Thread by @dramyburge

#UCUStrikesBack (a long thread, apologies)

From tomorrow morning, like many of my colleagues, I will be joining the #UCUstrike over pay, casualisation, equality, and pensions.

This is a thread about why I'm on strike with @BirminghamUCU and why this is so important for me.

I've worked at six different UK universities since 2013 (hello precarity!) & I've seen a lot of the conditions in different parts of the country. In every single institution, one of more of the following issues has arisen. These problems are not new and are not isolated.

First, casualisation. This one's very personal. Until I got a permanent job at Birmingham in 2018, I was precariously employed in academic and academic-adjacent jobs. I commuted long distances. I paid to attend conferences. I wrote articles in my evenings and weekends.

I was relatively lucky in that I could travel, had a supportive partner with a full-time, stable job, and no caring responsibilities. All of this is so much harder for those who aren't able to bend over backwards to fit the job market's requirements.

I don't need to labour this point - we all have plenty of friends who haven't 'made it'; who have decided (or been forced to decide) not to play the game of precarity in the hope of being 'rewarded' with a permanent contract.

And if we're aware of this, so are our employers. We've all heard the concern expressed by senior management. I've attended funded events where university staff, research councils and HE organisations have offered 'strategies' for coping with precarity.

The problem is that universities have no appetite for fixing precarity because they benefit so richly from having a casualised workforce. We devote our time, health, and personal lives to institutions who are neither legally nor (apparently) morally moved to support us in return.

Some stats to contextualise - 68% of research staff in higher education and 37,000 teaching staff are on fixed term contracts (source: ucu.org.uk/media/10336/Co…). Fixed term means it's harder to get a mortgage, to access parental leave, to apply for funding.

So UCU is asking universities to "agree a framework to eliminate precarious employment practices" including eliminating zero hours contracts and moving hourly paid staff onto fractional contracts" and ending outsourcing of staff (negotiations here: ucu.org.uk/he2019)

On equalities. Universities as a sector have one of the highest gender pay gaps in the UK. This is shocking. My employer, UoB, has the third highest median gender pay gap in the Russell Group at 19.6% (mean is 19.4%) (source: birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/univ…)

Based on the mean (average) gender pay gap, this means women at UoB are paid £4.13 less per hour than men (£17.16 vs £21.29). When I raised this in a meeting with senior management I was told "there were no women lecturers 50 years ago".

I understand that progress will take time and that things are improving. But forgive me for not wanting to wait ANOTHER fifty years until women are paid an equal wage.

And let's not forget that the gender pay gap is intersectional. My employer doesn't even PUBLISH data on the ethnicity pay gap, let alone take proper action to address it.

As universities, we're often praised for being innovative, ahead of the curve, and in many ways we are. That's why it's astonishing that universities seem to be so slow to act on equalities issues.

On workload. I have heard colleagues say they haven't taken a holiday in years. That they were up until 3am writing a lecture. Two of my colleagues have fainted at work. Almost every time I ask a colleague how they are, the answer is "busy" or "tired" or "stressed".

This has become so normalised that we think nothing of it. In fact, we celebrate universities' overwork culture (the problematic 'vocation' narrative doesn't help here). My contract doesn't list my working hours, because I'm expected to just keep working until the job is done.

Overworked colleagues make for bad colleagues. We have less time for innovation. Less time to be kind to each other, to our students, and to ourselves. Overwork leads to ill health, to cutting corners, to being less than our best selves.

A couple of years ago, I was quoted for mortgage insurance. The rates for my (web developer) partner were half the amount for me. I asked why, and was told "You're a lecturer. You're in the same category as surgeons and doctors, as you're likely to be off with stress".

If the crushing workload of academics is obvious enough that an *insurance algorithm* knows about it, we've gone too far.

UCU demands on workload (including a 35 hour working week) are in this document: ucu.org.uk/media/10185/UC…

Finally pay and pensions. The details around these have been well-rehearsed elsewhere so I won't dwell on them, but according to @ucu since 2009 cumulative loss to pay (compared to rises in RPI) is over 20%. Again, more details in here: ucu.org.uk/media/10185/UC…

In summary - going on strike is not easy - on us or on our students. This will be the second time in 2 years that I will have stood on a cold picket line, forfeited pay and missed opportunities. But, ultimately, what I've described is not the kind of place I want to work in.

When I ask my colleagues how they are, I want them to say something other than "busy/tired/stressed". I want my colleagues on precarious contracts to feel more secure. I don't want anyone else to have to choose between having a child and having an academic job.

So this week, I'd encourage all of you who work in HE to reflect and consider: is this the kind of place you want to work in for the next 10/20/30 years?

I'll be out on strike because I see this as our chance to say - no, we deserve something better.