Determined university staff begin an eight day strike

By Oisin Duncan and Matt Dobson 

University College Union (UCU) members took strike action at twelve universities across Scotland today. The first in a planned eight day-long strike over issues including pay, pensions, workload and casualisation. In all, 60 universities across the UK saw UCU members taking action.   

There was a determined mood at the University College Union (UCU) picket lines across Glasgow. Glasgow Caledonian and the Art School were on strike this time along with Strathclyde and Glasgow Universities who took part in the strike action in 2018. 

At Glasgow University over 150 picketed the main entrance, with staff assembling at the before separating into smaller groups to picket the rest of campus. Among the pickets there was lively conversation about the central issues of workload and precarious contracts.

Hundreds of students, including Socialist Students members, and staff joined a march round campus at Strathclyde, with pickets from Caledonian joining them. 

A Glasgow Uni UCU member told us: “Over the last decade the number of students have more than doubled”. She went on to explain how this has impacted on her ability to maintain a high level of engagement with her students. “While extra staff were been hired before this semester, the effect was too little too late.” 

This is the most damaging effect of the greedy and irresponsible growth policies pursued by University management, UUK. The actual quality of teaching is being reduced by unmanageable working hours.

The effect this has on lecturers’ mental health and personal life is of even greater concern. “The average UCU member does over 13.5 hours of unpaid overtime per week”,

Ross Gibson, UCU member at Strathclyde, told us. “We are out on strike for a variety of reasons, there’s been a 41% increase in mental health absence because of workload, the gender pay gap at this university is 13%, over the last four years nationally pay in HE has dropped by 20%. Precarious contracts are affecting staff and students. We appeal to students to join us on the picket lines and discuss the dispute with us.” 

Importantly, Strathclyde UCU are raising motions within the union that calls on the Scottish leadership to demand the SNP-led Scottish Government use its powers to pressure universities on pay inequality, cuts and precarious contracts. 

Socialist Party Scotland and Socialist Students will be mobilising support for the UCU strike over the next seven days of strike action.