Author: strikebu

Here is a selection of photos from today’s picket. We are here making noise every day, and will continue until UCEA listens to our demands.

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On Monday, UCEA and UCU met to negotiate on the terms of the strike. Our Co-Chair at UCUBU, Marian Mayer, was one of the team sent by UCU.

Marian has made the following comments regarding the meeting:

At Monday’s meeting we made significant progress on the three aspects of our claim that matter so deeply to members. This is a seismic shift in the negotiations with the employer. Previously they have only ever been willing to talk about pay, but we had meaningful discussions about casual contracts, workload, and the gender and race pay gap. There are two sticking points, and we will meet again as soon as possible to try and formalize both sides’ understandings of how we could reach agreement.

It was clear to UCU negotiators that the strike is having a major effect and has certainly changed the mood in the negotiating room. The demonstration outside at one point was so noisy that we couldn’t hear ourselves speak. we made the point that that’s a small representation of the thousands of members across the country who are taking industrial action because enough is enough.

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The demonstration outside the UCEA offices was loud and strong, echoing the noise being made by union members across Higher Education.

We continue the fight in the hope that it will eventually make a difference, and allow us to work in an environment that supports us properly, and allows us to perform our roles to the best of our ability.

Despite a sprinkling of snow overnight, our guys are heading back to the picket today. This time we will be outside the Executive Business Centre at our Lansdowne Campus, so come down and say hello if you are in the area!

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On Monday we were joined once again by students, and by Corrie Drew from Bournemouth East Labour.

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At the last strike, which took place in November and December 2019, one of our members opened up about why they felt that they had been pushed to the point of leaving the profession.

Their very relatable account is shared again below, reminding us that this strike action is personal. They have since left BU. We are losing good people because they can no longer cope with the pressures of the job. This is not good news.

Staff are at breaking point and I’m broken.

I have been teaching at the university for 8 years. It’s my second career and I fell into it quite by accident, as a way to earn money as a self-funded PhD student. But I found that I loved teaching. I still love teaching. I just can’t afford the personal cost anymore; I’m leaving.

It has been a heart-wrenching, soul-searching decision to leave teaching. I’ve always worked extra hours as a lecturer because the workload plan simply doesn’t allow time to do the job properly. (It doesn’t include half of the things I do, either, but that’s another matter). I love teaching enough to want to do as good a job as I possibly can for my students. My philosophy has been that it’s my choice to do that, and the joy and privilege of teaching make it worthwhile. It’s a pity that the university doesn’t recognise the time it takes to make things the best they can be for students. The admin burden is also a nightmare (not the admin staff, who are also under the cosh). But weighed in the balance, the utter joy of the job has until recently tipped the scales enough to keep me going.

This semester, though, I have been on the back foot from the start. I’ve been permanently behind on replying to emails, I’ve sat in endless meetings, I’ve jumped through hoops to show that I satisfy arbitrary, hasty, unevidenced and relentlessly enforced policies that will do nothing to increase students’ satisfaction. Instead of being given time to provide quality feedback, I’ve been told to flag almost everything I say to students as “feedback” so they know that they’ve received some.  I have obediently listed my office hours (which students never use) in my email footer instead of having the time to spend with them that they need. I care, though, and deeply, so I DO take the time to talk to them, whenever they need, even though I don’t have it to spare. One of my Deans would say I shouldn’t do this because it sets unrealistic expectations. I say it should not have to be unrealistic that academics have time for their students.

Despite the long hours and the ever-growing backlog of emails and tasks I have struggled on, not really having time to stop and reflect. The promotion and pay progression process changed that. I’m fortunate to have a proper contract in a job that pays a salary above the national average (if we ignore hourly rate!) so for me personally this isn’t about money. It’s about fairness: the appropriate grade for the work I do and a salary commensurate with men doing the same work. I was very upset to get neither of those despite what I consider to be the best year of my teaching career. The feedback showed me that the university neither understands nor values what I do. It forced me, hard, to stop and reflect. When I did I realised that the balance has shifted.

This semester I have a light teaching load, notwithstanding the demands of one unit being unique and brand new. I’m also a Programme Leader, a project supervisor and an academic advisor. Next semester, I have a very different, very heavy teaching load and the projects will be in full swing. I realised I’m already working evenings, working weekends and getting behind in this “light” semester – and I am already exhausted.

Teaching has been such a joy. I thought I was in it until retirement age and would even then be one of those old lecturers who can’t quite give it up and works part-time. But I literally can’t do it anymore. When I stopped and reflected I became aware of serious health implications which I don’t want to go into here.  It is with a regret so enormous that I don’t know how to express it that I am leaving teaching. I dread telling my lovely students. This will be identifiable by some staff and that’s fine; students are the only reason it’s anonymous. They don’t know yet and I want to be able to tell them the arrangements to replace me when I tell them I’m leaving. I care far too much to put them in the limbo of “I don’t know yet” if I can avoid it. I will miss them. I will miss them SO much. I think many of them will miss me. But I have to take better care of myself, and it’s absolutely not in my nature to achieve that by doing a perfunctory job. I’m striking to try to help pull things back from breaking point for those who stay, but it’s too late for me. With tears in my eyes, I am leaving.

In case you missed any of our content over the last couple of days, here are the gifs, videos, and audio clips which have been leading our digital campaign so far. We may be overworked and underpaid, but we can still be creative!

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Below is a video on how you can help the strike financially if you are unable to help by physically making it to the picket line. To donate, make cheques payable to UCU Bournemouth University Branch SO024, or donate cash on the picket line. No one should be put into financial hardship simply for fighting for equality! #UCUStrikesBack.

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:

Here are some more accounts from staff and visitors to the picket line on why they are supporting the UCU strike.

Here are some interviews with people on the picket line on Friday.

Except that rather than being in work with our unmanageable workloads, we are out on the picket line again striking on four points:

1. Excessive Workloads
2. Precarious Contracts
3. Pay Gap
4. Pay Decline

Today, UCEA has offered to meet UCU for a discussion, and a team of UCU negotiators has agreed to participate. Marian Mayer, BU UCU’s own Co-Chair, is one of the negotiating team, and in her blog post shared on this site on Friday, she stated:

I’m immensely proud to represent UCU’s members in this claim, and I’m even I am even more proud to have the support of you, the fantastic BU UCU members. Without your determination, your commitment to this action, the ASOS you are taking, and your presence on the picket line, we would be nowhere near the goals are trying to achieve.

Paul Bridge is on record as saying that the four fights negotiators team have shifted the employers’ representatives further than any negotiators have managed to in previous years. This is because UCEA have always claimed that they do not have a mandate to negotiate anything other than pay. As a result of our strike action they are negotiating with us on all four strands of our claim.  So you know, we have moved on the pay claim, and in the last negotiation meeting said that we would reduce that element of the claim to 5%, and that we were open (very open) to negotiation.

While Marian is taking part in what we hope will be a productive meeting, we will once again be making our voices heard. Friday saw a great turnout on the picket from both staff and students, as well as support from local Labour members and union representatives, and today should be bigger and better.

Come down to the line to join us if you would like to talk to us about why we are striking or just to give us your support!