The latest round of strike action will take place across UK universities, including York, on Thursday 24 November, Friday 25 November and Wednesday 30 November.
The University and College Union have announced an ‘action short of a strike’, which will run continuously from Wednesday 23 November until no later than 20 April 2023.
The UCU have described this round of strikes as the “biggest ever”, which could impact 2.5 million students. Over 70,000 university staff across 150 universities will strike over “attacks on pay, working conditions, and pensions”.
According to the UCU website:
“In the pay and working conditions dispute, the union’s demands include a meaningful pay rise to deal with the cost-of-living crisis and action to end the use of insecure contracts.
“Employers imposed a pay rise worth just 3% this year following over a decade of below inflation pay awards. A third of academic staff are on some form of temporary contract.
“The UK university sector generated record income of £41.1bn last year with vice chancellors collectively earning an estimated £45million. UCU said the sector can more than afford to meet staff demands.”
In his email, Charlie Jeffery explained that “action short of a strike is where staff may limit some of their activities, for example, working to contract, not covering for absent colleagues, not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled as a result of strike, and not undertaking other voluntary activities.”
In an effort to minimise disruption for students, the University has produced a Frequently Asked Questions page, which answers questions such as “where can I go for support?” and concerns over health and wellbeing.
Staff are not required to tell the University or their students in advance if they plan to take part in industrial action. Students have been advised to assume that teaching will go ahead as normal.
According to the Vice-Chancellor:
“We don’t know how many staff will be taking part, or to what extent, and patterns of participation can vary significantly both across and within departments. So it is very important that you engage with your scheduled teaching, labs, assessments and other learning activities, unless you have been told otherwise by your department. This applies whether you are here with us in York or enrolled on one of our online programmes.
“All other University resources and support will remain open and available as normal. This includes student support and wellbeing services, our online resources, and our on-campus catering outlets, shops, the Library and the Sports Village for students here in York.
“Despite the challenges industrial action presents to our community, York has always observed a culture of respect. The decision to take part in industrial action is not taken lightly, and there will be different views across the University, so I ask that we all continue to respect each others’ views, opinions and actions.”
We ALL need to accept below inflation increases in our income and above inflation increases in our taxes otherwise inflation will continue and our currency will become worthless.
Let’s take the hit now. This is a crisis that we need to address.
(Of course there should be a debate about sharing the pain fairly.)