Lecturer's Strike (for Black Star)

LECTURERS STRIKE

March 7th saw University lecturers and staff from the AUT and NATFHE unions stage a one day strike and embark upon an indefinite assessment boycott. Despite students being ripped off by constantly rising tuition fees the universities refuse to honour commitments to raise staff pay, which has declined by 40% in real terms over the last 20 years. Added to this is the fact that lecturers work an average of 9 hours unpaid overtime each week (worth over £10,000 if they were paid for it). Of course, Vice Chancellors somehow found the money to give themselves a whopping 25% rise – so that now the average Vice Chancellor earns a massive £178,000 a year.

Talk to the lecturers and you find that this is about far more than a pay dispute. At Birmingham University there are also repeatedly ignored complaints of bullying in the Information Services department, a situation that has culminated in Tony Chabot having been sacked. Tony took a pay cut in return for the opportunity to work at a university and has provided over 21 years of loyal service, but that didn't stop the university making him redundant in his absence due to long-term sick leave. Tony himself said “I feel betrayed by the University of Birmingham, which is no longer the kind of establishment I would trust.” Staff also complain about the damage to education caused by increasing class sizes and the prevalence of short-term contracts leading to insecure positions, particularly for poorly paid young lecturers.

Striking workers have been targeted by a campaign of intimidation by the university, which has refused to pay pensions contributions for the day of the strike and has pointed out that this would mean that staff would be without cover in the event of death or serious injury that day. They have also decided to withhold 10% of the salaries of staff boycotting marking and have threatened to bring in scab markers to cover for them. Despite this intimidation campaign, both unions voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking action and turnout at pickets and rallies was high – in spite of the cold weather – including a good turnout of students expressing their solidarity with the strikers.

We at the Black Star fully support striking workers in any industry, but in this case a pay dispute fails to get to the core of these issues. Power in the universities rests largely with the Vice Chancellors, who operate in no-one’s best interests but their own. These privileged overpaid slave drivers should stand aside and let an elected team implement plans proposed from the bottom-up.

As of the Black Star going to press the dispute was ongoing.

NOTE – I'm tempted to drop the last paragraph since it comes across a bit as 'the only solution is the anarchist revolution', but I've put it in because I'm planning on submitting a Radish article saying ditch the VC and replace him with a council of recallable delegates so I thought I'd mention it here as well. Comments welcomed.

EDIT - corrected some spelling mistakes and adopted LR's phrasing (thanks)