UCU Rising Strike Action : University Response

I read with dismay, the University’s seemingly harsh reaction to the University and College Union’s (UCU) planned strike action in the next few days. The Gazette, published last week, led with the Notice that any employees participating will have their pay docked for each day they participate.

Whilst some people may sympathise with the UCU members stance and others may not, I thought I ought to remind everyone that this action was overwhelmingly voted on to highlight a number of issues including casualisation contracts, workload, pensions, equality as well as pay.

Pay Equity

Pay is of course the issue that people automatically think of when thinking or reading about Union actions, however, the discontent includes pay equity in addition to asking for meaningful increases to assist employees to cope with the cost-of-living crisis.
The pay gap in our HE sector between black and white staff stands at 17% and the disability gap is 9%. The average gender pay gap is 16%.

At our own University, according to their most recent Gender Pay Gap Report 2021, the pace has been, I quote, “slow but steady”. The University’s Equality Report 2021 doesn’t even appear have a target to reduce a racial pay gap (but perhaps it is completely buried somewhere in the 72 pages contained in the report).

There have been a lot of Units/Committees/Working Groups set up and applications for various awards such as Athena Swan accreditation etc., but resulting real changes appear to be progressing at a glacial pace.

Workload

Workload is another fundamental problem across the sector. Excess workload, as we are all undoubtedly aware, can lead to ill health (both physical and mental health). I myself suffered a heart attack directly caused by workload stress last December, as have some of my colleagues. To my dismay I have yet to see or hear of plans to even acknowledge and tackle this serious issue.

University Response?

Most people turn to strike action as it sadly seems to be one of the few ways of getting organisations to take notice of genuine issues that their employees face. Rather than acknowledge that the University and HE sector needs to do more to tackle some of these critical issues, the University’s response to the threatened action simply focusses on the threat that participating employees will have their pay docked. I would have hoped that the University would have at least set out their arguments as to why they disagree with the proposed UCU actions.

We have so many vacancies that we are struggling to fill as well as retention challenges, that by not setting out their views on why they may disagree with at least some of the issues (including workload and pay equity) seems a little unhelpful.

On the University’s website it states that “Oxford is a world leading centre of teaching, learning and research”. Furthermore, the University is renowned for debating (Oxford Union), and we even teach Negotiation programmes. Their public communications response seems rather last century to me.

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3 responses to “UCU Rising Strike Action : University Response”

  1. Practical Picketer Avatar
    Practical Picketer

    This notice leaves uncertain as to whether there is any point to going on strike. Since 2018, we have accomplished nothing (and more likely made things worse) through our unfocused and undisciplined industrial actions, and I see no evidence so far that this time will be any different. I would like to be convinced otherwise, as I am a long-time union member.

    Every industrial action in which I was involved before joining UCU presented a list of achievable, constructive, and quantitative demands that the employer could realistically follow or negotiate to avoid a strike. In most cases we we able to obtain most of what we wanted without a strike. In the cases where we did not, we coordinated with other unions to shut down the entire system for an extended, continuous period; not merely a quarter of staff for a few days that a busy manager could easily miss.

    In the case of UCU’s ‘four fights’ campaign, and the paragraphs involved, strikes precisely, as you say, ‘highlight a number of issues’ with unclear resolutions. We have not taken a strategic, concentrated, and measurable approach to fixing what is possible and urgent, such as USS. I fully support all the problems you highlight above, but these are issues common to the entire academic sector not only in the UK but in many other countries, and it will take decades of international collaboration to reverse these trends. There is no possible way that our employers can hope to fix everything you list before a strike, so instead they simply do not bother to try.

    We have seen this happen time and again over the last several years. When something keeps failing, we need a new strategy. Yet this post makes it seem as if ‘UCU rising’ is little more than a rebranding of the failed ‘four fights’ and not a serious attempt to achieve them more practically.

    I have heard similar concerns from many colleagues. I am absolutely open to following through on the strike for which we have voted, but this time I need to see some hope that it will accomplish something. I would be hugely appreciative if you could take the time to allay these fears.

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    1. Dr Smith Avatar
      Dr Smith

      I hope you decided in the end to join the strikes over the last couple of days; they’ve been fun.

      In response to your concern, let me speak as a member rather than part of the leadership. The union isn’t perfect. It’s ridiculous that we ask for higher pay raises year after year than other unions and achieve lower ones than almost anyone else (did any other part of the public sector get less than 5% in 2022?). It’s painful that we didn’t focus solely on fixing pensions while we had the chance. It’s maddening to pay such high monthly dues and see Jo Grady’s six-figure salary.

      But the union is all we have. If we give up on it, we’re dooming the national higher education sector to be the domain of independently wealthy ignoramuses, who are swiftly becoming the only people who can afford to work in universities.

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  2. Another Gazette Reader Avatar
    Another Gazette Reader

    I agree with all this, but in fairness to the university, the Gazette is merely a formal record giving technical notices and announcements. It would not be appropriate for them to publish anything more than the details of what will happen to salaries and operations. The notice speaks neither for nor against the strike, and that is the established approach.

    Until recently the Oxford Magazine would have been the appropriate home for such statements, but alas it is still on pause.

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