AGAINST

I am against this motion because I believe that a) the organisers of the proposed strike fail to provide adequate support for academic staff on precarious contracts (such as postgraduate students), and b) I have not seen permanent academics seriously address how they will support vulnerable academics in casual contracts during this long strike. In sum, I do not trust this strike to be intersectional.

My disagreement is more over the implementation of this strike than its rationale.

a) On UCU failing to support precarious academics: The UCU strike neglects the situation of precarious workers. Those in casual contracts cannot afford to strike for several days and UCU fails to provide adequate financial support to allow these precarious workers to show solidarity with their colleagues and strike.

There is a Fighting Fund, to which people can donate to or claim from. However, UCU places restrictions on claims. It states that “payment will be made from the fourth day of participation in the action”. It also states that “the maximum daily compensation that a member can claim will be £50 per day, up to a maximum of £500 for the fourteen days of strike action initially called by UCU.”

Another initiative is the ability of local UCU branches setting up hardship funds, after obtaining authorisation from UCU. Because of these restrictions, casual staff will find it extremely challenging to strike.

b) On permanent academics failing to support academics in precarious jobs: So far, casual workers wishing to strike rely on the goodwill of permanent members of staff (through donations to the Fighting Fund). This means that the amount of financial support depends on the generosity of more privileged academics. I have not yet seen permanent academics discussing how they will support precarious academic workers. I have not seen public displays of solidarity towards the most vulnerable workers in academics.

On the other hand, I have seen many precarious workers on casual contracts expressing concerns about striking whilst being in insecure jobs. These precarious workers are not in job contracts that entitle them to a pension scheme anyways.

Why should they strike anyways, given the lack of support and solidarity from both UCU and academics on permanent contracts?

Asma Farah