UNIVERSITY and college workers are holding the most widespread strike action in Higher and Further Education (HE & FE) for years.
Staff in universities have been offered just a 1% pay rise this year, despite their pay plummeting 13% in real terms in last four years, while lecturers in FE fared even worse with employers offering them just 0.7% after their pay has been cut 15% in real terms since 2009.
As the strike movement increases, with four unions on strike today, so do student occupations, with Edinburgh the latest to occupy, joining University of Sussex students who have re-occupied, and Birmingham University, whose ten-day occupation only ended when they were forcibly evicted in the early hours of last Thursday morning following a High Court injunction.
Hugh Murdoch, EUSA (Edinburgh University Students Association) President said: ‘Staff at Edinburgh University have undergone real terms pay cuts of 15% over the past four years. We support the strike and students’ right to protest.
‘To ensure the welfare of students involved in the occupation we will be working with them and the University throughout the occupation.’
University of Sussex NUS Executive member and chair of the postgraduate association Adriano Merola Marotta told News Line: ‘All staff at the university are covered by the strike and we’ll be having everyone from lecturers, cleaners, office assistants, security staff, pretty much every single function of the university on strike with the full support of the students.
‘One of the reasons for occupying the conference centre of our university is to show solidarity for the lowest paid staff on campus.
‘Across the UK there is a growing movement of solidarity between students and workers. At Sussex this is something that we have had for over a year and a half now as we have been fighting privatisation as a community.’
Hattie Craig, Birmingham University Vice President of Education at the Guild of Students, told News Line yesterday: ‘Edinburgh has gone into occupation as well now, so that’s occupation number three and I expect there are going to be more today and tomorrow – it’s growing.’
A UCU officer told News Line: ‘We’ve got rallies in Bristol, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Brighton, Birmingham, Cambridge, Southampton and Liverpool and all over the country.
‘In London there’s a rally at 1.00pm in Bloomsbury, in Brighton members are assembling in Victoria Gardens Grand Parade for a rally at 1.00pm and a protest on the seafront at 2.15 at the Holiday Inn, in Birmingham there will be a rally from 1.00pm-2.00pm at John Lee Theatre at the Birmingham and Midlands Institute.
University workers are joined by colleagues in the EIS trade union in Scotland.
Lecturers at FE colleges in England will be taking their first day of strike action, also in a row over pay.
UCU head of bargaining, Michael MacNeil, said: ‘Staff in universities and colleges have seen their pay slashed in real terms since 2009 and this year’s miserly pay offer, at a time of rising bills, was the straw that broke the camel’s back.’
Unite national officer Mike McCartney said the 1% pay offer on the table for 2013/14 is ‘completely unacceptable’.
Unison national secretary Jon Richards said: ‘While the lower-paid staff see real-terms pay cuts of over 13%, university senior managers can still find a way to line their pockets.’
