Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #oneofusallofus
Most recents (14)
ok, nah, i’m gonna expand on this: one of my lecturers today got quite emotional about the contradiction of their commitment to striking and their commitment to providing a good learning experience for students.
because they care about working conditions AND they care about students and delivering their modules well, in the way they envisioned delivering their modules. it feels irresolvable for them i think.
and i can imagine this is a deeply felt struggle for many lecturers. it made me emotional lol, to see how much it tore them apart to have to continue disrupting our experience and ripping their module in half.
1/6 I just received an email from my emplyer which started "As you may be aware, the University Mental Health day is on 3 March and it is widely known that physical activity can provide us with benefits to both our physical and mental health.". This is my reply:
2/6 Dear colleague,
It is widely known that secure employment, fair pay, equality at work, and decent pensions can provide us with benefits to our physical and mental health. It is further known that receiving email from my employer telling me to go for a walk or a bike ride ...
It is widely known that secure employment, fair pay, equality at work, and decent pensions can provide us with benefits to our physical and mental health. It is further known that receiving email from my employer telling me to go for a walk or a bike ride ...
3/6 just a week after they voted to cut my pension by 35%, sends my cortisol levels and blood pressure through the roof, with detrimental effects on both my physical and mental health.
I don’t appreciate it. I was angry already and this has made me angrier. I feel tempted to ...
I don’t appreciate it. I was angry already and this has made me angrier. I feel tempted to ...
The strikes are hurting unis, raising solidarity, but the pain is mostly felt by staff/students. Unis lose face (a bit – press coverage sucks), are inconvenienced, but it's abundantly clear *managers don’t care* about HE/HE people.
A 🧵
#UniCivilDisobedience #OneOfUsAllOfUs
1/
A 🧵
#UniCivilDisobedience #OneOfUsAllOfUs
1/
Industrial action's impact on unis is watered as limited to specific union members who will/can afford to, ASOS/strike. But unless (and even if) union membership were greater, we’re limited by anti-union legislation and that we care so deeply about our work and students.
2/
2/
There was a great thread (that we can’t find) by @JamesBSumner on the varied personal/political reasons that folks don’t engage with unions locally/nationally. It’s nuanced, not either/or. We need more membership, coordination between unions AND to co-opt non-union peeps.
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Since universities’ refusal to maintain staff pensions at USS universities, I’ve seen a lot of angry posts from academics saying that their good will is all used up. This is bad news for everyone: here’s why. #UCUstrikes #OneOfUsAllOfUs #USSmess #FourFights (1/9)
The intended and obvious victims are university managers, who rely on ‘good will’ aka ‘going above and beyond’ aka ‘vocation’ to have the workforce, from PhD student teaching a single seminar group to esteemed professor, working evenings and weekends, year in, year out. (2/9)
I’ve known professors working on books on Christmas Day. Senior staff who only get to emails at weekends. Staff on 1-year contracts spending every Saturday reading books they need to teach next week. Teaching-only staff on sick leave writing lectures for their return. (3/9)
I have been in HE on short term contracts for 10 years. During that time I have learnt how #precarity in academia is used to advance the careers of highly ambitious senior academics. Here are few insights #UCUstrikes 1/
Some highly ambitious academics pick the brightest and the best post-docs and researchers & then offload their responsibilities on to them. While these researchers remain precariously employed, more responsibility and pressure can be offloaded #FourFights 2/
Precariously employed researchers have no ‘workload management models’, no ‘study leave’, no ‘promotion rounds’, no permanent offices. They are dependent on the patronage and good will of senior and permanently employed academics. #FourFights 3/
🪧 #UCUstrike Thread 🪧
Wondering why staff across 68 universities are on strike?
@ucu #OneOfUsAllOfUs #FourFights #DigitalPicketLine #DigitalPicket
/1
Wondering why staff across 68 universities are on strike?
@ucu #OneOfUsAllOfUs #FourFights #DigitalPicketLine #DigitalPicket
/1
1. Fair Pay (including fair pensions):
Staff pay has dropped by over 17% in real-terms since 2009
ucu.org.uk/article/10342/…
/3
Staff pay has dropped by over 17% in real-terms since 2009
ucu.org.uk/article/10342/…
/3
Here's the @FT's @bethanstaton reporting a snap summary by @USSemployers of their constultation, saying responses indicate a "clear rejection of the @UCU proposals". It appears @UniversitiesUK's popaganda campaign to kill an attempt at a resolution succeeded. Great job! #USSmess
@FT @bethanstaton @USSEmployers @ucu @UniversitiesUK The #USS dispute is now well and truly on fire, as eyes turn towards the formal JNC meeting(s) next week. Higher Education disputes also ramp up, with more universities brought into the action over the fundmantal Four Fights dispute.
As for the behaviour of @AlistairJarvis's @UniversitiesUK, and their marshalling of opinion against the @UCU proposals, have they made employers aware of the precariousness of their position at the JNC? Smooth passage for the cuts should not be taken for granted. #USSmess
🧵Thought I’d curate all of my weary sighing replies to those who don’t approve of the @UCU strikes here in one handy place. #OneOfUsAllOfUs #UCUstrike ⬇️
“Lazy! Academics hardly do any work anyway”
a) Not only do we regularly pull 40+ hours a week, our work has increased in the pandemic as we “pivoted” (god, that word) to blended teaching.
b) if we hardly do any work, how come you think this strike is disruptive to students? 🧐
a) Not only do we regularly pull 40+ hours a week, our work has increased in the pandemic as we “pivoted” (god, that word) to blended teaching.
b) if we hardly do any work, how come you think this strike is disruptive to students? 🧐
“They have all those long holidays”
No, at my institution our holiday allowance is 27 days plus bank holidays and college closures. This isn’t school. We aren’t shut outside term time. And we don’t just teach.
