Strong support for UCU/EIS-ULA strike action in Scotland
Oisin Duncan and Andrew Carruthers, Strathclyde and Glasgow Socialist Students
Thursday and Friday saw the beginning of 14 days of strike action by higher education staff from the UCU at 15 Scottish universities. EIS-ULA members are also taking five days of strike action at five Scottish universities over pay.
This is part of the largest university industrial action with lecturers, teachers and support staff at 74 universities in total coming out. across the UK.
The Strathclyde UCU boasted huge, noisy and determined picket lines during the last strikes in November and December 2019 and the mood this time round remains a fighting one. The same was the case at Glasgow University with 100 on the picket line on Thursday.
One member told Socialist Students Scotland they were out not just for themselves but for the young workers coming into higher education.
Many of these newer members are stuck on precarious rolling contracts which threaten their job security and demonstrate the rampant casualisation of employment in higher education.
In addition to this, real pay for all university and college staff has fallen more than 20% in real terms since 2009 (according to the UCU) and disgustingly, a huge pay gap exists for women and BAME staff, even by the employers’ own analysis.
All of this has developed at the same time as universities’ incomes and reserves have increased, and the salaries of management and vice-chancellors have remained untouched, despite the long term decimation of their staff’s pay.
This is simply unacceptable, and the decision for strike action from the membership of the UCU and EIS-ULA was taken as a last resort.
The employers, Universities UK and UCEA, have repeatedly refused to set concrete goals in resolving this dispute and as a result students are being deprived of their education.
Every striker we spoke told us of their disappointment in this, but remained steadfast in calling for the management to get back to negotiations.
Socialist Students Scotland will be building solidarity between students across Scotland for the strikers. Also encouraging was the appearance of the Strathclyde UCU branch coming down in support for the joint trade union demo at Glasgow City chambers against the austerity budget passed on Thursday by the council.
This excellent show of solidarity points the way ahead for the labour movement, as the new activists layers can link their industrial struggles for better pay and conditions to the broader political movement against any more cuts to public services.
Unsurprisingly, the most popular chant on the UCU pickets was “no ifs, no buts, no educations cuts!” The vibrant fighting rank and file in the higher education unions point to the potential for a broad working-class led movement against austerity and against attacks to their pensions, pay and conditions.
With 12 more days of strikes to go for UCU members, it falls to students to come out in support of their lecturers, teachers and support staff to join the fight for fairer and more democratic universities, so turn out to the picket lines, discuss with the strikers and find out what you can do to help.
At UWS Paisley campus EIS-ULA took strike action on pay. They got solidarity on the picket from Unison, Unite and the student union officers.
