Dd scared of crossing a university picket line

[littlemissrain]

Dd's university is taking part in the strike next week.

Most of her teachers (mostly postgraduate students) will be striking, but none of her lecturers are. 2 of her lectures aren't recorded, so she has to go to them. This will
mean crossing the picket line, and she's terrified that the strikers will call her out/jeer at her as she goes in. She has anxiety problems so is really building this up in her mind. The strikes are, as things stand, going to last for up to a month, possibly longer.

Does anyone have any experience of having to cross picket lines?

I've never even noticed the picket lines at my work, they are usually there to raise awareness, at our uni you could go in about 8 different entrances, so it's not difficult to avoid if you don't want to see them. Given a small minority of lecturers are in the union and mostly none of the large admin staff (as they have different unions, as do the health professionals), the majority of staff will be going to work as usual on that day.

I never got the whole ‘ugh, you don’t actually go to lectures’ mentality even when I was a Fresher! I can probably count on one hand the number of lectures I skipped. It just genuinely never occurred to me not to go to them. Why wouldn’t I? I was there to do the course and, shock horror, I actually found the lectures interesting.

Yes, a lot of the time I was turning up on two hours sleep, often hungover and occasionally still drunk, and on one occasion still wearing the clothes I had been wearing the previous night... but the point is I still went!

@ThereIsNoSuchThingAsRoadTax Thank you for explaining. So is the strike not about the affordability of the scheme, but about the fact the universities want to close the defined benefits scheme? So basically, staff signed up to something and now the unis want to change it?

It's not about attendance - it's about attending a lecture on material that will be covered in the exam that's only 2 months away.

Sorry posted too soon! I meant to say that we were told we would not be examined on contented missed through strikes. So that's one thing less to worry about.

So is the strike not about the affordability of the scheme, but about the fact the universities want to close the defined benefits scheme? So basically, staff signed up to something and now the unis want to change it?

Staff signed up to something, but unis now want to change it (again, we’ve already had our pensions sliced a few years ago) because they claim it’s unaffordable. Their valuation is highly suspect. It has also emerged that only 42% of the universities concerned wanted to change the scheme, but for some reason the pension scheme went with the wishes of that minority. That 42% includes Oxford and Cambridge and it seems that individual Oxbridge colleges may also have been included (ie skewing the figures massively).

Just to add - the universities’ rationale for slicing our pensions a few years ago (closing the final salary scheme for everyone) was that this would protect the scheme for decades to come. Just two years later, they’ve come back and want to gut our pensions again. All the while students are paying higher fees, staff pay has stagnated by up to 15%, vc and upper management salaries have rocketed, and enormous building projects have taken place on most campuses. Staff costs as a proportion of expenditure has dropped across the sector over the last few years, and still they claim the pensions are unaffordable. Shower of langers, the lot of them

Anyhow - the picket lines won't be rowdy or aggressive. Just half a dozen academics handing out leaflets

And professional services staff; tis not just academics But yes, it won't be rowdy and we aren't planning to hassle people

I was reading one of the many 'baby boomers had it all and pulled the ladder up behind them' threads the other day. The point was made that the boomer generation, and before them the builder generation, were on the whole more politically active and aware than the generations who've followed them, hence politicians taking more notice of what they have to say.

Quite apart from the fact that your DD isn't going to get abused on the picket line (it would be illegal for a start), how about encouraging her to find out about the dispute, talk to her student union about the student union position and advice they have, and then make her own independent decision about whether to go to lectures or not that day? She's of a generation that will need to fight to keep what was won by and for the boomers and the builders, so now might be a good time to start by raising her own political awareness. And if on this occasion she doesn't agree with the reasons for striking, she could have a conversation to that effect with the people on the picket line.

UCU members will not jeer at students crossing a picket line. There will be a picket line in many institutions - this is probably the most mobilised I’ve ever seen staff be. In quite a few universities there is strong support from the Students Union. I am fortunate to work in one where we have an incredibly active SU who will join us on the picket line to support us. There are officially only 6 picketers at most, though supporters can stand nearby. Our SU has asked students not to cross the line but even if students wanted to enter we would never stop anyone - merely chat to them and hand them a leaflet,

The ‘you don’t need to actually go to lectures’ line doesn't work when you have an attendance rule on your course!

And when students have labs and workshops

I used to work in HE and had to cross a picket line once. The lecturers' union was on strike but my union (support staff) wasn't, so I had to go to work. I felt shitty walking in but the pickets were lovely; they just handed me a leaflet.
I went straight to our kitchen and took them a tray of tea out. They were very pleased as it was freezing outside.

I crossed one of the UKs nastiest picket lines
with the full support of the pickets
every day for a couple of months

the first day was REALLY SCARY (it was in 1987 and I can remember every pace)
BUT
I was not a member of the union or industry on strike
and my actions strengthened the argument of the strikers
not weakened it

many strikes are pointless
if you get involved with one, read up and find out where you are best placed.

Perhaps she should nt cross the picket line ? Not because she anxious but as a mark of solidarity. I know this is clearly an old fashioned view but it’s a principle I would nt change . Good to think about wider society

The ‘you don’t need to actually go to lectures’ line doesn't work when you have an attendance rule on your course!

It doesn’t count as non-attendance if the class is cancelled.

Well her class isn’t cancelled, the OP states this.

Where I work if a student misses a lecture or seminar they have to provide evidence of an equal amount of study to the lecturer, so they end up having to write up something they’ve read which is a pita. Attendance is good.

FlickingVees, what a patronising , smug thing to say. I hope if you ever suffer anxiety you don’t get some moron belittling your experience. Do one

I once had to cross a university picket line - I was an admin worker at a big university and the academic staff were on strike. (I wasn't a member of any trade union back then but, even if I had been, I would have been in a different union which wasn't on strike.)

As I approached the building, I think they asked what job I did and I said I was an admin worker and they then suggested that I should consider joining the union for uni support staff. No hassle and it wasn't at all intimidating.

Is she aware of what the strike is about?
Why does she think she will be intimidated?

Is she aware of what the strike is about?
Why does she think she will be intimidated?
She's not so worried about the reaction of the striking staff, more about the rather militant Labour/Marxist societies that are jointing and getting very excited about the strike.

*joining

I will be on the picket line. We will absolutely not be calling out or jeering at students who cross the line. Our dispute is with university management not with students. The students of today are our colleagues of tomorrow and we are fighting for their working conditions as much as ours.

Your dd has probably crossed a picket line lots when she went to school and didn't even notice, other than certain teachers being absent. Sorry YABU.

She isn't crossing the picket line because she isn't a Union member strike breaking. The strikers work there, they're not suddenly going to start intimidating and jeering at the students. They've got no issue with the students, they wouldn't gave jobs at all if it weren't for the students.

Their issue is with managment/the government.