(A propos of a few conversations with comrades today:)
Striking is hard. You enter into conflict with your employer, you let your students down, you lose 40% of your salary, you can't do work that you'r e passionate about, you freeze on picket. It's a last resort. 1/n #ucustrike

For a strike to be effective, though, we have to cause disruption and damage. And yes, that may disrupt us and damage our sense of ourselves . But that's what solidarity is about. You strike even though it's hard, because all other routes have failed. 2/n

If every single @ucu member had gone on strike last year, the employers would have returned to the negotiating table much more quickly. Strikes are effective when everyone joins in, and when everyone is seen to be joining in. 3/n

So yes, striking means you can't rearrange your teaching to make sure other colleagues don't end up picking up the slack. Striking means standing your ground and insisting that your sacrifice causes disruption. #ucustrike 4/n

Effective striking means you don't engage in any professional activities, even off-campus, even in another country. Our strike is highly visible. It matters to comrades in other sectors & other countries. If we are seen to strikebreak elsewhere, we let them down #ucustrike 5/n

Effective striking means you don't engage in any professional activities, even ones you love, even ones you are invested in personally & have looked forward to for months. Employers exploit our love for our job to cut our pensions & pay, casualise & overload us #ucustrike 6/n

Effective striking means you don't engage in any professional activities, even if another comrade has to. They may have their own good reasons not to keep the strike, often financial. But it's all the more important that you uphold solidarity where you can #ucustrike 7/n

Effective striking means you keep solidarity. If you cross the picket line to teach while another comrade is worrying about her students, if you rock up to a research event abroad while another comrade is panicking about their damaged REF, you're hurting all of us #ucustrike 8/n

Effective striking means letting people down: research partners, service users, students, colleagues. It also means letting your family down financially, just before Christmas. That can feel shameful. So only solidarity can turn that shame into activist pride #ucustrike 9/n

I know not everyone can strike. So many of us are casualised & stretched that we can't afford to fill the gap between salary and strike pay. All the more reason for those of us who CAN strike to show up for each other. If we must strike, let's do it effectively. #ucustrike 10/n

We can't afford NOT to strike effectively. If we don't, things will get worse. Our health will suffer, our research will suffer, our students will suffer. We've tried to tell employers every other way that enough is enough. This is the only way left #ucustrike 11/n

Again, I know that with colleagues stretched & commuting, often b/c of casualised contracts, not everyone can picket. I can't myself before 9:30 am, because I still have to do the school run. All the more reason for those who can to picket in force . Do it for me! #ucustrike 12/n

Striking can seem uncomfortable, ranty. Academics are often solitary and shy. We may struggle to identify with militant chants, demonstrative marching, deliberate disruption. To strike effectively means to transform ourselves, sometimes a bit, sometimes radically. #ucustrike 13/n

Striking can seem alien. Academics may come from other jurisdictions where unions are oppressed or indeed oppressive. Academics are often middle-class and may not have a tradition of union activism in their family. (I don't!) So be gentle with nervous colleagues #ucustrike 14/n

Effective striking is hard. So effective striking means being kind. Be kind to your comrades, be kind to yourself. Try and use the strike period as a gift to yourself too, whether that's to catch up with friends, catch up with reading or catch up with sleep #ucustrike 15/n

Oh yes and: IF YOU ARE A @UCU MEMBER YOU HAVE A LEGAL RIGHT TO STRIKE. Even if your department is stretched. Even if you are in a management role and your employer is pressuring you to hold their line. #UCUstrike 16/n https://www.gov.uk/industrial-action-strikes/your-employment-rights-during-industrial-action