Students’ Union to support future strikes following referendum with record high turnout

After 6 days of voting, the Students’ Union referendum resulted in the student body voting to support the teaching staff strikes.

Photo by Sean Wallis on flickr

5% of the student body needed to vote for the result to be binding. The figure was easily reached by the 5116 votes cast, the highest turnout ever for a UCL Students’ Union referendum. 60% of those that voted were in favour of the motion. 40% of voters were against the motion and 123 voters chose to abstain.

The referendum was held after there was backlash from a statement made last October in which the Students’ Union announced they would not be supporting future strikes – particularly referring to those experienced in December. They cited disruption to students as their concern. In turn, many students expressed discontent at the decision, claiming it was ‘undemocratic’ and didn’t reflect the voice of the student body.

The Students’ Union has expressed a desire to ‘attempt to avoid the need for strike action’, a view it says it shares with students and staff. However, if strikes were to go ahead, the Union must now commit to supporting them.

Some have expressed concern over the Students’ Union accepting the result to support the strikes, with many being quick to point out the supposed conflict of interest. The Union's initial disdain for the strikes was evident in their October statement, removing their support for the striking staff,  which was then followed by the referendum being promoted by two sabbatical officers who had previously voted against the strike. One Instagram commenter called for the Student Union to “admit they did not speak for students when they jeopardised the strike for … UCL staff”.

The University and College Union (UCU) has warned more strikes are likely if demands are not met. They are continuing their battle over the ‘Four Fights’: pay, workload, equality & casualisation. UCL and 67 other universities staff have a mandate to take industrial action. This, combined with slow progress over agreements between universities and the union & staff to meet demands, means students will have to keep an eye out for further action.