"Downgraded and devalued" - University lecturers in Essex on why they're striking
UCU members have been on the picket lines at the University on Essex and Anglia Ruskin
“People have a strange idea about what it is university workers do, that we’re all sitting on couches, sipping brandy and so forth,” says the University of Essex’s Tom Flynn, a lecturer at the School of Law.
“Perhaps a hundred years ago it may have been like that but certainly now, if there is an ivory tower I wish they would show me where it is.”
In Essex, staff from both the University of Essex and Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford took part in a nationwide over pay, pensions, casualisation and inequality in UK higher education.
Forming picket lines at the University of Essex’s Colchester campus yesterday morning (November 30), University and College Union (UCU) and Unite the Union members told the local democracy reporting service they feel disrespected by the division of wealth in the sector and how many staff, hit by real term pay cuts and soaring costs, are struggling to make ends meet.
Pay negotiations are undertaken nationally via the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). Both the University of Essex and Anglia Ruskin are represented by Universities UK (UUK), along with hundreds of other employers in the pensions scheme.
Ahead of negotiations, staff are hoping for a deal which accounts for historically eroding wages and casualisation in the sector, a new valuation of their pensions and for universities to act on gender, ethnic and disability pay gaps.
A spokesperson for the University of Essex said in a statement: “We know that no colleague takes lightly the decision to go on strike, and fully understand that pay is an important issue that affects us all. Pay and pensions are negotiated at a national level with national pay increases supplemented at Essex by increments and the annual review process.
“While some of the concerns raised about conditions reflect the national picture, at Essex we believe we’ve taken positive steps to address these issues and we have implemented a range of measures to support colleagues.”
‘There are academics who have been homeless’
According to Jak Peak, lecturer in American Literature and UCU branch president, the value of academic staffs’ pay has decreased by 25 per cent since 2009.
This year, lecturers, as well as other staff represented by the unions, are being offered a pay rise of 3 per cent, which when taking into account the current 11.1 per cent inflation rate represents a real term pay cut.
In addition to pay, lecturers are striking over the growing casualisation of the sector, with roughly a third of staff nationwide on fixed term contracts. Exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, Dr Peake says many staff do not know if they will have an income in the short term.
He told the LDRS: “Across the nation there are academics who have been homeless and who have used food banks, which is quite incredible.”
He later said: “You might not realise it as a student, but you could be taught by someone who’s living either on or below the poverty line.”
Dr Peake continued to say the University of Essex has been sympathetic to staff. A decasualisation working group was set up last year, after an earlier period of industrial action. However, Dr Peake claims unions have been excluded from membership of the group. He said: “They’re prepared to share the results of what they do but it’s a bit like they’re marking their own homework.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the University of Essex is working with union representatives through joint working groups and has also set up a task and finish group to recommend actions to support staff during the cost of living crisis.
A negotiation meeting between representatives of the unions and the university is expected in London in the coming days. Dr Peake said: “We really need the employers to get round the table, take us seriously and put in a serious offer, particularly around pay. We don’t want to remain in a period of prolonged strike, we do want a resolution.”
‘Downgraded and devalued’
Pensions are another key issue for the striking staff. Dr Flynn told the LDRS the Universities Superannuation Scheme (UUS) was valued just before the pandemic, at a time when markets were at historic lows. Leaflets being handed out on campus claim despite the scheme now being in a surplus, staff pensions are still being cut by 35 per cent.
Other issues for staff include unequal pay and workload. The gender pay gap at the University of Essex is 18.6 per cent, according to its website. Dr Flynn continued to claim only 40 per cent of what students pay in fees goes towards teaching, including course provisions.
“The sector is undergoing enormous growth, both in student numbers and the amount of work that we are expected to do, but what hasn’t undergone enormous growth is the amount of money that we’re offered and the support that we’re offered either,” he said.
Charged thousands of pounds a year, students have faced huge disruption over the last decade, with a global pandemic cancelling study and being bookended by periods of strike action. But Dr Flynn says careers such as academia are often open to exploitation because of the moral obligation towards students.
He said: “The idea that we don’t care about the impact on students is just self-evidently untrue, we are taking this action precisely because we care about the impacts on students.
“No student can expect a quality education if they are being lectured by someone on a precarious contract who cannot make ends meet, who cannot plan from day to day and is systematically downgraded and disrespected by the people who run the university.”
According to its statement, all of the university’s campuses are being kept open during strike periods, as are the library, student support services and other study spaces. A spokesperson also said all of the money deducted from pay during the strike will be used “to support students” and it will reimburse costs for students incurred by unnecessary travel or caring if teaching events are cancelled.”
The frustrating experiences of both students and staff both have to do with the marketisation of higher education in the UK, continues Dr Flynn.
He said: “Students pay and they are led to believe that they are customers buying a service and this is how many universities act, but it’s not a question of there not being enough money in the sector, the university sector in the UK makes an enormous profit every year. He later said: “It’s a question of who gets rewarded for the growth and success in the sector.”
‘A message to the employer’
Although the strike is nation-wide, with staff at different universities across the country taking part, there are localised issues on the minds of members.
For example, Essex is a particularly expensive place to live. Neil Evans, from Unite the Union, says local house prices are rising faster than wages.
He said: “We’ll get to the point where nobody who actually works for the university for anything other than the top pay grades is able to live anywhere near where they work.” In addition, Mr Evans says the university has increased its car parking charges, putting another pressure on staff living further away.
On disruption to students, Mr Evans said staff have had positive feedback on their position from students, locally and across the country.
He said if people cannot afford to work at the university then the services for students suffer. Beyond lecturers, this includes people that fix student accommodation, clean the campuses and run the libraries.
He said: “Our members are looking at yet another year of pay cuts and this year genuinely they’ve had enough and this is a message to the employer.”