Like many friends and colleagues I will be on strike from Monday. I am a latecomer to the union and I find this situation very difficult because I am so proud of the work that we do @bhamlaw and have never worked in a place where I have been more fulfilled than @unibirmingham

I am an exceptionally fortunate person. I have a wonderful job & get to spend my days w great colleagues & inspiring students. But as a sector, UKHE is hurting. I have a good pension and a deeply fulfilling working life. But I struggle to recommend academia to those starting out

It shouldn’t be like that. Academia matters to a vibrant, thoughtful democracy and society. People who work in it deserve security & fair reward. Our students deserve to be taught by people with the security that allows them time and space to think and create. Often, they don’t.

Persistent gender & race attainment & pay gaps across UKHE are categorically inexcusable. My students & more junior colleagues deserve the career and opportunities and security that I enjoy and that enable me to wake up everyday and do a job that genuinely excites and fulfils me.

And so from Monday I will strike in solidarity for the friends, colleagues, intellectual adventurers and social justice warriors I am so lucky to call my colleagues in and beyond @bhamlaw. And I will strike for our students.

I encourage and welcome all UoB students and colleagues to come and visit us on the pickets where we will be teaching, talking, and engaged in the transformative practice of solidarity. Pickets don’t shut classrooms; pickets are classrooms #UCUstrikes @BirminghamUCU