Back on the picket lines today, both in the real world & the digital one.
Why are university staff striking? Well...
#UCUstrikes thread
Why are university staff striking? Well...
#UCUstrikes thread
There are many reasons why ppl are striking including stagnant wages, huge cuts to the pension, the gender pay gap & lack of BAME employees, but I am personally striking for the workload & the use of causal contracts.
For now, I now have a full time, permanent contact. I am able to strike & speak out for those who aren’t. Almost every university puts lecturers on short term, zero hours contracts. 68% of research staff in higher education are on fixed term contracts. ucu.org.uk/stampout
When I was studying for my PhD & for years afterwards I taught at 2 universities, did private tuition, worked in a bar at the weekends, waited tables, posed for art students, & was a part time admin assistant in an NHS office.
I would regularly teach in Leeds, then drive to Liverpool to teach there, & drive back to Leeds to tutor a student in the evening. All weekend was spent working until 6am in a bar to pay the bills. Any time I could grab around this I was trying to study or apply for jobs.
The teaching contracts are for a term. So you know you have teaching for 3 months. You can only plan for the next 3 months. You don’t know if you will have teaching again but you desperately cling on to that teaching because you’re convinced that’s your way in.
You put up with almost anything because it’s your dream to be a lecturer. The teaching pays per hour you’re in the class room. It’s doesn’t pay for prep time, marking or any of time spent emailing students.
I had seven jobs, but no money! Twice when I was waiting tables, I served a student & their parents who I had just seen at their graduation. Trying to explain why I was now bringing their starters was awkward. They both tipped well.
You keep telling yourself this isn’t long term - it’s just temporary. But it isn’t. I did this for years. And it takes its toll. You can’t plan anything, you can’t save any money, you can’t get a mortgage & you end up in debt.
It also wears you down. I was always ill, had insomnia, & ground my teeth so badly in my sleep I had to buy a mouth guard. Eventually, something snapped & a very severe depression set in. I went to the doctor & they signed me off everything for 6 months
I remember being stood out the GP’s office holding the sick note & thinking this is completely useless to me. I couldn’t take time off sick. Not only would I not earn any money, but if I let go of those teaching contracts, they would be filled by someone else within hours
I am lucky. On my last throw of the dice, I got a permanent job - but there are thousands of ppl still working like this in universities right now. It’s wrong. Just give people a proper job contract, where they can plan for the future & be sick if they need to be
A permanent job comes with a new set of terrors - threats of redundancies ever present & the workloads are insane - but it is better than the hand to mouth existence of casual contracts.
The fees are a sodding disgrace, but surely if you’re paying that much money you can expect the people teaching you to be fully prepped, rested, focused, all yours, sane (?!)
Of course, the irony there is that the stresses of full time contracts could be helped by doing away with casual ones. Taking on permanent staff who can share in the workload, rather than using ppl to plug up the gaps, would be a good start in easing the workload all round.
I wouldn’t have dared to strike when I was working like this. Not only could in not afford to lose the pay, but I would have been too scared I wouldn’t have been asked back to teach. So, I’m using my very privileged position to strike for ppl who can’t.
From a very, VERY cold picket line this morning.
Everyone on strike is loosing almost 3 weeks pay - many of us in one pay cheque. This will hit everybody hard but especially part time & hourly paid ppl. You can donate to the fighting fund here so ppl can get some back. Every little really does help! TY ucu.org.uk/fightingfund
