‘LECTURERS and students unite and fight!’ rang out through the streets of central London yesterday as up to 5,000 striking lecturers, supported by their students, marched from ULU (University of London Union) to Parliament. Yesterday was the lecturers’ fifth day of strike action, shutting 61 universities across the length and breadth of the country, with more strikes planned for March in an escalating battle against an unprecedented attack on their pensions.
On the march, Elena Besussi, a politics lecturer and UCU member at UCL (University College London) told News Line: ‘When the strike was called, it was 14 days and we have done five. If there is no proposal to withdraw the changes to our pension scheme then the strike will continue. ‘We have only been out for five days and already we have brought Universities UK (UUK) back to the negotiating table. ‘Student support is solid. They know that our conditions at work, is their condition of learning. ‘If we struggle, they struggle. I believe absolutely that education must be free.
‘There are countries in Europe like Denmark where being a student is considered a career, a profession. Students get paid a salary to study because they are bettering themselves, it is a job.
‘On the question of our pensions, the whole academic sector is now split, with some Vice Chancellors asking UUK to go back and negotiate. Unfortunately, that is not the case with the Vice Chancellor of UCL.’
Institute of Education UCU branch president John Yandell said: ‘This is what trade unionism looks like. UCU is showing the trade union movement the tactics to take on austerity. ‘This dispute is absolutely about pensions, but it is also about what education at university level is for, who universities belong to. ‘So when the bosses are trying to privatise our pension, that is part of a much wider neo-liberal project to privatise education. ‘And the students get it. Tory PM Theresa May’s answer to the crisis in education is to give each and every course a price tag. ‘This is their attempt to turn education into a commodity. ‘Education is not a commodity, it is a right! ‘What she and her cronies are attempting to do is privatise education.’
Alexandre Brunstein, UCL student and NUS member studying European and Social Political Studies told News Line: ‘We have come down here to support our lecturers for one simple reason: The logic of marketisation. It is affecting our lecturers and it would be foolish to think that it will not affect students. ‘Students are already feeling the effects of rising rents in student halls and rising tuition fees. Students and lecturers are facing the same problem: Marketisation. ‘So we have to fight and strike together!’
Eddie Bruce, a law lecturer at Birkbeck, said: ‘You have to negotiate with the union before proposing such a huge shift in our pension plan.‘These strikes are the inevitable consequence of a failure to negotiate with the union. ‘This is consistent with their constant privatisation agenda, outsourcing services to the likes of Serco and G4S. It is an extension of their policy which tends towards privatisation, in order to shift resources around to make profit and cut corners.’
