The so-called ‘agreement’ reached at ACAS smacked of two parties who have failed to understand the feelings of those who currently work in higher education. One group, the employers have lost sight of what the consequences of their actions have caused. Most senior managers in our institutions have convinced themselves that we are business-like, if not actually for-profit enterprises. This view is some distance from the day-to-day experiences of staff and students. It is the basis although not wholly the reason for the senior management disconnect from practice in faculties, schools and departments. Of course this is compounded by the explicit inequality that has festered and burst forth within institutions.
A striking picket voices concern – the old perceptions of what it is like to work in higher education are gone
League tables show Oxbridge near the top and by implication suggest other institutions are not as good. Much more covert are the constant messages by managers within institutions, many of whom are ex-academics, saying ‘we have made this decision about you without your involvement’, ‘we have determined that you are under performing’ and of course the favourite of the arrogant academic manager, ‘your research – or teaching – is not good enough’. This has become our own version of the Victorian deserving and the undeserving in universities.
The practice of senior managers has resulted in damaging material affects. There are those academics who have been forced to change their contract, many others have seen their working environment deteriorate and we have experienced a huge increase in the use of precarious contracts for part-time casualised staff. Universities UK (UUK) the employers representative, that is the VC’s and other senior managers, in this dispute are without doubt, the cause of this. We have to ask, do they actually care?
The other group, the leadership of UCU, have approached this dispute in the same way as all previous disputes. This has been their oversight. What they have failed to do is to grasp the exasperation and frustration of members who have constantly had their terms and conditions rewritten without the support needed to push back. Those old perceptions of what it is like to work in higher education are outdated and have gone. Yet, by simply standing on the picket line with others, we provide our members with the means to overcome the isolation of poor management decisions felt when in work, in our respective department.
The real strength of UCU is their membership, the intangible asset of the academics and professional services staff who know the systems inside out. We have members who can critique the governance of higher education, who can dismantle the methodology used in the assessment of the University Superannuation Scheme (USS), who can evaluate university finances, who can analyse the political context of the dispute, argue for alternatives to the marketisation pursued by government and so on. We have experts in this union who regularly shape policies for governments, health services and other major institutions. They’re clever! The leadership of UCU must commit to democratising the processes of decision-making, while keeping the conduit with ACAS and UUK open. This is not an easy thing to achieve, but it is why they are there.
We must convince those not on strike to join us and show them how the failed decision-making of UUK has led to this dispute
Yet the branches too have to think this through in a more strategic light. UUK could well revert to their original decision and plan to implement the change convinced amongst themselves that UCU members will not hold out. The immediate step for local branches now is to convince those who are in USS but not in UCU that the union needs them and they need to be part of the union. They must be clear on: the financial devastation to their retirement, the failed pensions methodology used by UUK that is the basis of their decision to end defined benefits, that if UUK win this dispute more attacks on terms and conditions will follow. Our members have produced the evidence to support this so let’s use it. Branches must convince those who are not on strike that they will suffer from the draconian measures of senior managers in higher education when this if over if a victory is not ensured.
Rhetoric is easy to find within higher education. However, I have not met anyone on strike who does not regard the views of students as highly important. Our members care about the students. So much so that in this case it may well be that the heart and soul of the UK higher education system is currently being shaped in a way that will determine its purpose for a generation or more.
Please, if you work in the Management School or elsewhere in the university and you have yet to commit, then find out more about this dispute. Help yourself and your colleagues by joining the strike. If at this stage you are not in a union, then join the union. More information on today’s development can be found here.
UCU UoL Management School 