What is going on?

I also very much want to know the answer to this, so joining this thread in case someone knows! I'm not a UCU member so was wondering if there had been any communications to the membership that had shed any light on it?

Me neither but what I’ve gleaned from twitter is that the HEC are planning an indefinite strike from Feb. Since this has to be endorsed by the branches, Grady is using her position to try to sway the membership against it and go for last year’s strategy of chunks of action. I think. I could be very wrong.

I’d actually quite welcome an indefinite strike - I have enough colleagues on my module that would make it completely unexaminable if they don’t give lectures or set tutorial exercises. It would be an accidental sabbatical.

indefinite strike is bonkers. people won't be able to stick to it and will distrust the union.

twitter.com/drrhianelinor/status/1602656481064763392?t=XnjyNPa0ANTbKu6y04whoA&s=19

I found this on Twitter, which seems to provide some context but only really deepens the mystery of exactly what procedural nonsense is going on!

I also think indefinite strikes is madness, as is a marking boycott starting in January, but then I generally think UCU's tactics have been dreadful, which is why I left.

I think there’s some sort of spat about the GS having to record her report for the NEC so they can prepare questions to ask at the meeting instead of having the report delivery be immediately followed by questions. Depending on which faction you belong to this is either a pro- or an anti-accountability move.

That to me seems small change compared to the question of indefinite vs modular strikes although from what I can gather, both are symptomatic of some factional division within UCU.

@drwitch, that tweet mentioned above says:
"I'm not aware of any NEC decisions preventing the GS from providing in-person reports in future. What I am aware of is one occasion where we moved the GS report down the agenda to accommodate pressing equalities issues."

I just came on to ask the same question. So really its a petty spat between NEC and Jo Grady? There was me thinking it might be something relevant to actually working towards a solution to the dispute 🙄

This thread twitter.com/JamesBSumner/status/1602727506670485504 and in particular this branch twitter.com/Chris_A_W/status/1602734266466684929 shed some more light on details.

what I’ve gleaned from twitter is that the HEC are planning an indefinite strike from Feb. Since this has to be endorsed by the branches, Grady is using her position to try to sway the membership against it and go for last year’s strategy of chunks of action.

This is also what I've gleaned so far

I guess it will vary a lot by institution but indefinite strike would be absolute madness at mine, we have very low numbers striking as it is.

I would really like to see more strategic thinking that targets university administrations rather than students, it's not working.

Does anyone think the strikes are having any positive affect at the moment anyway? Isn't the definition of madness doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The idea of an indefinite strike is bonkers, who can afford to do that?

I don't know. I was briefly impressed by the claim that the November strikes had brought UCEA to the negotiations table but I've seen it claimed elsewhere that 30 Nov is the standing date for beginning pay negotiations so who knows what the truth is? I think I've also read that the major shift on UCEA's part is that the 2023 pay negotiations have been folded into these negotiations. Presumably the strategy is that this bundling of claims would make for a bigger initial bump which would make more of a difference. Of course that depends on UCEA making an acceptable offer....

It doesn't seem to me that either form of strike would be particularly effective. We are not nurses, postal workers, dockers or train drivers. Our work barely affects the life of the general public and certainly not in the short term.

Seems to me that the call for an indefinite strike is the flexing of numerical dominance on the HEC by the more militant and ideological faction of UCU.

This is what I think too. I know lots of people who have basically given thousands of pounds of their salary away in strike deductions in the last few years, have nothing to show for it whatsoever and are still convinced that doing it all again is the best possible approach.

@Hardbackwriter, me too. I’m no industrial relations strategist, but it seems to me that all this is doing is giving the employer repeated practice at facing down UCU. Each time they concede nothing it must surely encourage them to concede nothing the next time. On the other hand, I think for some people, it’s the fight that matters more than the result. There are definitely some of those in my department.

I'm posting this on the day UCU wrote to us telling us the branches have effectively endorsed Jo Grady's (useless) strategy.

The definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. We've been at it for years, taken a massive hit in our pay packets, and the result (stalemate) is the same. We are now well into the sunk costs fallacy and IMO it's getting us absolutely nowhere.

She's got a mandate she might never get again, has an extremely strong position, and she's fudging it. Worse than Sally Hunt.

Indefinite action seemed like the only option left to us if strike action is to be effective. I've lost a fortune already and institutions like mine have taken the bulk of the hit (even though we're not USS so the 'four fights' was not only not a universal, but an over-convoluted, unclear strategy.

We needed to have been very, very clear as to what we were asking for without complicating the issue (pay and conditions).

I don't trust the union under this leadership to bargain effectively. Next time, I'm voting 'no'.

The more I watch this unfold the more I think that Jo Grady is determined to sacrifice the membership on the altar of her ambition.

It’s become such a regular and tiresome feature of the academic year. A few days of strikes before Christmas and then a couple of weeks over February and March. Marking boycott in June and July. Add various protest marches and indefinable ASOS in between. Scatter through some pink “merch” and dog pictures. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.

Just quietly checking in on this thread today...

Grady as always favouring posturing over actually achieving anything at all: twitter.com/ucu/status/1613893273030135811

Although I thought that the 5% pay rise (whatever the caveats) was a pretty good offer, in the current economic climate.

But according to her Twitter * note, "This is NOT ENOUGH"

• seems she's stopped using Terfblocker, although one of my local branch reps hasn't. Lovely behaviour. And makes me soooooo enthusiastic to remain in UCU. Not.

I will be beyond pissed off if the offer is withdrawn and we end up with nothing/less, as has happened in the past. I would take 5%. We will never get 12% or whatever it is they want. By the time all the salary lost from strike days is added up, you’d need a giant pay increase to make it have been worth it.
Clown union led by publicly-hungry clown extraordinaire.

5% on top of a standard national pay increase is certainly more than a lot of people are getting. And although our jobs are hard work, and many of us are overloaded, and there is a LOT wrong with government HE policy (in which university senior management teams are sometimes - not always - complicit), I always think - well, I"m not working in an abbattoir or plucking chickens for a living ...

I agree, and I am increasingly uncomfortable with some of the narratives pushed by academics around the strike.

Yes, the job can be stressful. But we are not working down the mines, or on the frontlines of the NHS. We aren't responsible for thousands of lives like train drivers and ambulance drivers. I personally don't think our jobs are as stressful as school teachers. And our qualifications mean that we do have options if we decide to leave the sector.

That doesn't mean things are ok, they very much are not, but I'd like to see a bit more awareness or something?
I say this as someone who is underpaid, was on precarious contracts for years, etc., I know it can be tough. But not compared to loads of people I know.

It isn’t 5% on top of a standard pay increase, it is? Isn’t it between 4 and 7% depending on your salary?

Does anyone know much they are actually asking for? I resigned from the union as I was so pissed off by their approach and so I’m not that up-to-date.