Marking & Assessment Boycott

[aridapricot]

So how do you think this will pan out this time? Are you taking part? How do you think things will go in your university/department?
My uni is docking 30% pay. Also in my department (where the spirit tends to be "yes we'll do whatever UCU asks us to do but we'll also go out of our way to cause any inconvenience to students") people are already talking about mitigations... 🙄I am not a UCU member and won't be taking part but I also fear that at some point I will be asked to cover colleague's marking or (even worse) redistribute it (given that I'm HoD).

Did anyone else see Jo G on the BBC politics programme just now? She pronounces UCU 'you-soo' rather than 'you-see-you' which is how I have always thought it was pronounced. Have I been pronouncing it wrong for years?!

I say you see you, and I've had friends in leadership (before it was dreadful) for a quite long time.

Does anybody be think they will get another strike mandate? I don’t.

If JG told me grass was green I'd go outside to check.

Thanks - laughing about the grass is green comment and reassured that I haven't somehow been the only person using that pronunciation too so thanks both.
Re mandate - usually I get endless text messages and emails and so far I've only had one UCU rising text message and no personally targeted emails from members of my branch, which was happening previously. I wonder if people are fed up? I got fed up some time ago, and still toy with leaving, but then never quite get to that point, though perhaps I should.

Yes. Sadly this is what UCEA/management have been waiting for - a loss of momentum and strike/fight fatigue. They've simply sat it out. Unfortunately I think we've already lost, and had done so from the moment JG backtracked back in March and stood down the action without consultation with her members - now delegating action under the current mandate back onto individual branches.

We've fractured, and we are now perceived as weak.

My university has a strong branch. Consequently, we are one of the institutions who have lost more and for this reason are very disenchanted with central UCU's handling of this whole dispute. Our branch was really on it with the 'have you voted' text messages, and we voted 'yes' in the disaggregated ballots every time.

This time? Not a peep.

That’s entirely correct, IMO, the employers have sat this out … what organisation can sustain a state of permanent mobilisation?

A fortnight ago I would have agreed with you but now I wonder if the outcome of the pensions dispute will give them a boost. Permanent mobilisation is what UCU Left are after of course.

If employee contributions are reduced with the effect of giving USS members a 3%+ salary rise then there is even more incentive for UCEA to sit it out. Cold comfort I know for TPS members.

Our place is in total administrative disarray, apparently largely because of MAB. It feels impossible to vote for more action.

There seem to be two distinct embodiments of exhaustion at play in my dept. On the one hand those who are exhausted and want more action to have the chance to step off the wheel for a bit, and on the other hand those who are exhausted and want no more action as they are desperate for some normality and routine for a while.

I get the sense most people were in the first group two years ago, but over time the majority have shifted to the second.

Normal dept life is so disrupted (by lack of support staff, constant changes for change sake, lack of consistency in everything) and chaotic that striking seems minor in comparison.

Anyone else get a text message from 'Jo Grady' today reminding them to vote? I had had various messages from some random person but today I get Jo herself. Allegedly.

Gosh, it so lovely having resigned from the UCU.

Yeah, and are you refusing the benefits of the pension victory too??

Lol. As if that was anything to do with UCU!

My understanding was was that the March 2020 valuation which precipitated the pension dispute came about as a result of UCU forcing the delay of the earlier valuation through its 2018-19 strike action.

Lol. As if that was anything to do with UCU!

But it is interesting to see how many UCU members have been convinced that it does.

I'm not on the USS scheme but I actually had thought UCU helped this achievement!

Ditto looksgood.

Agree. Until the strike the USS and UCEA were adamant that they would continue spending more, paying for a deficit that didn't exist, in preference to restoring benefits. And don't get me started on the utterly disingenuous March 2020 valuation, switched to 12 months early to capture the lowest point of the FTSE.

Don't get me wrong, UCU made a total cock-up in the last strike and the MAB, but the pensions people are totally on the ball.

You are blinded by ideology. Christ's sake, get a grip.

I know one of the UCU pension negotiators and what they say about current UCU Exec is not flattering in the slightest.

I was a member for 30 years but the behaviour of the current Exec over Professors Stock and Phoenix and Dr Laura Favaro forced me to leave.

I’m not a fan of Jo Grady, UCUCommons or UCULeft (and left UCU in Autumn 2021). However the UCU pension negotiators, including most recently Mark Taylor-Batty and Jackie Grant, have played a significant role in the improvement of USS benefits (along with the improvement in financial conditions).

Agreed! We owe a lot to the pensions negotiators. And to those of us who struck in the cold and lost so much salary.

Despite being in the UCU I'm no fan of its leadership. However, there is a lot of evidence that the pensions negotiators - who seem to be cut from a very different cloth than its current leadership - have done a really good job against what looked like very steep odds.