Indefinite strike or ‘escalating’ action? The choice facing UCU

The money was there to give academics a decent pay package but it is now wasted on excess bureaucracy and buildings,,,,The Unions need to recognise that striking to get pay rises while also trying to prevent sackings of excess buereacrats are incompatible objectives. Lets sack the excess bureaucrats and free up the money to pay the academics and researchers that after all generate the income.

The money was there to give academics a decent pay package but it is now wasted on excess bureaucracy and buildings,,,,The Unions need to recognise that striking to get pay rises while also trying to prevent sackings of excess buereacrats are incompatible objectives. Lets sack the excess bureaucrats and free up the money to pay the academics and researchers that after all generate the income.

UCU have long forgotten the effort made by their employers to pay them and secure their jobs during 2 years of pandemic disruption. Some academics didn't return to their campus for 2 years whilst lower paid colleagues surviving on part time living wage incomes came in to keep the campus safe . The focus here is wrong. Academics should be transparent re the 22 weeks they are actually teaching and their workloads and how much time they spend on campus, offer face to face contact time and what their annualised workload is across the board in all academic roles. A fair pay rise in the current year is of course justified, but then again reaching agreement on a figure will be fraught.

Dear Cactus77, The wage packets received by HE staff, at all roles and grades, were not a matter of employer generosity. HE staff in many roles and at all grades worked their socks off, and then some, throughout the pandemic. The job of work required to turn in-person teaching materials into resources suitable for different combinations of remote synchronous/asynchronous hybrid and online learning was immense. It was an endeavour none of us would ever have chosen and one requiring both skill and a willingness to scale a daunting learning curve. Our employers were *not* engaged in an act of charity. As to workload . . . it seems to me that anyone familiar with working practice in UK HEIs should be well aware that teaching is: (1) only part of the responsibilities set out in the terms and conditions in many regularised academic contract** and (2) extends well beyond time in the lecture hall or seminar room (including a whole host of mandated QA processes). Maybe it's UCEA and UUK that require a reminder about who (again, across all roles and grades) kept the show going. **Setting aside for the moment the sector's reliance on gig economy, hourly-paid, and too often zero-hours contracts to cover some aspects of teaching and assessment work. (n.b., also an issue in the ongoing dispute).