UCU members strike for fair pay and against casualisation
By Socialist Party Scotland reporters
University College Union (UCU) members in Scotland have been striking across the university sector in great numbers over the 25th and 26th May. Their action is part of a UK-wide strike.
Pickets have been large and enthusiastic in support of acadmic staff and their campaign for a decent pay rise, rather than the insulting 1.1% on offer from the employers.
But there are many other issues that are driving the anger of UCU members, including the gender pay gap – currently at 12.6% – and the shocking levels of casualisation – almost 22,000 academics are on zero-hours contracts in UK universities.
Dundee
Charlie Malone, a UCU member from Dundee explained: “For some, the idea of being an academic seems like an idealised lifestyle. The reality, ever increasing work pressures and typically 50 – 60 hour weeks, marking at and during holiday periods such as Xmas, pressure to produce research output in your own time and at your own expense.
While university principals typically earn over £250,000, staff beginning their careers earn one-tenth and even senior staff around one-fifth of that amount. In real terms, the value of salaries will have halved for lecturers by 2030.”
There has also been great support from students throughout the two-day strike. Sharon, the branch President of Dundee University UCU, told us: “Students from the Humanities department brought us food, cakes and biscuits and stood with us for hours on the picket line. Like UCU, students are also campaigning against cuts to the School of Humanities at Dundee. It’s great to see staff and students fighting together.”
Glasgow
UCU pickets were seen all around Glasgow. At every entrance to a Strathclyde University building (quite a substantial campus) there was a picket.
At Glasgow Caledonian University campus members of the EIS and Unison gave support and there were lively pickets outside the front entrance.
Over one hundred strikers attended a UCU rally in Glasgow city centre. Lydia, a picket at Strathclyde University, told us: “I’m new to teaching and the union but this is great and I’m glad I’ve got involved. I saw the striking Janitors marching around Glasgow last week and I hoped our strike would be effective. It certainly has been because there are pickets everywhere. It’s really difficult with the levels of casualisation, which is zero-hours for some people. It becomes really stressful and you cannot focus on teaching.”
What is clear from the last two days of action is the mood to fight for decent pay, against pay inequality, casualisation and cuts is not going to go away.
Co-ordinated strike action across all unions in Higher Education and the public sector as a whole is vital to build the offensive against the employers and governments austerity onslaught.
Reports from the UCU strike action in other parts of the UK can be found here
