University strikes before Christmas?

[dreamingbohemian]

Hi everyone,

Apparently UCU will be balloting next month on having another round of strikes, starting in the run-up to Christmas, so disrupting end of term, and then continuing into next term.

Just wondering how people on here are feeling about it? I am very much against it, but willing to hear the arguments for it.

I'm not in UCU so won't be voting but all of us will have to decide about crossing picket lines, respecting boycotts etc., and I'm feeling very unsure about all that. Would appreciate any views.

Strikes are fine (well they're not, but people have the right to strike) but picket lines are wrong. Nobody should feel intimidated about going into work when colleagues are on strike. If you are on strike, stay at home or join a protest away from the main entrance to your workplace. It's a personal decision whether to support a strike or not, and yes I know it's a rule of being a union member but ultimately you do what's right for you.

I do think going on strike now is a particularly nasty thing to do though. Oh we're just getting back to some sort of normal on university campuses so lets go on strike and mess everything up again. It is very cynical.

This would be a PR disaster. The only people getting sympathy would be the students, especially third years: they had strikes and lockdown in their first year; ongoing Covid measures in their second; now possibly strikes in third year too. Don’t do it to them. This would really make student fees even worse value than they already are.

That's brilliant @KaycePollard

That's exactly what I mean, be creative and target the administration, not the students

I do think a 'work to rule' regarding admin would be more satisfying and effective.

I'm not in favour of striking, especially as UCU is incapable of clearly defining the actual issue it's striking about (I'll come back to this), but working to rule isn't very effective. If academics only do the work they're paid for, the university says they're not fulfilling their professional role and docks their pay. So we are required to do unpaid work to be paid, if you see what I mean.

Regarding UCU, it is very difficult to support the union's strike calls on the basis of recent history. It always lists multiple grievances for a single strike, some of which will attract sympathy, but settles on a compromise on one of them (usually not one that would attract sympathy). So last time they wanted universities to oppose planned pension changes, reduce reliance on hourly-paid teaching staff (who aren't paid properly for preparing teaching materials, which often takes more time than delivering the teaching), and increase academic salaries. When they were offered more money, which was the least legitimate grievance, they settled and forgot all about the hourly-paid staff and pensions. Now they are agitating about all of the same issues again.

There is no solution to the pension issue. The pension scheme (University Superannuation Scheme, USS) has massive liabilities. Because very large numbers of UCU members will either retire or be made redundant over the next few years, or just lose their jobs when some universities inevitably go bankrupt, there will be increased commitments and decreased contributions. As all defined-benefit pensions are pyramid schemes, and can only pay out as long as members are paying in, there is a real risk the whole system will collapse unless USS maintains a huge surplus, which UCU is saying it shouldn't do. On the other hand, UCU makes the valid point that if contributions increase too much and benefits deteriorate too much then new academics will stop joining the scheme and it will collapse anyway.

Have left UCU over the way they've treated GC members

Sorry, what are GC members?

GC = gender critical.