Back to reality + ASOS

After eight days of strike action, UCU members and supporters were back to work today. It was a day of mixed feelings.

 Firstly, we are still high on yesterday's joint action with IWGB, culminating in a march and rally:

(From @LionelOpenshaw)

Sometimes you just need to get your chant on!

Our hearts are also still glowing from all the support we saw from our students during the strike. You joined us at Strike School, you donated food and hot drinks to picketers, and you came to chat with us on the picket lines. We can't thank you enough!

We're also heartened that the universities are making some (barely perceptible) moves towards listening to us. They have agreed to talk about some of the issues, and we hope that these talks will be fruitful.

The bad news is that no measurable progress has been made towards ending casualisation, pay inequality, unsustainable workloads, and falling pay, and UUK seems to be moving ahead with their plans to increase our pension costs, with the likely result of putting the whole scheme at risk.

This means that our fight is not over. Now that the strike action is over, UCU are asking their members to engage in ASOS - no, not that ASOS! We mean Action Short of a Strike. A large component of ASOS is working to rule, also known as working to contract. This means following our contracts to the letter, but not undertaking any additional duties that fall outside our contracts. This might include not working for more hours than we are being paid for (the average lecturer works around 20 unpaid hours a week), not attending meetings where our attendance is voluntary, and not covering for colleagues who are absent or were on strike. UCU's guidance on what ASOS means for university staff can be found here. (It's worth pointing out that the questions discussed at that link give an indication of how vague and ill-defined many of our contracts are.)

During ASOS, we will continue to teach, research, complete marking, set assignments, and answer emails. But all of these tasks might take a bit longer, because we will only be doing them while we're being paid for them. Some universities, including UCL, have threatened to withhold 100% of pay for staff taking part in ASOS, which is a tacit acknowledgment that it is impossible for us to do our jobs to a satisfactory standard in the time we're being paid for.

It is also possible that further strike action will take place this academic year. This has not been decided on, and it very much depends on the actions of the employers in response to the issues we have raised. We will keep you updated here with any details as they emerge.

We will continue updating the blog from time to time, but less frequently than we did during the strike. If you have any issues you would like us to cover - any questions you'd like us to answer, any themes you'd like us to discuss, or any stories you'd like to share - please email them to us, or leave a comment.

See you in class!

Case study: Outsourcing (IWGB)

We asked strikers to tell us their personal experiences of the themes of the strike. Below, we share the story of one of our colleagues in IWGB, which represents the cleaners, security guards and porters at UCL. You can read about their dispute with UCL management in this post, and by using the tag 'iwgb'. UCU members stand together with our colleagues in IWGB - come to our joint rally today at 10:30 am on Gower Street!

I feel marginalised, disregarded, mistreated and unimportant

Sadly, my experiences of outsourcing at UCL are negative to say the least. I’ve been working at UCL for 5 and a half years and have never received occupational sick pay, no parental leave and receive low pay. I feel marginalised, disregarded, mistreated and unimportant by the management of this university. The fact that they can’t treat me equally with the same rights and respect as directly employed staff (and refuse to truly acknowledge my appalling working conditions) shows just how unworthy they think I am. When I’m late for a few minutes my pay is deducted, however when they have no break relief officers I’m expected to be patient. It has happened on several occasions when I was late for 2 or 3 minutes to work and they deducted from my pay at the end of the month. And it has happened several times when no break relief officer came for my lunch break and I worked a full 12-hour shift without a single break. However, I was told to understand and be patient when I complained! When my wife gave birth in late 2017, I needed to take 2 weeks off to help with the new-born and the time when I most needed money, that’s when I received my lowest pay. I was paid an amount that was really, laughable. £240 for two weeks!! Yet, despite such awful conditions, UCL, which is one of the richest universities around and a global institution continues to happily tolerate this type of treatment, to which I refer as ‘cooperate slavery.’

UCU + IWGB

Why are we posting so early today? Because we're just so excited! Today, UCU and IWGB are striking together, with the aim of ending outsourcing, casualisation and inequality at UCL. You can read more about IWGB's campaign using the tag 'iwgb' and at the IWGB website.

We're also up with the lark as a reminder of the hours that many colleagues in IWGB have to keep. Have you ever seen cleaners working at Chandler House? If not, that's because they're in before the building opens and after the building closes, and usually not when students are around. On the other hand, you probably don't see too many different faces on the front desk. That's because our front desk staff work long shifts with few breaks. UCL couldn't exist without these workers, and they're fighting to have that fact recognised.

It's also the last day of UCU's current strike action, so we're excited to get back to our normal lives tomorrow. We've had a wonderful time on the pickets (really!), but we're looking forward to getting back to doing what we love - research, teaching and supporting the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.

