UCU Strikes Statement
The University and College Union (UCU) have announced a second round of strikes commencing on the 20th February, over a four-week period. As a students’ representative organisation, we must prioritise the interests of our students and recognise that these strikes come at an incredibly difficult time.
The University and College Union (UCU) have announced a second round of strikes commencing on the 20th February, over a four-week period.
The full strike dates are:
- Week One – Thursday 20 & Friday 21 February
- Week Two – Monday 24, Tuesday 25 & Wednesday 26 February
- Week Three – Monday 2, Tuesday 3, Wednesday 4 & Thursday 5 March
- Week Four – Monday 9, Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11, Thursday 12 & Friday 13 March
The disputes in question focus on four specific areas – 1. Pay, 2. Equality, 3. Workload, 4. Casualisation – the details can be found here: http://bit.ly/UCUStrikes2020
As a students’ representative organisation, we must prioritise the interests of our students and recognise that these strikes come at an incredibly difficult time. There will be students on campus who will be severely disadvantaged by having not one, but two semesters disrupted by strikes, including those on one year PGT (Postgraduate Taught) courses who will be most affected by the action. Having two strikes in one academic year is virtually unheard of.
We completely respect the right of staff to strike, but have to emphasise our displeasure to all parties involved in negotiating that this strike action has been called.
With only 3 months passing since the last set of strikes in November, there is a sense that students have only just recovered from the impacts and disruption of the last strikes. For some students, these strikes will have a more serious impact because during this academic year, nearly 6 weeks worth of teaching will have been disrupted. That equates to large number of contact hours, and potentially a lot of content missed or not covered.
Students are rightfully upset, and we believe our stance as the representative organisation should reflect that. As such we call upon the UCU, USS & UUK to proactively and immediately try and find a resolution to the issues under the ballot, with the view of ceasing the upcoming action.
On a local level, we request that the University put pressure on the negotiating bodies, in particular the UUK to which it is a part of, to come to a resolution. Furthermore we ask the University to respond with measures they are taking to put pressure on the negotiations and to address the areas under the ballot.
For our local UCU branch, we ask that where possible the disruption to students is minimised, especially for students who will greatly suffer because of the upcoming industrial action. We understand that the strikes are intended to inhibit focus on the core activities of a University, namely the teaching of students. However, students have already suffered considerably and will be even more adversely affected by the next 14 days of strike action.
Overall, the academic system we live in should not be forcing staff to strike and as such we hope that the four areas to which the dispute is centred on are addressed.
We will try as much as possible to keep students informed about any progress in the negotiations, and minimise disruption as much as possible.
For more information you can see the ‘Update for Students’ released by the University earlier this week & the joint statement from UCU Glasgow & the University through the following links:
UCU Glasgow/UofG Joint Statement: http://bit.ly/UCUGlasgowUofGStatement
UofG industrial action update for students: http://bit.ly/UofGStrikesStudentUpdate
Signed,
The SRC Exec