Alison Clarke
Peter RowlettToday I'm off work on #UCUstrike. Thinking about the standard academic career path. People could leave school at 16 and go get a job, but they choose to study further, to specialise more. They get A levels, don't stop. They specialise more, get an undergraduate degree. They don't stop then either. They continue to a PhD, usually getting a Master's first. Then... (this is a thread, keep reading)
They graduate from their PhD a world-class expert in a narrow sub-field. They're in their mid-20s having dedicated a huge chunk of their life to study. They could have been working and earning for a decade, but they chose to become the experts we need to advance human knowledge. Good for them! #UCUstrike
Now they enter the lucrative labour market and start earning, right? Some leave academia at this point and become highly-skilled employees. Others decide the academic route is right for them. We need new academics to educate new students and do the kinds of research that happens in universities. So big bucks academic contracts it is! #UCUstrike
Only it isn't. They start a prolonged period of short-term and casual employment. Some end up lecturing but on zero-hours contracts. Some do research on fixed-term contracts without career stability. Universities rely on this casualised labour for core operations. Many students are taught by lecturers who don't know if they'll have a job next term. Life goes on hold for many because how can you plan in these conditions? #UCUstrike
Eventually, some get a 'permanent' contract. There's a lot of nonsense about 'tenure'; a permanent academic contract in the UK is just an open-ended contract, roles can still be made redundant. But this is the good times. Every year thanks to the union-negotiated pay scales the pay goes up. Except... #UCUstrike
Despite union-negotiated pay scales and clearly-defined career progression, universities still manage to systematically pay some groups less than others - e.g. women, ethnic minorities. And they don't seem to take solid action to address these systemic problems. #UCUstrike
Also, the amount of work lecturers are asked to do goes up every year. Universities use workload models to decide how much work to allocate to staff, but they tweak these models. It's a big game of trying to squeeze more work out of staff in subtle ways that they won't notice, where one side holds a lot more power than the other. So every year you're asked to do more work and told it'll take a smaller % of your time. But pay is going up the scale in increments, so yey! #UCUstrike
Then at some point this person reaches the top of the pay scale. Now they stay at the same salary point for the rest of their career. But they're well-paid and the pay keeps rising because the employer usually—though not always—increases the salary at each of the points every year. Except the universities every year increase the salaries by less than inflation, and push this 'negotiated' pay through even when the unions don't agree to it. So pay is actually going down. #UCUstrike
Our person is now around, say, 40. They've dedicated years of their life to study. They've suffered years of casualisation and come through a system that systematically underpays some demographic groups. And now the rest of their career maps out like this: every year, they will be squeezed to do more work and paid less for doing it. They have their peak salary, it will decline every year until they retire. So they join a union, find everyone is in the same boat, and we get #UCUstrike.
Of course strikes are bad. I don't want to be on strike. I wish the employer had come to the table to negotiate and we weren't in this situation again. I don't want my students to be missing classes. So how should students feel about this? The students at my university have put together a page about how the strikes impact students which I think is worth a read: https://www.hallamstudentsunion.com/news/article/6013/UCU-Industrial-Action-and-how-students-may-be-affected/ #UCUstrike
Daniel Colquitt@peterrowlett bravo 👏
I don’t think that I’ve ever heard this put so eloquently.
I don’t think that I’ve ever heard this put so eloquently.
@danielcolquitt Aw, shucks. 😊 Thank you!
Shield Maiden@peterrowlett This reads like a cautionary tale for children, which of course it inadvertently is. Informative for grown ups too.
nia@peterrowlett #Solidarity from this academic union member
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE@peterrowlett When I knew a lot of junior researchers it went like this:
(1) Get a three year job.
(2) Spend the first year getting the equipment and suchlike together.
(3) Spend the second year actually doing some actual work.
(4) Spend the third year applying for the next temporary job.
So, working occupied around a third of the time for these people throughout their twenties and into their thirties. I didn't think this was a very efficient system.
Patricia S Paton 🏴🇧🇷@peterrowlett perfectly put! I reached a point my salary was entirely directed to pay for my child care. Which one do you think I chose at the end? Take care of my child myself instead of letting strangers to raise her. Not to count that a few years before I was told I’d never get a lectureship if I planned to have family…
Denise@peterrowlett Thank you for putting this so succinctly. I have a (woman) family member who is an academic & everything you’ve said rings true. I hope your strike is effective. #UCUstrike
JonathanSadler@peterrowlett Absolutely this. Nicely done.
Geof Hughes 🖤@peterrowlett Neo-liberalist race to the bottom. Happening all across the western world, and beyond. Solidarity with All fighting for their rights to a fair living wage. 💪💪💪
Tiffany, Sigh-D@peterrowlett @fparente solidarity from an academic in the US ✊🏼
Christian L. Vestergaard