To think that the striking lecturers are hurting the wrong people?

[StrikeStrikeStrike]

So this morning I turned up to an important Lab, a Lab which is integral to an assessment. After a 30 minute wait it was confirmed the Lecturer was on strike and we were asked to leave.

While I understand the reasons for the strike, I can't help but feel angry. I understand they want to cause maximum disruption but a heads up would've been nice (fellow students on other courses have been given advance notice).

I am expected to go into University tomorrow for the second part of this Lab which forms part of our assessment. I'm expected to go in even though the chances of this Lecturer being on strike again are high. However, the department will not confirm the Lab as cancelled until 15 minutes after the start time.

Some of my fellow course members are choosing to stay home as they don't want the hassle of walking through the snow to a (probably non-existent) 9am Lab. Others are planning to attend anyway on principle.

I am unsure. I'm not sure I want to take the risk of not turning up if the Lab goes ahead. It is part of our assessment.

But, for me attending a 9am Lab means getting up at 6:30, getting the kids ready for school, all of us leaving the house by 7:15, catching a train (which cost £10), and finally a 30 minute walk. And tomorrow I could potentially be doing all that in the snow. Would you go?

AIBU to ask for a partial refund of my fees? The University are withholding the pay of staff who strike. Why should they (the University) profit?

People on strike do not have to give notice of their being on strike, it is for management to check who's in, etc.

AIBU to ask for a partial refund of my fees? The University are withholding the pay of staff who strike. Why should they (the University) profit?

Yes, please do that.

Do try and get your fees back from the university- putting financial pressure on the unis will hopefully end the strike sooner.

I agree it would be nice if UCU members could somehow strike or work to rule in a way that doesn't hurt students. But they can't. And they have to think of the big picture- so they might be hurting one cohort of students, but if their pensions are gutted, that will hurt UK higher education longer term (and hurt many more students).

WRT the lab, could you email the person who should be running it, and politely outline your circumstances, and ask for them to advise you? They don't have to, but they might be more willing to tell you they are striking than their line manager. If they don't respond, I guess you will have to go in though.

Complain to your university senior management. Talk to the Student Union about what their plans are for supprting students and staff.

You may be inconvenienced, but your lecturers are in very real danger of losing half of their pension. That’s not enough to live on.

Complain loudly, but not at the expense of an individual lecturer, but at the system that has pushed people who would rather not strike to this.

If your university has any morals, they should be donating all witheld pay to the strike fund and/or student hardship fund (my university does both). Do ask them about this. You’re right - they should not profit.

When I've been on strike the uni didn't profit as they donated the pay to the student hardship fund. That aside, the purpose if the strike IS to cause disruption and ir's unfortunate you've been affected. Trust me, no-one that goes on strike does it for shits and giggles or to hurt students, customers but there has to be an impact on services...and asking for a fee reduction demonstrates this beautifully!

My OU tutor contacted their tutor group to advise not to attend lectures on strike days as they would not be running them, although said that some other lecturers might be and to contact them individually if we wanted to get onto the lecture for a different date.

I am gutted because I had to cancel attending my first one due to lack of babysitter. I also cannot find details for the tutor offering the same lecture at a time and location I can attend.

I am frustrated. But I have not lost out financially as a result of attending something so I would definitely pursue reimbursement from the uni if I were you.

Mini ask your tutor for the contact details of the other tutor. I'm a tutor, we usually know each other and if not can find contact details easily.

My understanding is they are striking over a change from a final salary to a defined contribution pension scheme. I don’t see the problem. In the private sector there are almost zero (it may now be zero) open final salary schemes . These pension schemes are an unaffordable relic. For younger members, with 40+ years of investment returns ahead, they might actually be better off in DC. I can’t find out what they’re wanting instead? No change at all? The fund is £6bn in deficit so something unpopular is going to have to happen.

You are entirely wrong and ill-informed Hermione. We don't have a final salary scheme - that was ended years ago when they assured us this was the only change needed. And the USS scheme is not in deficit either - it's all projected on an imagined future in which all 61 institutions go bust at the same time - ie not going to happen. Staff costs have reduced as a percentage of spending in the last 10 years, and these pensions are eminently affordable. Not least, there appear to have been significant irregularities in the procedure by which UUK decided to push for altering our pensions in this manner.

