We want to start by saying none of us want to go on strike. That might sound like a ridiculous thing to say at the beginning of what could be a very significant round of industrial action in higher education, but we hope you’ll bear with us as we explain; what this means, what we’re fighting for and how it’s come to this. This is a very brief one page explainer.
You’ve probably seen on the news, or in the socials that UCU – the University College Union, the national trade union for teaching staff (including LJMU) – recently had a massive YES result in a ballot on industrial action. 81% of lecturers across the country voted YES to strike action and 87% voted YES to action of some kind. This is obviously a HUGE result – enough to make a prime minister jealous! This means that all across the country every member of UCU at every university will be on strike and not working for the following three days: Thursday 24th November and Friday 25th November and the following Wednesday 30th November.
Not every member of your teaching staff is a member of the union, but UCU has over 70,000 members in the Higher education and this action involves around 147 institutions. This means that some lectures, seminars, tutorials and other things scheduled on any of these days may not happen. If a member of your teaching staff goes on strike then they won’t be in attendance at LJMU that day Instead you are much more likely to see them on a picket line outside the university campus along with UCU members from LJMU and other trade unions who will be showing solidarity with us.
Here’s the tricky bit… Whenever a university goes on strike, its senior management loves to put pressure on staff to tell them in advance that they won’t be coming into work. Honestly, this is pretty sketchy (all trade union membership is confidential to prevent employer discrimination) as it means that employers can then do loads of things to find cover staff and reschedule things to minimise student disruption. In effect saying to staff “we don’t care if you strike”. Not only is this incredibly sleazy, but it also reduces the impact of the strikes. So, although it kills us to do so, most UCU members don’t inform students in advance about their attendance that day. We hope you know that this gives us heaps of anxiety because we LOVE our students and we know how disruptive this can be for you. And we won’t be rescheduling our lectures or providing PowerPoints or recordings for those lectures on Canvas.
But it has to mean something when we withdraw our labour. It’s the last thing we ever want to do and is literally the last thing we have in our bag when it comes to negotiating with our employers.
We’re in this position because we’re broken. For years, employers have forced more and more work on teaching staff, knowing that we care about the student experience as much as students do. We want the best for you, and that’s been exploited by asking every employee to do the work of two people, then three, then four… We’re at breaking point and don’t have the time and resources to give you the teaching you deserve. On top of this we haven’t had a real pay rise since 2009. For 13 years, which in reality is a 25% Pay Cut. So brilliant staff are burning out and leaving the sector, or having no other choice but to take other jobs.
We’re also struggling with huge discrepancies in the gender, disability and race pay gaps that we have been asking employers to address since time immemorial and have demanded meaningful action on as part of this industrial action. So, although the strike dates are locked into the calendar, we’re hoping that the employers will come back to the negotiating table before then. The ball is in their court and they know it.
If you feel that strikes are disrupting your learning we encourage you to tell senior management (the heads of your school and the vice chancellor) about it. Decades of unfair treatment of staff across the sector have resulted in this and they refuse to acknowledge it. It’s worth remembering that our working conditions are your learning conditions.
How can you support us?
We hope that you’ll support your lecturers and our demands for fair and equitable pay, and manageable workloads. We hope you’ll show your solidarity with us by refusing to cross picket lines, joining and protesting with us on our picket lines, and sharing your support on the socials (we’re on Twitter @LJMUUCU). We’re planning a banner/placard making workshop, teach-outs (teaching sessions that take place on the picket line outside the usual university structures and are usually related to education and social justice) and other stuff so look out for these in future comms. It would mean so much if we knew you supported us.
You can email us at LJMUCU@gmail.com
Written with love, anxiety and honesty,
Your lecturers, and course leaders and all members of UCU at LJMU
ljmucu.wordpress.com 