And so, to go out with a bang, IWGB and UCU are holding a joint rally today at 10:30 am at the Gower Street entrance. Bring your drums, your placards, and your dancing shoes, and join us in calling for real change at UCL and across the country. Stand together with your lecturers, security guards, cleaners and others to ask Provost Michael Arthur to start listening. The university united will never be defeated!

ANNOUNCEMENT
Weds 4Dec - Demo: Pay, Equality, Pensions, & End Outsourcing
Meet: UCL Main Gates, Gower Street, 10.30am
March to UUK offices@UCL_UCU & @iwgbucl Both on strike: ALL OUT!

JOIN US! LET'S MAKE LAST STRIKE DAY REALLY BIG ! pic.twitter.com/OxWDqAeAtV

— UCL-UCU (@UCL_UCU) December 2, 2019

Why support the strike? A student's view

We asked you to send us your stories of why you support the strike. Below we hear from one student who has seen the cost of their studies increase, while their value decreases. Remember: our working conditions are your learning conditions, so the changes we are fighting for will help students and staff alike.

Secure staff mean secure students

Early last year, in the final stretch of a BA, I came to campus early one morning to be confronted by a picket line across the main doors of my former university. Universities and Colleges Union members from across the country had voted for 14 days of strike action, to protest proposed changes to their pension by an upper management who, they felt, were aiming to shift the burden of pay from employer to employee. 

If this sounds familiar, it’s simply because it is. Fast forward a year and a half. I’m an MA student at UCL now, as well as a paid up member of UCU myself having taken a position at my former university, and there is a grim sense of deja vu about how the last few months have played out. Industrial action has been taking place in UK universities for almost two years now. And the infuriating thing is that in 2018, it worked. In April last year, Universities UK (who represent our universities) agreed to withdraw all the proposed changes, and an indepedent panel review was set up to bring the unions on board and construct a pension scheme which would satisfy all involved. But over the last year, those changes have been chipped away, bit by bit, until the dispute was back where it started. And now there are further concerns on the picket - the racial and gender inequality which has been totally unaddressed, an increasing reliance on fractional and casual work, the insane workloads.

So the question is : why should students care? It’s not our pensions, right? Well, at one point in history, universities were closer in shape to guilds. They were controlled by colleges, bodies of academics - both students and teachers and many who were both - who spent their time sharing knowledge. But that legacy has come perilously close to evaporating. Take my case. I’m a mature student; when I started school University tuition was free. When I first attended further education in 2010, it cost me £3,000 per year. The past four years have cost me £10,000 pounds each. My student debt is almost six figures once maintenance loans are factored in. Clearly, there is a hierarchy established here : as a student, I am less a member of a college now, and much more a consumer of a product. And yet, over these past years, the value of that tuition has plummeted. My previous faculty was a thriving research hub when I arrived. It has now been essentially dismantled, as it was not ‘profitable’. Less than half the staff who used to teach me remain at that university; they have left for greener pastures, for places where they can concentrate on their work rather than defending their existence. And all this has meant a total lack of morale on the part of remaining staff. I voted to strike this year. But anti-strike laws, which in Britain demand that unions reach a very high threshold of voting, have barred my workplace from taking part. People are just tired, fed up of fighting.

From my perspective, this is equal measures baffling and terrifying. On three fronts. Firstly, as a student, where is my money going? Where have they put the tens of thousands of pounds which I handed over? Secondly, as a fledgling academic, why would I want to sign up to a profession which so many seem to be fed up with? I want to work in academia because i love the subject; but if I have no time for the subject, then what is the point? And as an employee, why in hell would I want to sign up if my employers will refuse to see any value in my presence, and in fact will actively lie to meabout any kind of deeper engagement with my wellbeing?

This is why students should support the strike. Because our attendance is being slowly siphoned away from knowledge-sharing. Because the pensions and pay disputes are not distant unconcerning things. They are symptomatic of a wider lack of care in ‘the academy’ as to the value of its actual role (i.e., education and research). Our money is trickling more and more into obtuse procedural management; into shiny coffee tables and ‘open plan student mess rooms’; in short, it seems to be going into advertising. Universities in the United Kingdom are investing in politics and advertising at the cost of the product they exist to produce. They claim to address inequality and unfair pay, but do nothing of substance to address it. They are becoming far more minded with attracting profit than in producing the learning, the debate, the insight which made them world famous in the past. And at the end of the day, that means that not only are universities aiming to shift the burden of cost onto staff - they are aiming to shift it onto students as well. 

There’s only one day left of this industrial action. If you can, join the picket. But beyond this week : email the provost one more time, talk to fellow students about how these things affect us in a very direct way. Secure staff mean secure students.

