificed for not fulfilling contracted duties. I still wouldn't join the UCU but I would boycott.

Although of course if that was the case (100% pay lost) then there's a school of thought that says: well, we might as well be on strike!

I don't think there's an answer that results in a happy ending here.

I see your point, but I think there’s only a handful of universities threatening 100% pay deductions for ASOS so presumably most academics would be better off than they would striking. I assume there’s some reasoning underpinning the preference for striking or UCU would be employing it as a first order tactic.

would be striking
UCU would not be

@ghislaine ah, I didn't know that, thanks - although I thought that ASOS would technically include assessment / marking because that's core activity. Hence my assumption that it would be considered breach of contract IYSWIM? I don't know much about it so happy to learn and be corrected on this one.

Not sure if I made that clear - essentially ASOS would include marking / assessment whereas a marking / assessment boycott wouldn't...

I thought that UCU had nominated a marking/assessment boycott as a form of ASOS, it just hasn’t been activated yet: www.ucu.org.uk/article/11817/HE-disputes-FAQs#What-does-action-short-of-a-strike-ASOS-mean-and-when-might-we-be-involved-in-ASOS.

@GCAndProud

I saw on twitter that, with this announcement of new strikes this month, it will have been a total of 54 days since 2018 and it has achieved nothing (apart from postponing the pensions issue in 2018). It is so abundantly clear that the employers don't care, so how long will UCU continue to expect staff to lose pay for? How many days will it be until they give up or do people still think that this will eventually work? Will it be 75 days? 100 days? I know UCU Left talk about indefinite strikes but I was always secretly hoping that they were kidding.

Hang on, what?! More strikes this month?

We just got this from our Branch:

X Uni UCU committee heard about the strike dates at the same time as members and are as shocked and taken aback as you are.

I was actually due to take some AL on our branch strike days (which are after our Uni term ends) to help my elderly DM with a thing during school term time (so that DH just has to deposit the children in school and pick them up from after school club!)

I don't think I'll bother withdrawing my AL request and putting it down as strike because if I need extra AL later in the year I'll just ask for unpaid parental leave.

Strikes during the vacations? Yeah, that'll show 'em!

The employers will be laughing; they'll be saving salary costs with no impact on them whatsoever.

How do UCU get away with being so useless?

@GCAcademic

Strikes during the vacations? Yeah, that'll show 'em!

The employers will be laughing; they'll be saving salary costs with no impact on them whatsoever.

How do UCU get away with being so useless?

Oh yeah, I didn't click that it was during vacation time. I honestly have absolutely no words for just how freaking dumb that is.

@GCAcademic

Strikes during the vacations? Yeah, that'll show 'em!

The employers will be laughing; they'll be saving salary costs with no impact on them whatsoever.

How do UCU get away with being so useless?

It’s a joke. At least some people appear to be questioning the UCU’s motives now but not strongly enough.

Marking boycott should have been the immediate go-to. This is not a new dispute. It’s been going for 4 years now and people have lost thousands. Now people have been financially and mentally exhausted, meaning they may not even take part in a marking boycott.

One explanation is apparently that only teaching staff can take part in a boycott and the union is for so many others and they should be able to join in . Ffs, this is not some jolly outing that we want everyone to be able to take part in. It’s a strike. Its sole purpose is to drive through our demands. Who gives a shit if someone on a research only contract can’t participate in a marking boycott themselves? I definitely don’t because it’s abundantly clear that the action where everyone can take part is as effective as a chocolate fireguard.

The above is also why I used the term socialist fantasy before. Jo Grady and her gang don’t seem interested in getting results - it’s about the experience for them. That and mass-producing pink beanie hats and taking picket-line selfies.

One explanation is apparently that only teaching staff can take part in a boycott and the union is for so many others and they should be able to join in
I know three people from three different institutions who have independently decided that being on a research-only contract or being on research leave exempts you from taking part in the strike, as long as you make a donation to the fighting fund. At least two of these three people absolutely insisted, in past strikes, that everyone should be striking on all designated days, "no exceptions", etc.
I was at my most enthusiastic with UCU (which ok isn't saying a lot) in the November-December 2019 strikes. Something I remember puzzled me is, towards the latest days of that batch, how Grady and others visible in the Union started to imply that the action was only a warm-up and more strike days would follow. This while keeping a triumphant tone. (I.e. the tone was like "this strike has been SO SUCCESSFUL that WE'LL GO AND STRIKE SOME MORE NEXT YEAR").
I am fuming because a colleague of mine, who was on strike, has been pressuring me since Friday to mark a few essays from his course by the end of today, so that he can return the marked work to students by the deadline the uni gives us to do so. In my department we share marking a lot, so that's not the problem - the tight turnaround is. It seems he is prepared to go out of his way (incl relying on more junior colleagues) to avoid any inconvenience to the students, which surely beats the purpose...

I feel as though UCU has been gaslighting us over the strikes. My local branch had fairly pathetic participation but the UCU emails imply it was a resounding success, despite one day the picket line literally being one man and his dog, apparently.

Today my local branch are claiming the strikes have all been to support women (International womens Day). More gaslighting....

most people in my branch are unaware about the new set of 5days :/

@saltedcaramelhotchoc

I feel as though UCU has been gaslighting us over the strikes. My local branch had fairly pathetic participation but the UCU emails imply it was a resounding success, despite one day the picket line literally being one man and his dog, apparently.

Today my local branch are claiming the strikes have all been to support women (International womens Day). More gaslighting....

Yes, I've noticed a few people jumping on the IWD bandwagon by talking about gender pensions gaps and the disproportionate impact of casualisation of women.

That rhetoric doesn't really stack up against UCU's behaviour when female academics are being bullied, hounded and harassed. The cognitive dissonance is astounding.

The picket of one man and his dog made me laugh. But I also feel a bit sorry for the dog. Like, imagining the man geeing his dog up in the morning with promises of packed pickets, lots of other strike dogs, lots of fuss, lots of pictures, a strike BBQ. All broken promises. Poor pooch

Oh yes, I remember one research-only person on twitter who first of all wrote long threads about how they didn't feel sufficiently recognised/valued in the strike because they didn't teach (yeah? You want to swap? Didn't think so). Then they crapped themselves when their branch did vote for strike and they'd have to put their money where their mouth was and started going on about how it was actually better for them not to strike and just put a pound in the strike fund (yeah, yeah, course). The person I'm thinking about is now militantly policing the bloody digital picket, as if any uni managers give the slightest shit about it.

Gaslighting is correct. And yes, that makes me laugh about IWD. Right, so it's fine for the GS and her cronies to heap vitriol on Selina Todd and Kathleen Stock, yet we're meant to believe they care about women? One of the worst of them, Jo Edge, has been re-elected as women's officer, which is about as depressing as it gets. The internalised misogyny is so strong on that one.