No, at my institution our holiday allowance is 27 days plus bank holidays and college closures. This isn’t school. We aren’t shut outside term time. And we don’t just teach.
We're hearing more reports of universities keen to engage with their @UCU branches on the substance of our proposals, and some responding positively despite @UniversitiesUK's best attempts to undermine our attempts at a resolution. 1/
Branches who need assistance in their discussion with management should feel free to contact the negotiation team. 2/
Unfortunately, @SheffieldUni management, who have previously boasted about our highly constructive #USS Working Group, are not engaging, symptomatic of the increasingly insular approach to decision-making by UEB most evident in the efforts to close @UniShefArch. 3/
Many of followers are not UK academics, so here's a quick 🧵 on why higher education staff across the UK are on strike this week (and beyond). There are two big issues at play here: (1) pensions, and (2) the four fights. #UCUstrike #OneOfUsAllOfUs /1
Pensions: there have been some major proposed cuts to our pensions. These are largely based on a valuation of the pension fund carried out in March 2020, the beginning of the pandemic, when markets were volatile. #UCUstrike #OneOfUsAllOfUs /2
In brief, claims that the pension fund is in a terrible deficit have been shown to be false. The pension managers have been either incompetent or untruthful about this and related issues. #UCUstrike #OneOfUsAllOfUs /3
Here's our Manifesto to address some of the fundamental problems in UK HE. 🧵
1. PENSIONS
USS gets told in no uncertain terms to sort their shit out, accept a prudent prediction that isn't based on imminent apocalypse, and to pay livable pensions.
1/9
#OneOfUsAllOfUs #UCUstrike
1. PENSIONS
USS gets told in no uncertain terms to sort their shit out, accept a prudent prediction that isn't based on imminent apocalypse, and to pay livable pensions.
1/9
#OneOfUsAllOfUs #UCUstrike
2. GENDER, RACE, AND DISABILITY INEQUALITY
All HEIs to commit to attaining Athena Swan Gold AND the Race Equality Charter as a first step towards deep cultural change. Also to develop and implement an equivalent scheme for disability.
2/9
#OneOfUsAllOfUs #UCUstrike
All HEIs to commit to attaining Athena Swan Gold AND the Race Equality Charter as a first step towards deep cultural change. Also to develop and implement an equivalent scheme for disability.
2/9
#OneOfUsAllOfUs #UCUstrike
3. PAY
All staff to get a 5% pay raise, with a further £2K* for all women and an additional £2K* for all people in racial/ethnic minorities. If that pushes them beyond their current pay bracket, promote them.
3/9
(*Or pro Rata Equivalent)
#OneOfUsAllOfUs #UCUstrike
All staff to get a 5% pay raise, with a further £2K* for all women and an additional £2K* for all people in racial/ethnic minorities. If that pushes them beyond their current pay bracket, promote them.
3/9
(*Or pro Rata Equivalent)
#OneOfUsAllOfUs #UCUstrike
🧵
Once again I am proud of @aimeemle for making clear that the individual struggles of our most exploited members are not an excuse to avoid collective struggle to transform the old conditions and fight for something better, and that she would never ever break a strike.
Once again I am proud of @aimeemle for making clear that the individual struggles of our most exploited members are not an excuse to avoid collective struggle to transform the old conditions and fight for something better, and that she would never ever break a strike.
It's prompted me to say something that I had been meaning to say for a while, because I've seen a disturbing increase in UCU activists suggesting that some people "cannot afford to strike" or even that we should not expect everyone to strike. This is sanctimonious nonsense.
I've never had to live in a tent, I have been homeless for a few months as a PhD student. Lots of casualised workers have. Lucky for me the kindness of friends got me through that. Things get hard. We are by definition never financially secure. It would never stop me striking.
UCU members across higher education are balloting for strike action in defence of pay, pensions and working conditions✉️
We represent a wide variety of professions and we need all your voices to be heard 📢
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
We represent a wide variety of professions and we need all your voices to be heard 📢
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
🚨BREAKING: UCEA, the group representing uni bosses, has confirmed it is doubling down on real-terms pay cuts, refusing to even acknowledge casualisation & offering vague gestures on inequality & workload.
They are refusing to seriously negotiate.
(THREAD)
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
They are refusing to seriously negotiate.
(THREAD)
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
UCEA's chief exec has written to our general secretary @DrJoGrady. In it, he lays out the employers' 'offer'
📉 Yet another real-terms pay cut, insultingly packaged as a "pay uplift"
❌Lip-service to pay gaps and spiralling workload
❗️Not a single mention of casualisation
📉 Yet another real-terms pay cut, insultingly packaged as a "pay uplift"
❌Lip-service to pay gaps and spiralling workload
❗️Not a single mention of casualisation
Not only are employers refusing to budge from this insulting 'offer' of cuts & tinkering, it's all they are willing to talk about.
We cannot negotiate with preconditions set by employers.
They need to get round the table, drop their insults, & start treating staff with respect.
We cannot negotiate with preconditions set by employers.
They need to get round the table, drop their insults, & start treating staff with respect.