What I would be doing if I weren't striking II

This is the second part in our series on how academic staff spend their time. Throughout the strike, we'll report from the frontline of unsustainable workloads. Have you ever wondered what a lecturer, a postdoc, a teaching fellow does outside of the classroom? Read on to find out...

The goal is to try and encourage equal representation on postgraduate programmes

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the teaching and research/supervision related work we are all engaged in. So I thought I would tell you about two other University-based projects I was working on over the week prior to the strike to give you a broader perspective on our roles:

I am a member of the PALS Career Development, Equality and Diversity (CDED) committee.  We meet termly and we are currently completing an Athena SWAN Award application (PALS currently has a silver and we’re looking to renew it).  I am responsible for the postgraduate teaching (PGT) section which involves data analysis and actions to improve gender equality.  PALS has 21 PGT programmes and on average these are made up of 80% females and 20% males. A few programmes diverge from this with either a more balanced representation of males and females or even lower percentages of males, but largely the programmes hover around this proportion. The goal is to try and encourage equal representation (yes, a difficult task – ideas welcome!). In addressing an action for the current submission, I have been interfacing with PGT programme directors and divisional management in proposing more inclusive PGT marketing materials across the division.  Currently PALS has 25 male videos and 13 female videos (locating these videos across the websites was a task on its own).  These efforts resulted in the commission of 34 “Meet the Researcher” videos to be made and linked to each of the PGT programme websites with an equal representation of male and female videos.  I am now at the stage of interfacing with the videographer and programme representatives to ensure a smooth completion of the project.

Another task I have been working on is establishing a BSc Experimental Linguistics strand on the BA international programme.  Many students have felt torn between choosing the BA Ling with the year abroad and the BSc with more training in experimental methods.  A BSc strand on the International Programme would more collectively satisfy some students’ needs. After the BA teaching committee informally discussed and approved the proposal going ahead, I completed a formal application. This involves interfacing with the external examiner, Study Abroad Team, and teaching support staff for input.  The next step will be putting it through to the faculty for approval.

I’m looking forward to getting back to these projects among others soon!

The university we want to work at

One thing we've been struck by over the last week is just how much fun we're having on the picket line. Sure, it's cold and wet. Yes, it's difficult when students (and occasionally staff) walk by without acknowledging us. But for the last week we have experienced the kind of university we want to work at.

We've spent our week engaging with students one-on-one, hearing about their personal experiences, their interests, their plans for the future. We've had hours to chat with colleagues about something other than how stressed and busy we all are. We've taught at our Strike School, not because we have to but because we're genuinely passionate about our research and we enjoy sharing that passion with others. What's more, we haven't had to worry about the endless admin that's now associated with teaching - taking registers on behalf of the UKBA, preparing assessments over a year in advance, worrying about how our teaching evaluations will affect future job applications... We've been listening to colleagues give talks on subjects that they're equally passionate about, and listening to our students discuss these topics intelligently and with genuine academic curiosity. We've forged new bonds with colleagues and students across the university, and experienced true collegiality, support and solidarity with the whole academic community.

This is why we decided to go into academia! So thank you all for helping to create this unique space, this vision of what universities should be, if only for these eight days. With your support, we're hoping to turn the tides of commercialisation in academia. Keep supporting the strike, keep emailing the Provost, and help make real progress in our fight for change.

Students and staff enjoy Lily Kahn's talk on the Linguistic Landscape of Greenlandic

What have unions ever done for us?

Some people who cross the picket line and choose to work during a strike do so because they don't support unions. That is, of course, their right: this is an issue that people dedicate a lot of thought to, especially when they are faced with the prospect of crossing a picket line staffed by their colleagues. It's a difficult choice to make, and no one does so lightly.

But it got us to thinking: why do we support the idea of unions? Why should anyone?

Firstly, unions fight for all workers. The rights and benefits that they win apply to everyone in the workplace, not just union members. Striking staff members are striking not just for themselves, but also for people who can't afford to strike (perhaps due to a casualised contract) and those who choose not to for other reasons.

Unions are also the only way for workers to bargain collectively with their employer. Without a union, employers would have to meet with each worker separately to try to understand how that worker feels about their job. Aside from the fact that such a situation is untenable in an institution like UCL (it has 13,360 employees!), this makes workers' concerns a lot easier to ignore, and leaves workers without much leverage to change conditions they don't like.

