Dear all,
I am writing to let you know that I am participating in the strike action organised by the University and College Union. I will therefore be on strike tomorrow 1 February and will not deliver or make up the teaching I was due to deliver.
I am very sorry about this. I would like to apologize for the disruption you will experience as a result of Vice-Chancellors’ refusal to offer the pay, pensions, and working conditions that university staff deserve.
Since 2010, university staff have seen their income decline in real terms (adjusted for inflation) by 25%. The figure below shows the evolution of our income in comparison to other professions since 2011.
Using dodgy financial forecasts, our employers have also pushed through a 35% reduction of our pensions. Meanwhile, a growing number of staff work under precarious conditions and often deliver teaching – your education – for less than the minimal wage. (See https://twitter.com/chriskempshall/status/1617974418873135107)
This is not acceptable.
Withdrawing labour is the last resort for workers whose employers refuse to negotiate in good faith. Universities have the financial means to resolve the dispute in an instant. Their cash holding rose by 22% in 2020-21 alone to £15.1 billion. Yet their latest offer barely covers half of this year’s inflation…
Like many other people in the country, including you and your families of course, staff can hardly afford the financial loss they will incur. We are ready to do so because we have no other choice to defend ourselves as well as higher education.
Beyond our pay, pensions, and rights, it is your education that is at stake here. Along with the Government, Vice-Chancellors and grossly overpaid university managers invoke the rhetoric of austerity to entrench inequality and undermined higher education as a public service.
As I wrote to you before, education is not a transaction. I don’t sell services for a profit and you are not my customers. My commitment to you is not driven by the fees you paid. My contact hours are not billable hours. I am an educator, not a consultant.
In the last two weeks alone, I have spent at least 10 hours meeting with students beyond my classes and scheduled office hours. I will not be paid or rewarded for it. I do it because, like my colleagues, I committed myself to your academic progress. That commitment often outlasts your time on campus. Tutors routinely write reference letters and advise former students for 2 or 3 years after graduation.
It is the same commitment to higher education that drove me to rewrite my 2nd year course this year, to devise a new residential module on contemporary Europe, that led me and other colleagues to work on new courses in political history and European history that will launch soon. We do this because we want the education we offer to remain innovative, informed by the latest research, and relevant to your professional and personal lives. Our understaffed administrative team also work unreasonably hard for low pay because they know our programmes depend on their often invisible and yet essential support.
We don’t do this for a fee; we do this because we take pride in your education and in your future successes. Yet Vice-Chancellors refuse to see our work properly compensated because they don’t value it. They don’t value our work because they don’t value your education.
This is not acceptable and we will no longer accept it. We are tired – exhausted often. We are angry.
We are striking to defend our working conditions; we are striking to defend your learning conditions.
If you want to avoid further disruption, please use this link to demand university bosses make a fair pay offer: https://www.ucu.org.uk/email-your-VC
In solidarity,
Pierre
