UCU Strike at QUB
Lecturers at Queen's University Belfast and 60 other Universities across the UK have been on strike over the past 4 weeks. 13 days of classes have been disrupted (here at QUB) from staff who are members of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) - primarily from lecturers in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science however, a few lecturers from other Faculties have been down at the Picket Line.
The current strike action is due to Universities UK (UUK) changing the pension scheme from a guaranteed pensions benefits to a scheme dependant on how 'investments' perform in the market and not based on contribution.
At the start of this week UCU and UUK concluded negotiations at ACAS (Affordable Care Act Services) HQ with a proposed agreement for the new pension scheme. On Tuesday 13th March UCU officially rejected this proposed agreement deeming it unsatisfactory for what their members were wanting.
We spoke to a QR member, Louise Harvey, who has been out in support of the lecturers for the past 4 weeks:
"We have seen an abundance of support for our lecturers at the picket lines of the universities across Northern Ireland over the last four weeks. To put things in perspective, these disruptive weeks for us, as students, can make a massive impact on the deal that is being sought after by the UCU members. Lecturers simply want a pension that is rightfully theirs. However, four weeks on, are we any closer to the negotiations and the deal that are being fought for? Have all the classes we have missed achieved the sought after outcome?"
"After six days of talks and negotiating, the UCU negotiated a deal with the university employers. Part of the deal, which angered many, included lecturers prioritising and rescheduling the class time that has been missed by students due to the disruption. Many members of the UCU voted against this deal and the UCU ultimately had to listen to its members and axed the deal it had negotiated. Therefore, as it stands, strikes will now continue into a second phase after the rejection of this revised offer on the lecturers’ pensions. Strikes will be planned in due course to take place during the assessment and exam period."
This has become a major concern for many students. I spoke to a member of UCU at Queen's University Belfast who was able to provide further information:
"No lecturer wants to affect a students education, and it isn't without regret we are causing disruption to students lectures. We are all passionate about what we do and love our jobs, and I'm looking forward to getting back to all of my students next week. It does look likely that further action will be taken, at this stage we don't know the extent of this, however, a marking strike is likely to occur - this would be when lecturers would mark work but not submit it until the dispute is resolved."
Louise Harvey went onto say:
"Having spent the last few weeks not having any classes and ultimately, not having a clue yet how all of this will affect our assessment process, the thought of more strike action is worrying. As a master’s student, my university year and class time is limited anyway. I will be starting my dissertation over the coming months and as of right now, it’s very unclear how much the second phase of striking will impact on my studies."
On Thursday 15th March at 15.40 the Vice Chancellor James McElnay released an open letter showing his support for further negotiations between UUK and UCU. This will put pressure on UUK to reach an agreement that is favourable for UCU and UUK. He is the lates VC to openly come out in support - however, some staff are disapointed this took four weeks to happen.
We will continue updating on Facebook and Twitter throughout the strike action.
By Scott Duffield