What kind of conditions are we talking about? Well here is a (non-exhaustive) list of some of the rights that unions have won for their workers over the years:

• weekends
• an end to child labour
• the ability to hold employers to their contracts, meaning a more equal relationship between worker and employer
• a safe workplace (that's not likely to injure you or make you sick)
• being able to negotiate as a group with the employer (known as 'collective bargaining')
• a minimum wage (in 1998 in the UK!!!)
• equal pay for equal work (e.g. for men and women doing the same job - in 1970 in the UK!)
• limits to working time, including the 40-hour work week
• paid time for holidays, including recent increases to annual leave entitlements
• lower pay inequality across the income spectrum, including in non-unionised workplaces
• employment protection rules, including rules about hiring and firing workers fairly 

If you've ever had a job (and if you didn't have a job as a child!), you've almost certainly benefitted from these rights, so go out and thank your closest union member. 

Whether you're a student or a staff member at UCL, you stand to gain from sustainable workloads at universities, an end to casualisation, an end to gender/race/disability pay gaps, an end to real-terms pay cuts, and protecting the USS pension scheme, and we're fighting for you. We're losing at least eight days of pay to make universities better places to work for everyone. So please, do what you can to support our strike: choose not to cross the picket line, write to the provost, donate to the fighting funds if you can. And come talk to us, about unions or anything else, at Strike School!

Week 2 of Strike School

We are pleased to announce the schedule for Week 2 of Strike School. We had fantastic turn-out last week, and heard some very interesting talks covering the theme of Language and Oppression from a number of angles. This week looks just as exciting, with two talks and a joint trip to the British Museum. All events start at 12:30. We look forward to seeing you there!

• Monday: 12:30 pm in the basement of the Harrison, Lily Kahn will present a talk on The Linguistic Landscape of Greenlandic.
• Tuesday: 12:30 pm in the basement of the Harrison, Sonya Yampolskaya will present a talk on The Suppression of Hebrew in the USSR.
• Wednesday: 12:30 pm, meet outside the Montague Place entrance to the British Museum for an LGBTQ object trail. The trail will take about an hour to complete and will be followed by discussion in the cafe.

Why I choose not to strike

Today we hear from someone who has made the difficult choice not to strike. Everyone who chooses not to strike has a different story, and many will have thought very hard about this decision. (For others, the choice is easy - they can't afford to strike.) This story has its roots in the history of industrial disputes in the UK, and gives an insight into how that history still affects us today.

They needed police escorts to get to work

It is a difficult decision to strike but it is equally difficult to choose to cross a picket line. Many of the issues raised in the current strike concern me greatly, but for personal reasons, I choose to continue to teach.  

I grew up in a then mining community in the East Midlands. My area is a small one - the Leicestershire & South Derbyshire coalfield, which is centred on Ashby de la Zouch, the small town which I'm from. Mining, both coal and clay, goes back to the 15th century and generations of my family, like many, made their living from it. 

In the early 20th century when my Great Grandfather Harold started work, pay and conditions were poor. Harold was a local legend - a footballer - but football didn't pay as much then so a trial and an offer from Fulham didn't come to anything as London doesn't have mines. By May 1926, the miners were on strike, along with workers from other Unions. The General Strike lasted from 3rd-12th May, but miners remained out until November before having to return to work to feed themselves and their families. However, many remained unemployed into the 1930s and those like Harold who still had jobs, were forced to accept longer hours & lower wages. 

Along with other families on the Crescent in Moira, my great grandparents lived in extreme poverty as a result; Harold and Hannah sold everything they could so that they could eat. Harold's football medals went, as did the Meccano set they had scrimped and saved to buy for my Grandad, Christopher, and his brother, Peter. They scavenged for coal on the slag heaps to be able to heat their small home. Though he passed the 11 plus, my Grandad didn't stay on at school; Hannah & Harold couldn't afford to buy the uniform. They almost certainly needed him to work to support the family. He left school at 14 and worked as a carpenter & carpet fitter. He had a talent for engineering: that Meccano set and education could have gone a long way. 

Fast forward to my childhood and the 1980s, when yet more strikes affected the mines. South Derbyshire miners voted to work but were targeted by fly-pickets. They needed police escorts to get to work. The strike's legacy was divided communities and arguably, continuing social inequality; many former mining communities are amongst the poorest in the UK. 

So I cross the picket line. My story isn't unique - there will be many who have stories like mine and who instead choose to strike. I respect that decision, but for me, for these particular issues, withdrawing teaching is something I choose not to do. I'd like to be more politically active - I'm a member of the Liberal Democrats but at the moment don't have time to actively campaign - so instead I take individual action where I can to support meaningful political dialogue and access to education, particularly in the Arts. 

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You can find out more about the fly pickets at Rawdon Colliery, Moira, and what it was like to cross the picket line: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-miners-strike-in-south-derbyshire-1984-online