All we want is a secure and fair pension in our retirement - our pensions are deferred wages and this is a wage grab.

HermioneWeasley
USS is not final salary, but is defined benefit. The valuation that says that USS is in deficit is based on questionable methodology and this is what the union is arguing about. University employers want to get rid of the DB scheme so they can borrow money more cheaply to build things that will not benefit students, but which they think will attract them.

Hermione - we’re striking because of a move from defined benefit to defined contribution. Final salary went a good few years ago....
Essentially we’re looking at about a halfing of our pensions, and continued increased contributions. The fund and system were revised in around 2011, to higher contributions, and no final salary.
It’s reported that the fund is £6b in deficit, but that’s predicated on the fact that all universities go bust on the same day.....
The half decent pension was always supposed to be a balance for a career average lower salary than almost all of us would get in private sector roles. We do this because it matters - to us, to students, and society.... we need teachers, doctors, scientists, nurses, engineers, IT developers, psychologists, etc etc etc.....

This isn’t a race to the bottom. Don’t you want good people influencing and nurturing the next generation? Because if this change comes off, a lot of us won’t stay in the sector. :(

Hermione, your understanding is wrong.

Final salary for died a death a while ago. This is about defined benefit - a minimum pension income being guaranteed (no longer tied to final salary, tied to contributions made over career) being removed, and replaced with something less certain, tied instead to the stock market, which means that pensions are at the mercy of the markets - there is no certainty, and we have no ability to plan ahead.

OP, unfortunately we have no other way of trying to get university management to take notice. It is their refusal to consider anything other than their extreme proposals that are hurting you. We want to negotiate. We want to be in work. We are not willing to see our pensions dismantled without a fight.

Well done to all the lecturers and professional Services staff standing up for retention of defined benefits. Please do ask for a partial refund OP, email the vc's office and point out that your assessment opportunity has been affected and that you call for the University to stand up with uuk for their staff, as a number of vcs have now done.
And well done to HermioneWeasley for swallowing the Telegraph/Mail perspective hook line and sinker. Horrid old teaching staff selfishly wanting a (non existent) old fashioned pension that no one else has, and depriving the poor wee students of their God given right to an Education. How very dare they wish not to lose out on a pension they've paid into in good faith, considering that the valuation is insane.

I sympathise, it must be very frustrating - but strikes only work if they are inconvenient and cause trouble

YABU to blame the lecturers, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to write to management and request a partial fee refund. In fact it would be helpful, please do.

The fund is £6bn in deficit so something unpopular is going to have to happen.

According to USS the scheme is £6bn in deficit. Alternative valuations, using different actuarial assumptions, are available .....

OP, unfortunately we have no other way of trying to get university management to take notice. It is their refusal to consider anything other than their extreme proposals that are hurting you. We want to negotiate. We want to be in work. We are not willing to see our pensions dismantled without a fight.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

Oh, and ..... hi from the pickets lines of the Republic of South Youkshire, somewhere in the Frozen North

Here we are

I worked in university admin during a big strike.

The responses of the academics were very varied. Some were very open about the fact they were striking and informed their students in advance.

Others were very secretive - I guess because legally they don't have to say anything, but it does make life harder.

Some of them were a fricking nightmare and wouldn't even say after the event which made it very hard to work out pay deductions etc.

South Yorkshire

We don't operate a USS scheme at our university so no striking here.

We use Teachers' Pension Scheme (DB) which has a number of protected Final Salary members and the rest are now Career Average.

However, i'm not eligible to join the TPS as i am not an academic so i 'just' get a DC scheme pension.

DB schemes cost a lot of money!!

I object to the ones picketing near the hospital I was at with Dd which is right beside a school. A picketer had a sign saying ‘sex workers support us’ and a drawing of a woman’s face and naked breasts.

Defined benefit is still much better than the vast, vast majority in the private sector get. So I can't get too excited about the cause.

I do defend the right to strike. However, I suspect people have to face up to the fact that we just can't afford these very generous public sector pensions.

What do the alternative fund valuations conclude about the deficit?