Strikes are commencing next week for a period of 8 days at over 60 universities across the United Kingdom. As I did my undergraduate degree at UEA, I supported lecturers in their last strike two years ago and will also be joining their picket line next week in solidarity.
The strike is happening for a number of reasons. Firstly, previously promised revisions to the pensions of university staff are being revoked. This means staff could lose between £20,000 and £40,000 worth of money put into their pensions. Staff are striking to support the USS pension scheme, as the UUK (University UK) demand to increase their contributions.
This is a huge amount of money for younger staff in particular who are seemingly inundated with temporary rolling contracts from universities straight after entering the career field of academia. As young people, we know the difficulties of operating under predominantly zero-hour contracts with little / no flexibility so just imagine the job-related implications on anxieties and stress this has on lecturers at a career level.
Secondly, UEA in particular have been extremely unforgiving and hard-line with their rules and regulations over staff demonstrating their exercise to strike. Adding a dock to staff pay for the eight-day strike proposal and refusing to grant these days as holiday or sick leave is one thing but, then adding a strict ‘no picket line on university property’ rule and punishing union lecturers further is ridiculous.
I, for one, do not wasn’t to enter into a career with such anxieties and uncertainty. Education is an integral part of society and staff should not feel they need to strike because of unfair legislations and uncertain contracts that put their careers at risk. As a MA student seeking to continue further into academia, I will be standing in solidarity with lecturers in the strikes next week for the sake of my future and theirs.
UEA students, there are a number of things you can do. The first is drafting an email to our Vice Chancellor showing your concerns here:
Secondly, there is a petition calling for a refund of student tuition fees for the strike period here:
