After another day of horrible weather on Monday, the BU Strike picket line takes on a digital presence today. Our digital picket line will take place across the website and our various social media handles, so follow us on Twitter @UCUBU, and on Instagram.com/strikebuhq. Share, retweet, and contribute by telling us your stories about why you are striking, or why you support the strike.
Here is a reminder of some of the reasons why we are striking:
- Female academics at BU and across the sector make over 15% less than their male counterparts for doing the exact same job, and also have a difficult time getting promoted. An even greater disgrace is that BAME women make 9% less than their white counterparts across the sector, and are leaving BU because they cannot progress their careers.
- BU UCU is fighting against casualisation, with many lecturers on zero-hour contracts and some barely making £10 an hour. There are an astonishing 16,165 zero hours contracts in the HE sector. Imagine that!
- BU UCU is striking about increasing workloads, with many lecturers at BU working more than 50 hours per week to get through a normal week’s workload. Academic staff, across the sector, have told UCU that they put in 40 million hours on extra-curricular activities a year; the equivalent of almost 25,000 full-time jobs.
We made this short video to explain to our students why, reluctantly, we are taking strike action:
StrikeBU 