What I would be doing if I weren't striking

This is the third 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...

As I drift off, I dread the even bigger backlog of unanswered email that will greet me tomorrow morning. 

It is Wednesday morning. After getting up and making breakfast for the kids, I hop on my bike and reach Tavistock Place at 8:30. Time to grab a cup of coffee and look at my email inbox. There is a big backlog of unanswered emails - it won't grow shorter today. I do answer a few urgent queries, respond to the moodle forum questions from students, promise to write three letters of recommendation by the end of reading week, then leave the coffee shop for Chandler House. 

At 9am, the tutorial for my class begins. I don't know this group particularly well, so the tutorial requires a lot of thinking on my feet: I have to adapt the material to the level of the students. I have to be nimble, but I enjoy it. At 10:55 the tutorial is over. 

Now it is 11:00 and I am teaching a small group session for advanced MA students. A student is presenting a paper and I try to figure out how to help them break down the author's and their own argumentation better. How do I explain what the relation between a (superficial) counterexample and a (solid) counterargument is? I don't feel I am getting through, but this time I am not nimble enough to change tack. The session is over at 12. Though I never got through to the student presenting, I think some of the other students got something out of it. At least I hope so. 

A number of new emails have come in, some with material that is relevant for the departmental committee meeting that I am charing at 1pm. I read these emails and summarise the content in preparation of the meeting. Why didn't I get this information earlier? Then I rush around the corner to get a falafel just before my meeting. 

The meeting runs until 2:15, which is quite quick given the long agenda. I can't linger to chat with colleagues, because I needed to be at the central campus for the next meeting at 2pm. I won't make it until 2:30.  At lesat, I don't have to chair this one. The second committee meeting ends at 3:30.  

I return to Chandler House. I had promised a PhD student feedback on a draft chapter. The draft is 45 pages long. I read it and comment on content and writing. It is now 5pm. I organise a Skype meeting with a colleague for next week to work on a paper draft and an in person meeting with another colleague to do some research-related brainstorming together. 

It would have been nice at this point to read some research papers from my long to-read list, to think about one of the half-finished papers, or to clear my head and write, but I have to go pick up my kids and make dinner. I only manage to do a bit of reading when the kids are in bed. At that time, my brain is not at its best. As I drift off, I dread the even bigger backlog of unanswered email that will greet me tomorrow morning. 

Case Study: Gender Pay Gap

We asked strikers to tell us about their personal experiences of how the themes of the strike have affected them. Below we hear from someone who has first-hand experience of the gender pay gap. According to UCL's published statistics, the gender pay gap at UCL amounts to 15.9%. The main reason for the discrepancy is that women make up more than half of the work force in lower paid jobs. This trend reverses for higher paid jobs (Associate Professor and above) where men all of a sudden dominate.

The comparison between my own and my wife's pay check always leaves me gasping.

My wife and I graduated with a Ph.D. in the same field, from the same university, and in the same year.  When our first child was born, we each took the same amount of parental leave. A decade after we had graduated from university, the difference in our career progression was stark. I had been in permanent employment for several years and had been promoted to Reader. My wife had just managed to move from precarious temporary employment to a beginning permanent lecturer position (at a university other than UCL).

When our second child was born, the difference between our incomes was so big, we couldn't afford to split parental leave: we needed my income and couldn't have gotten by on hers. Over the years, the situation has not changed substantially and the pay gap between us remains stubbornly at about 25% despite the fact that we have the same qualification from the same university with the same year of graduation and have been comparably active in terms of publications.

The gender pay gap at UK universities is real, it is shockingly high, and it is time the universities addressed it by giving the same opportunities of career advancement to men and to women.

Strike - Spring 2020 - where we stand

Echoing something we said in the fall: We were hoping it wouldn't come this - but here we are. The University and College Union has called 14 days of strikes at 74 universities across the United Kingdom. That's up from 59 universities in the fall. You can read more about what this means for you, and how to support us elsewhere on the blog.

We are back fighting over the same four issues that were already at the heart of the strike in the fall:

• Pensions
• Pay
• Pay equality
• Working conditions and casualization

You can read about the issues on the blog here. Unfortunately, the employers' organisations have virtually not shifted their position on these issues. Despite the threat of strikes and in the knowledge of the disruption that strikes would bring to your education, the universities have refused to make a new offer to the union over pay and pensions. As a result, we are still faced with a pay offer below inflation - a de facto pay cut. We are still faced with a detrimental deal on our pensions. We are still faced with pay inequality for gender and race, with casualisation and worsening working conditions. 

Unless the universities shift their position quickly, this means that UCL will be on strike on the following dates:

• Monday Feb 24 to Wednesday Feb 26
• Monday March 2 to Thursday March 5
• Monday March 9 to Friday March 13
• Thursday March 19 to Friday March 20

We hope that you will support the strike, our cause, and that you will email the provost to record your support and your annoyance at the disruption to your education. You can use the union's template here. 

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.