Class on campus: support the UCU strike

Higher Education has something of a genteel image, so that industrial militancy in universities can seem as incongruous as full frontal nudity during an episode of Songs of Praise. The suggestion that lecturers might be at the forefront of class struggle has a whiff of the Dave Spart about it. We are prone to think that pickets lines fit more naturally outside factory gates than faculty offices.

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.

Model motion in support of UCU - please put to Labour branches/ CLPs

An industrial dispute with the potential to be one of the most significant in the UK in recent years has reached a new stage. For details see here. Support throughout the Labour movement is essential.

This Branch/ CLP notes that after prolonged attempts to negotiate with Universities UK over proposed reforms to pensions, the Universities and College Union has voted to take industrial action in pre-1992 universities. This is likely to begin on 22^nd February. Central to the proposed changes is the abolition of defined benefit pensions.
 We believe:

• ·         That all workers are entitled to a decent retirement.

• ·         That defined benefit schemes are a good way to secure this.

• ·         That the attack on pensions in universities represents the latest front in an attack on public sector pensions.

• ·         That this is part of a process of levelling-down of pension provision that will have a negative impact on all workers, whether in the public or private sectors.

 We resolve:

• ·         To support UCU’s industrial action.

• ·         To liaise with the UCU branch at [LOCAL UNIVERSITY] and get details of picket lines; to inform our membership of these by email and to encourage members to turn up and support them.

• ·         To write to the vice-Chancellor at [LOCAL UNIVERSITY] expressing our support for the strike and urging the employers to negotiate reasonably with the union.

• ·         To contact [LOCAL MP/ LABOUR CANDIDATE] asking her/ him to both write to the vice-Chancellor and to communicate her/ his support to the UCU branch at [LOCAL UNIVERSITY]

  The motion will require alteration if there is no pre-1992 university locally.

 For details of the dispute, useful for correspondence, see https://www.ucu.org.uk/strikeforuss

Nano-strikes redux

Further to my post on this, Primyamvada Gopal is well worth reading on the de-escalation of UCU action here.

Meanwhile UCU Left have put out an emergency bulletin about the situation here.

Also, there's a paper petition doing the rounds condemning the leadership's present strategy. Do sign it if it comes your way.

Outsourced workers roar, UCU whimpers

Higher Education, traditionally a context favourable to the Left, trade unions, and other such sensible things, currently under sustained attack from the Coalition - this has got to be an important area for the fightback against this government, right? How's that going?

Well, there is some really positive stuff. Whatever else you do, look at the 3 Cosas Campaign - fighting, already with partial success, for sick pay, holidays, and pensions for outsourced workers at the University of London. Disgracefully let down by the branch and regional  UNISON officials, the workers have organised themselves autonomously. Some good stuff is happening that is in many ways a model, and is getting attention. Please support their strike fund.

Elsewhere things are less positive. Faced with real terms pay cuts and declining conditions, there was a move towards co-ordinated action between Unison, UNITE, and UCU, bringing academic and support staff together on picket lines. Retreating from this, UCU have called a series of two hour strikes.

Now, I'm a UCU member. I teach at an evening-based institution, so these strikes will have no impact whatsoever on my teaching. In fact, I think this a pathetic excuse for industrial action, is recognised by members as such, and is causing our union to lose both credibility and members.

This said I believe in supporting collective action - 'don't cross a picket line' is a mantra with good reason. We need a culture that fosters collectivity, solidarity, and confidence when these things are in short supply. So I will not do any academic work during our mini-walkouts. But I'll use the strike times as best I can to argue against the UCU leadership's de-escalation of this dispute. We need proper strikes, lasting at least a day, co-ordinated with other unions.

Because, let's face it - well planned short stoppages in a factory or a railway can be devastating and effective. I am not entirely convinced that the government will be trembling at my threat not to read anything between 11am and 1pm one day.

We have to do better than this. Too much is at stake.