Staff have been striking on issues including pensions and pay, unsafe workloads, casualisation and inequality.
The UCU has said the average working week in education is currently 50 hours, with 29% of staff working 55, while workload has increased for a majority since the pandemic.
This increase in labour has come, for many, without an increase in pay, with national wage disparities found on a basis of race (White staff are paid 17% more on average than Black staff), disability (where the gap is 9%) and gender (with a gap of 15.1%).
The UCU claims these disparities are likely to take 22 years to resolve with the current rate of change of universities.
A key demand being made by the UCU in this term’s strikes is that employers revoke national cuts to staff pensions.
Under Universities UK proposals, the UCU claims lecturers stand to face cuts of 35% to their guaranteed retirement income, a figure that Universities UK have said is in fact around 10-18%.
Additional demands from the Union include a wage increase for all staff, and action to tackle inequality and insecure contracts.
National UCU President Vicky Blake visited the York strike picket line, and told York Vision: “I wish we weren’t on strike. I wish we didn’t have to strike, but we are here because it seems to be the only way that our employers will listen, and that’s really sad.”
Acknowledging the inconvenience that strikes cause students, she said: “we are on strike because it’s the only way that they ever listen to us.
“You deserve stable working conditions and fair treatment from your employers […] we are asking for fair and safe workloads.”
This emphasis on “fair” and “safe” could be felt in many of the picket speeches, with one staff member saying: “I beg them to look at the colleagues who have given everything for our students, and I beg them to look at the students who want to be in the classroom and are here because they want to learn, and I beg them to stand up for us.”
Picketers included some students who wanted to show solidarity with University staff.
Speaking to Vision, YUSU President Patrick O’Donnell said that, in light of delays to exam results, coursework and overcrowded lecture theatres, it is “really important that we are working with the University and other students’ unions nationally to seek progress”.
O’Donnell said students would see positive changes to their tuition if the demands of striking staff were met, telling Vision: “Our learning conditions are the working conditions of our staff”
A University spokesperson said: “We recognise that the decision to take industrial action is not taken lightly – we respect colleagues’ right to take part.”
When strikes were first called this year, Vice Chancellor Charlie Jeffery said: “The national UCU’s call for action will not change the national challenges facing the pension scheme, and so much headway has already been made on this issue, as well as very constructive progress on pay and working conditions. This is why I have called on all parties to build on the common ground we know exists, rather than continuing the damaging cycle of division we have seen.
“I am committed to continuing to work collaboratively with our local UCU branch and to build on all of the work we’ve done so far to continue to provide good employment conditions for all of our staff.”