University workers strike for jobs and education

A picket line of university workers at Durham University on strike on Monday

University workers took to the picket lines this week in defence of jobs and education. At Birmingham City University, members of the UCU union took action on Thursday against management’s reckless restructure plan.

At Sheffield on Wednesday, over 300 striking university workers and students joined a rally after their morning picket lines. The following day UCU members at Newcastle and Durham universities came together for a joint protest against jobs cuts at Durham.

At Cardiff University, a planned strike day was called off for talks with management. The UCU said it was a “glimmer of hope” but they are “not celebrating yet”.

Birmingham City University branch chair Rhiannon Lockley told Socialist Worker, “We are on strike in defence of jobs. There has been no guarantee that we won’t have redundancies. And there is an attempt to introduce performance targets without negotiation. We want Birmingham City University to give its staff the professional respect we think they deserve.”

Boss David Mba has caused outrage by suggesting staff who don’t agree with the restructure plan could apply for redundancy.

Rhiannon said, “At other universities they are saying they are making cuts for financial reasons—although there is an argument that those are ideological. Here there is no attempt to say there are any financial reasons. They want a workforce that doesn’t show dissent and doesn’t challenge leadership.”

Strikers explained that they have seen student numbers rise. A department that was designed to take 70 new students each year now has up to 300. The university lowered the entrance requirements for their degrees to bring more students and rake in the cash from tuition fees.

Students struggled to achieve the grades they were promised, especially those who had to work full time to cover their costs. Educators were expected to do an impossible task—delivering top student satisfaction results so the university could climb the league tables.

Workers said they felt under pressure to “dumb down” their teaching so more students could pass. They worry that their job security is linked to targets for student results that are outside their control.

UCU member Simon said, “We are told to deliver and if we don’t, we don’t care enough or are not good enough. We are told if you don’t agree, just leave.”

Tom said workers are “jumping through hoops” to deliver the best teaching. “But the more students they recruit, the less time we have for them. Us striking is actually us fighting for student experience.”

Ruth agreed. She said, “We have seen the quality of education decline because of the need for more resources. They are trying to pit us against students. They are trying to say we don’t care about students.

“But everyone feels very strongly about giving students a good opportunity. We have had a lot of support from students. We ran out of stickers to give them.”

The strikers held a rally with speakers from other unions in the city and the Brum Rise Up anti-cuts campaign.

UCU vice president Maria Chondragianni said “there is a crisis in higher education—a crisis that the Labour government seems to ignore. Because the funding system in higher education has failed.

She said, “We do not accept the hostile environment for international students. We do not accept the hostile environment for our international colleagues. And certainly we do not accept the hostile environment for trans+ people.”

UCU member Brian called for the strikers to support the Birmingham refuse workers who are taking indefinite action. He said everyone should join a mass picket on 9 May.

“We’ve had this nonsense from the council saying they have to make cuts. They have picked on an essential group of workers who we all applauded during the Covid pandemic.

“They want to ‘restructure’ them too. The Labour government and Labour council are doing their best to defeat this group of workers. We have to take sides. It’s not enough that we simply say we support the bin workers. They need wider support. It’s up to us to try to get down there.”

Rhiannon said, “There are the same causes behind the bin strike and what is happening at BCU. We have a government that isn’t doing its job and isn’t funding local authorities or universities.

“The Labour Party could invest instead of doing austerity mark 2. They are supposed to be the party for workers. They could get rid of the broken funding model.”