‘Genie out of the bottle’ on casualisation after pension strikes

Sally Hunt has been told year in and year out of the dire conditions facing precarious academic workers, and it is only now that the UCU have anything to say about it. Let's be clear: this was allowed to happen on their watch, and they too are culpable. Of course they only care about their higher paying members... but if they don't act soon, they won't have any members left who can pay the dues of permanent full time staff, as we are increasingly on rolling 9 month contracts, with big gaps over Summer, or 13 week contracts to deliver lectures one or two days a week, with work in retail and other non-academic sectors to cover the rent. The union stands by and does nothing about these contracts, because the dues these precarious staff pay are insignificant.