UCL Students’ Union holding referendum over UCU strike stance
The UCL Students’ Union are holding a referendum from 21 to 26 January to decide their official position on potential future strikes by the University and College Union (UCU).
Photo by Sonica Photography on flickr
5% of all students must vote for the result to be binding, regardless of the outcome.
Strikes are being considered in the Spring Term to bring further attention to the Four Fights. While no strikes are confirmed for the rest of the year yet, there is an expectation that the UCU will be encouraging more. This ballot is binding for the rest of the academic year (terms 2 and 3), regardless of the reason for the strikes.
The way anyone casts their ballot is naturally their own, but the Students’ Union have published pieces by the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ campaigns, and the ‘yes’ campaign have created their own Instagram to discuss their position further.
The ‘yes’ campaign have argued that students should support the strike due to poor working conditions that aren’t improving from any other action. They claim that these conditions are affecting the quality of teaching, meaning students are missing out. They argue that strike action has worked in other scenarios similar to this, so is likely to be effective here.
The ‘no’ campaign has led with the argument that disruptions from COVID-19 have resulted in a higher education crisis. Online learning has been a setback in the eyes of many, and with face to face teaching still only partly implemented, to miss out on any more teaching hours would cause struggling students even more stress, further impacting their university experience.
The UCL Students’ Union released a statement in the lead up to the Autumn Term strikes concerning their disapproval of strike action, the decision made without a referendum. This was controversial and caused complaints to be made over a lack of democratic process due to the Union’s status as the representative body for UCL students. There has been an emphasis on making sure they fulfil their position by reflecting the views of students as accurately as possible going forwards.
The UCU is the national union representing staff in higher education. Part of their role is to protect teachers, professors and support staff. They find value in strike action to disrupt a sector to meet their demands.
Over the last few years, there have been increasing concerns in different areas regarding working conditions and pay. The so called ‘Four Fights’ are
Pay – significant inflation has occurred over the last decade and staff have not seen a proportionate rise, which the UCU wants to match.
Workload – The UCU would introduce a base 35 hour working week, reduce work-related stress & ill health through planning, and payments for unpaid work.
Equality – There’s a concern about ethnic and gender pay gaps so full equal pay audits are being called for.
Casualisation – eliminate 0 hours contracts & fractional contracts, and improve conditions for outsourced staff & postgraduate teaching assistants (PGTAs).
This has resulted in a number of strikes at UCL, most recently those experienced between 1 and 3 December last year. With more than 120,000 members, the UCU has been a force to be reckoned with and has gained significant attention nationwide.
During the last strike, in most cases UCL permitted students to choose not to cross the picket line. This could be either a stance in solidarity with staff or because they felt uncomfortable doing so due to the tense atmosphere. Staff could strike but would not be paid during these days if they chose to. Their pay for those days would go into a ‘Lost Learning Fund’ which would “support students who [were] significantly affected”.
You will be able to vote in the Students’ Union referendum here. All students at UCL can vote in the referendum between Friday 21 January and Wednesday 26 January.
Regardless of the result, this referendum will be an influential factor in whether others chose to approve or disapprove of the strike action. The result here may determine whether members of staff choose to keep striking, whether the administration at UCL are more or less sympathetic, what position students at other universities take and even how the events are viewed by the public. The official voice of the student body is a powerful one, and decided support or opposition is significant going forward.