University and College Union (UCU) picket line at Northumbria University (Photo: UCU on X)
UCU union members at Northumbria University in Newcastle took to the picket lines on Monday and Tuesday last week in a battle over pay and pensions.
This week they were set to strike on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. There was set to be a national rally on Wednesday.
At the University of Essex, workers have struck for 16 days so far this year.
They voted in a packed branch meeting to strike again as early as next month.
Bosses caused outrage by sending an email to dozens of people, assuring them their jobs were safe and then three days later saying this was a mistake.
The UCU at Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh was one of four Scottish university branches that struck last week. Strikes at Heriot-Watt continue on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week and Monday to Wednesday next week.
They will be joined University of Edinburgh workers who announced a week of strikes starting on Monday 30 March.
UCU members at London Metropolitan University have voted to strike and are planning protests.
Welding and fabrication lecturers at City of Glasgow college walked out at the end of last week over safety concerns.
They are set to continue striking this Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and Monday to Thursday next week.
The EIS-FELA union members say that they are at risk of being exposed to cancer causing fumes from welding.
The strikers are asking bosses to provide more protective equipment, update the risk assessment and update the training they provide to the lecturers.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, 400 Unite union members at Strathclyde university walked out for seven days over threatened redundancies.
In December, it was revealed that the university is set to slash 76 full time posts, as a result of a £35 million funding gap.
Unite has condemned the university’s failure to consult unions over the planned cuts to jobs.
Over 100 staff and students protested at Glasgow Caledonian University last Thursday in opposition to the Targeted Voluntary Redundancy scheme.
Hidden in a “welcome to GCU” email, staff were informed of a potential axing of up to 100 jobs primarily focusing on the areas that were most affected by the reduction in international student income.
GCU bosses claim that redundancies are the only option, despite making a surplus of £12 million last year. They have repeatedly ignored alternative budget saving proposals created by workers that don’t include redundancies.
Psychology faces the most intense purges, with just under 50 percent of staff facing job losses. Other departments are being reduced and then merged.
GCU already has the second worst staff to student ratio in Britain. The proposed cuts will harm workers and students alike.
Elias Boyne, Glasgow
Workers at the University of Sheffield International College (Usic) are taking action over pay and conditions.
The UCU members are on strike this Tuesday and Thursday and Monday and Wednesday next week.
Workers at the private sector educator, part of Study Group, expected a pay rise six months ago.
Last week they were finally told that there would be no pay uplift—the second year in a row they have been offered zero percent.
Bosses are also planning restructures and redundancies, which the UCU branch was able to fight off last year.
Bosses are also giving wrong information to students, who have been told that they can’t have compensation because their missed teaching will be rescheduled. But the striking workers won’t—and shouldn’t—offer to reschedule the work.
Unison union members at Soas university in London were set to strike this Tuesday and Wednesday in response to an insulting 1.4 percent pay award.
This falls far short of the rising cost of living.
University workers have had 17 years of below inflation pay offers. Workers include cleaners, administrators and library workers.
They are standing up not only for fair pay but for dignity and respect.
Workers across the higher education sector should support their strike against the normalisation of declining pay.
Some 50 UCU union members attended the annual “Cradle to Grave” conference last Saturday to discuss the future of
post-16 education.
The first session of the morning was on the Post-16 Education White Paper, introduced by James Robson from the University of Oxford.
James said that the White Paper belatedly recognises that the market system, that has dominated higher education for the past 15 years, is reaching its limits. However, it contains within it no practical steps to move away from a fee-based funding model.
Instead it prioritises the interests of “employers”—overwhelmingly multinational corporations.
While the UCU is preparing to submit its response to the White Paper, it is yet to organise member meetings to develop its response. And in the absence of such a campaign, it is easy for members to become despondent.
But UCU members have been striking to defend universities. Last week four Scottish branches took coordinated action to make the point that this is a generalised crisis and the Scottish Government should intervene.
This was followed up by a session on defending education in the context of generative artificial intelligence. It introduced the UCU’s new 10 Principles for Use of AI.
One member in further education described how their college was encouraging students to use AI to help them write essays—workers were then encouraged to use AI to grade them.
Simply “embedding” AI tools in education risks discrediting it in the eyes of students, parents, education workers and the wider public.
Yet when two very large and wealthy universities, Oxford and Manchester, are promoting the use of AI to their students, other education establishments will start to copy them—fearful that otherwise they will miss out.
The third and final session of the conference was concerned with defending academic freedom and challenging the rise of the far right. Several speakers from the floor talked about the importance of the Together alliance demonstration on 28 March.
Sean Wallis
TAs have been striking over pay for nearly a year
Workers want to shut the South Kensington site if they don’t get a deal
Unite union rep speaks on deal
The whole trade union movement must rally behind the strikers
