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Student Solidarity

Information about the forthcoming industrial action on 1 - 3 December 2021, plus what you can do

Dear students

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) – the trade union for university staff – have voted for industrial action in the form of strikes and ‘action short of strike’ (ASOS).

Staff are acutely aware that students will feel the quality of your education may be unfairly impacted by this action, but we urge you to be angry at the intransigent stance of university provosts and chancellors across the country for pushing UCU members into this last resort strategy.

We're taking action for our colleagues in the sector today, for grads and postdocs coming into higher education, and for students' learning conditions into the future.

University academic and support staff have faced over a 20% cut in pay in real terms over the past 12 years. Last year we were awarded a 0% pay increase and this year saw an increase of only 1.5% against a much higher level of inflation – a 6% increase in the retail price index (RPI) (Office for National Statistics, published 17 November 2021).

The marketisation of university education is unsustainable and promotes discrimination and social injustice.The use of casual contracts erodes the rights, protections and security that should be afforded to us all and makes it much more difficult for staff to challenge employers about key workplace issues in case they have their contracts terminated.

After the hospitality industry, higher and further education institutions in the UK have the largest proportion of insecure, casualised contracts. We cannot go on like this.

At UCL, as part of the UCU national ‘Four Fights’ campaign, we are calling on management to:

  • Tackle the rising workloads driving our members to breaking point. The average working week in higher education is now above 50 hours. A UCU survey conducted in December 2020 saw 78% of respondents reporting an increased workload during the pandemic.
  • Address the scandal of the gender, ethnic, and disability pay gaps. The pay gap between Black and white staff is 17%, disability 9%, and the mean gender pay gap is 15.1% – at the current rate of change it will not be closed for another 22 years.
  • End contract casualisation and rising job insecurity.
  • Increase pay at all levels by £2,500.

So where do your expensive fees actually go? Certainly not into improving student-staff ratios or improving the educational interactions of staff and students with decent learning conditions. They go into pet projects, shiny new buildings, and six-figure salaries for an ever growing army of managers that do not teach or research, but just ‘manage’. 

Other universities have also voted to strike and take ASOS against the threat to cut our pensions (USS) by up to 35%. The attack on pensions  may well affect many students who go on to have careers in academia and professional services.

What you can do

We have already received much support from UCL students and know that you understand our predicament (despite the decision by the UCL SU sabbatical officers not to support our action). If you support us and agree that researchers, tutors, administrators, IT staff, librarians and postgraduate research students are being, and have been treated, unfairly, disrespected, and disregarded by our employers, please read and sign the petitions and use the letter below. Our teaching conditions are your learning conditions!

The UCU is a trade union of over 130,000 academics, researchers, tutors, administrators, IT staff, librarians and postgraduate research students in universities, colleges, prisons, adult education & training organisations across the UK.