This in itself tells us something about the dated nature of our instincts about both work and about universities. The refashioning of British capitalism since the 1980s has witnessed both de-industrialisation and the growing need for a technically educated workforce, both trends making universities a less unlikely front in industrial relations than they might first seem. Universities themselves are, in any case, disappointingly unlike their portrayal on Endeavour, let along Brideshead Revisited. Staffed by an increasingly casualised, not infrequently hourly-paid, academic workforce, backed up by worse paid academic related staff, all presided over by an ever weightier layer of senior management, there is little idyllic to be found here.
The current UCU dispute over pensions is important and deserves the full support of everyone in the labour movement. Not only does it represent the revival of a struggle over public sector pensions (and by extension, all pensions) which has been moribund since 2011, but the viciousness with which managements have responded to strike threats is a barometer for current thinking amongst senior HR personnel throughout the economy: in most universities affected by the strike aggressive emails have been sent out to staff; attempts have been made to trick workers into declaring beforehand that they will strike (the claim being that this information is needed to keep up pension payments), and most worryingly, several universities have - with dubious legality - asserted that they will treat failure to reschedule classes cancelled because of strikes as action short of a strike, and will dock pay accordingly. This last move is an attempt to change a withdrawal of labour into a rescheduling of labour, the only effect being that the workers in question get less pay. It is the academic equivalent of expecting a car worker who has been on strike one day to produce twice as many car components the next.
If university bosses are allowed to win through these kind of tactics, it will set a disturbing precedent. They are, however, weak and divided - today one vice-Chancellor broke ranks with Universities UK. Labour activists can be crucial in winning this struggle: pass motions at your branches, but above all make contact with your local UCU branch. Find out how you can help. Find out if the management at your local university have been using the aggressive tactics mentioned above. If so, get your Labour MP to complain directly to the vice-Chancellor, or if you don't have a Labour MP, get your CLP to do so. One victorious strike would make all the difference right now in Britain. Whether or not this strike is victorious depends on all of us.
