Not on strike today because my branch did not reach the turnout threshold, but solidarity to all those taking action today in the #UCUstrike. It's complicated, but hear me out.
Let's leave the pensions dispute to one side, because it's complicated. I am hopeful of some sort of settlement here. More important are:- (1) Casualisation. Universities are making up for their real terms funding crunch with vastly exploited hourly-paid teachers. Got to stop.
Then there's (2) Pay. Here I've got my own issues with my union's approach. I don't need more pay. Across-the-board % rises in themselves regressive. But the same people being casualised (and everyone 'below') SL needs a big uplift to make the profession competitive.
Part of this is (3) Equal pay - to reduce the grotesque pay gaps that still yawn wide when we look at gender and/ or ethnicity. Something is deeply wrong here. Needs fixing.
And then there's (4) Workload. The general public will not be particularly sympathetic here. But believe me - many colleagues are up after midnight and up before dawn just running in the hamster wheel. It's completely unsustainable.
Now it's possible to be fairly sympathetic to managers in this dispute, because the macro picture is basically that HE income is in steep real terms decline - and the whole system is being squeezed by expensive-to-run Russell Group institutions. That can't go on much longer.
Though I think all this has been handled badly, if we go on like this there are only two endpoints: (1) a Big Bang where a huge HEI goes down in flames; (2) a greyout where the sector gradually runs into the sand and becomes internationally uncompetitive. Both: unpleasant.
The ill-will that's being built up in the sector is making it a deeply unhappy and angry place. That's not going to work when it relies on the social capital of its people. If this ends in a bit of a meh fudge (quite likely), that's not going to go away either.
I hope I've been fair there - happy to be told I'm getting this wrong. But HE is in deep crisis now: colleagues wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't. /END
