Great Britain

In the US, the biggest strike among academics has ended after six weeks. In Great Britain, they warned of a new wave of attacks following historic attacks.

Brussels (Chrono): It came to a head between university management and the trade union movement in Great Britain. Just weeks after the biggest ever strike in British academia, an escalation has now been announced.

The University and College Union (UCU) announced before the weekend that more than 70,000 staff at 150 universities across the UK would go on strike in total for 18 days in February and March.

The clock is ticking, said UCU leader Jo Grady.

“University employees dedicate their lives to education, they want to get back to work, but that will only happen if the chancellor uses the sector’s immense wealth to do something about falling wages, insecure working conditions and disastrous pension cuts,” said a statement of British trade union leaders.

Likewise he pointed to the backdrop of the fact that in late November they paralyzed the sector for three days, in the biggest strike to date, after repeated strikes in the last five years. They previously pointed to calculations showing huge gains for the country’s universities.

Say no to new offers

Executive Director Raj Jethwa of the University and College Employers’ Association responded to the UCU escalation by welcoming the fact that the union has not declared an indefinite strike.

– UCU should give its members a realistic and fair assessment of what can be achieved, before giving them the opportunity to accept or reject the highest offer made in higher education for nearly 20 years, said a statement from Jehovah.

The university initially offered a three percent increase in salary. It was rejected by UCU, who replied that it was an effective pay cut, pointing to an offer of under-inflation pay for more than ten years.

Last Wednesday there was one new offer, with wage increases of between four per cent for the highest paid and seven per cent for those earning less than £22,662. The offer has been rejected by UCU, which is demanding a salary increase above inflation.

Employees also called for an end to unsafe working conditions, and pointed out that a third of academic staff at universities work on unsafe contracts.

In addition, they will stop cutting pensions by 35 percent.

Seeing the beginning of the national movement

While an escalation was announced in the UK, another major strike this fall has ended.

In the US, nearly 50,000 employees at the University of California, with its ten campuses and less than 300,000 students, went on strike in November for better pay and working conditions. This biggest strike of all time in American academia.

The strike on America’s West Coast ended after six weeks. according to that, Natural among other things, it has secured employee salary increases that vary from 20 to 80 percent. According to the journal, this was not the only result of the strike, they cited trade union representatives who believed this was only the start of a larger national movement to improve working conditions in the sector.

“This shows that a massive strike in higher education is possible and people can win for significant improvements in working conditions,” Rebecca Givan of the Center for Work and Health at Rutgers University, who heads the university’s academic staff union, told Nature.

Despite its historic scope, the strike, according to the journal, is just the latest example in a growing wave of protests in American universities.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify poverty wages by saying graduates are interns, with a golden ticket to steady employment,” Steve Striffler, who heads the Center for Labor Resources at the University of Massachusetts, tells Nature.