UCU strikes 2021–2022: A guide for the perplexed
Q1. What is a strike?
A strike is when, as a result of unacceptable working conditions, members of a trade union collectively refuse to work.
Q2. So a strike is a protest?
No: Strikes share features of protests (people stand outside in the cold with placards a lot, sometimes there are rallies with speeches, etc) BUT the key feature of a strike is the refusal of workers to perform labour for their employer. If a worker refuses to do work for their employer for the period of the strike then they are on strike, even if they are nowhere near the picket line.
Q3. Wait, what is a picket line?
Workers who are on strike often gather outside the entrance of their place of work. This makes the strike more visible to people who might not know what’s happening and puts pressure on the employers to negotiate.
Q4. Do you get paid when you’re on strike?
No: striking workers lose a day’s pay for every day they are on strike. As you can imagine, going on strike results in hardship for many staff.
Q5. This seems drastic. Is this wise/legal?
Strike action is always a last resort. It only happens when: a) negotiations between the union and the employers have reached a standstill and the working conditions are still unacceptable; b) the union has balloted all its members and a majority have voted in favour of strike action on at least a 50% turnout; c) the employers have still not made any concessions in between the ballot period and the beginning of the strike. When these conditions are met, striking workers are protected from disciplinary action (though there is no ‘right to strike’ in the UK).
Strike action does force employers back into negotiations. It is often the only means by which working conditions can be protected. The only reason that University staff still have any ‘defined benefit’ pensions at all, for example, is because strike action prevented employers from removing them entirely.
Q6. What are these unacceptable working conditions you speak of?
I’m glad you asked, perplexed-yet-attentive reader currently residing in my imagination!
1. A significant number of university staff are on precarious (i.e. short-term and even zero-hours) contracts. UCU has made specific demands to employers regarding an end to these exploitative practices which make staff miserable.
3. Pay has fallen in real terms for staff over the last 10–20 years.
4. Meanwhile, workloads have gone up and in some cases are having severe impacts on mental health.
5. Employers are planning to cut university pensions by about 40% — for no reason.
It’s important to note that an individual staff member you speak to might feel that their own working conditions are OK yet will be on strike: that’s because a strike is a collective action: the union as a whole works to protect the working conditions of all staff working in Universities — and especially those who are most exploited.
Q7. What’s going to happen?
During the strikes, lectures, seminars, classes and demonstrations organised by your faculties may be cancelled. Libraries, IT support, and other services may be running at a reduced capacity. This will cause disruption for students on strike dates. Disruption can also be expected on days preceding and following the strike as a result of work not being done on strike dates.
University management will put out a press release saying that the disruption is minimal. They will make creative use of statistics to imply that only a teeny-tiny minority of hardened troublemakers are involved. Incidentally, this is exactly what they’d do if they just didn’t want to admit that they were being completely unreasonable.
The Principal/Vice Chancellor of your university will claim that their hands are tied, and there’s nothing they can do because the dispute is so big and national and complicated. They will also argue that their six-figure salary is entirely justified because they can run a university like no-one else can. I’m just going to leave that one there.
Q8. Why now? Students have already had so much disruption because of COVID.
This is not a sudden decision. University staff were in dispute with employers at the beginning of this pandemic. And in 2018. And before that, and before that. We remain in dispute because our employers continue to use exploitative casual contracts. We remain in dispute because workloads remain unmanageable (especially in the last two years) and pay continues to shrink in real terms. We remain in dispute because no action has been taken on gender, ethnicity, or disability pay gaps. We remain in dispute because our employers continue to insist that massive cuts to our pensions are necessary when even the Financial Times (not exactly a bastion of anti-capitalist thought) agrees that they are not.
A few folk will imply that universities have been ‘closed’ for the last two years. If you’re a student, you’ll know that this is simply not true. You’ll know that staff have been working harder than ever throughout this ongoing pandemic.
Nobody on strike wants the students to suffer. We are only on strike because the employers are refusing to budge (see Q5) and the only negotiating tool we have left is a withdrawal of labour. It does affect the students, but it affects the staff too (see Q4 of this very blog post) and, most importantly, it affects the employers who rely on our labour.
Worsening conditions in higher education affect us all. Staff working conditions are your learning conditions. Insecure employment, intolerable workloads, unequal pay, and uncertain futures — all these threaten the future of higher education. The union is fighting back on behalf of students and staff alike, to build a better and fairer university for everyone.
Q9. But why now? I’m at St Andrews and some of thse strike days are during a vacation.
UCU represents university and college staff all over the UK. The timing of this action hasn’t coincided with teaching for all universities. (There are various constraints on timing: a postal ballot has to be conducted, then two weeks’ notice must be given, etc etc)
If you’re at St Andrews then, sure, some strike days won’t affect your teaching. It’s worth noting at this point that not everybody who is on strike is teaching staff. You’ll still see the effects of the strike if you want to access the library on strike days. Or if you need help from IT services. Or the careers office. Or if you’re planning to graduate.
The effects will also be felt beyond the strike period, because a university is a machine running at full pelt all the time. No-one has time to spare. If you stop working for some days, there will be stuff that just doesn’t get done. The effect of missing deadlines in early December might not be felt until January or even June (because deadlines are often arbitrary and stupid — there, I said it), but they are missed all the same.
Q10. Should I cross the picket line/go to class?
You are legally entitled to cross the picket line and/or go to class (if indeed classes are happening). Astute readers will have noticed that this does not say whether or not you ‘should’.
The people on the picket line (including me) will be hugely grateful to you if you don’t cross the picket line and they will welcome you warmly if you visit them to show solidarity. The National Union of Students supports the strike.
If you are on a Tier 4 visa, your university might send you worrying emails about ‘unauthorised absences’ affecting your right to stay in the UK. If I were feeling cynical, I might argue that these emails are designed to scare you into opposing the strike.
If your lecture is cancelled because of strike action, then your non-attendance at that lecture is not an unauthorised absence. So, no need to worry there.
If, in order to support the strike, you refuse to attend a lecture given by a non-striking lecturer, this could be treated as an ‘unauthorised’ absence. Universities, however, are only obliged to report a student for non-attendence after ten consecutive unauthorised absences. (See point 3 onwards of this document.) So you can miss 9 classes before this becomes an issue.
Q11. I want to support the strike. What can I do?
Brilliant! You can do any or all of these:
a) Find out if your Vice Chancellor supports the Union’s demands for fairer working conditions. If not, write to them and ask them why not.
b) See if striking staff are organising activities that you’d like to join. These might be in-person or online. The most popular of these are teach-outs, where striking staff give a talk or lead a workshop on a topic not necessarily on the curriculum.
c) Spread the word, any way you can. Don’t forget that news outlets referring to this as a ‘lecturer’s strike’ are wrong — it is all university staff who are part of UCU who are on strike! Here are some posters.
d) Visit the pickets in-person if it’s safe for you to do so. Bring a placard, take a picture, post it on social media.
e) Look out for your local ‘Students supporting the strike’ Facebook group or union branch Twitter account to keep up with the news.
[NOTE: This is a re-working of a pre-COVID explainer. We are still in the same disputes. Some of the text in this blog post is heavily inspired (with permission) by this poster made by Heriot-Watt UCU.]
