UCL Staff On UCU Strike Efficacy and Future of UK Academia

Source : Wikimedia commons

A number of UCL strikers feel a significant amount of optimism with this round of UCU industrial action.

Dr Meckled-Garcia, the Branch Secretary of UCL UCU, compared the scale and prospects of this year’s strikes to the 2018 UCU strikes: “In 2018, we managed to get the employers on the table and get some negotiations going. [...] In between, we’ve had a number of strikes where strike action was started but was thwarted by other factors.” 

He went on to say that the widespread strike action across sectors in the country and the current socio-political climate have helped give attention and legitimacy to UCU strikes: “It’s in the context of wide-scale industrial action by workers who have not been treated fairly by the employers in this country and a government who supports the employers in not treating workers fairly.”

Dr Ilektra-Athanasia Christidi, co-vice-president of UCL UCU, said the cost of living crisis has given a rise to the solidarity shown. She said: “The rent is rising, the cost of food and everything - it’s going up. So that’s gonna do something in terms of solidarity that people want to show.”

When asked whether the problems would deter young people from entering the HE sector, Rob Trainer, a member of staff at UCL’s Student and Registry Services, responded: “I hope not. [...] When I talk to [my daughters], I think the fact that we are on strike… They say that’s actually good, because we’re not gonna end up with complete gig economy.” 

Others insist that action and change in the sector are essential for academia to thrive in the country. Dr Meckled-Garcia said if current university staff do not succeed, “academia will become much more of a factory for making money out of students.” Dr Christidi said the proliferation of casual contracts causes job insecurity and the exclusion of less privileged people. She said: “If you want to start a family, you really cannot start when you have a contract of 9 months at the time. The majority of people working in universities work under this kind of contract. It is eroding the workforce. It already is very marketized. It will deter students from joining and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have less of a luxury to [...] to start a job that will fail. [...] There will be only higher education for the few and privileged, which is not what we want.”