University strikes, aka Oh God Another Endless Thread About This Shit. I can't promise I have anything new to say. But here's my own personal, unofficial take.

Firstly, what are we even upset about? Five things. 1/33 #UCUstrikes #UCUStrikesBack

ISSUE 1/5: PENSIONS. Let's start with the one you've all heard of. After the changes forced through last year, the average member of staff will lose almost £10,000 per working year from their pension. Think "paying tuition fees every year for 40 years". 2/33 #UCUstrikes #pension

ISSUE 2/5: WORKLOADS. Staff in HE/FE typically work 15+ unpaid hours per week. Don't forget: if you're a student, our working conditions are your learning conditions. If our sleep or mental health suffers, so does your education. 3/33 #UCUstrikes #mentalhealth #education

ISSUE 3/5: PAY EROSION. Our pay has been cut in real terms by 20% over the last decade. We need to pay rent and put food on the table, for ourselves and our dependents. Don't forget our valuable admin staff, who have it worst here. 4/33 #UCUstrikes

ISSUE 4/5: PAY GAPS. Women in UK universities earn on average 15.1% less than men. BAME staff at Russell Group universities earn 26% less than their white colleagues. We don't speak up enough about how disgusting this is. 5/33 #UCUstrikes #paygap #racism #misogyny

ISSUE 5/5: JOB INSECURITY. Zero-hours / hourly / temp contracts are endemic. If you want a part-time job for beer money, this works. But that this is the norm for highly qualified, experienced 35y/os trying to feed their families is unconscionable. 6/33 #UCUstrikes #zerohours

And these are just the formal disputes! Need I mention sky-high tuition fees, the marketisation of education, rampant privatisation, or the effect of funding cuts on teaching resources or research practices?

"Hold on a second..." 7/33 #UCUstrikes #tuitionfees #fundingcuts

"...won't the students' education suffer?" Doesn't it suffer when we're up until 1am marking? Or working extra jobs on the side to make ends meet? Or constantly moving from city to city, country to country, chasing our next precarious job? 8/33 #UCUstrikes #precarity

(Do our underfunded schools have enough pencils yet? Aren't pupils already suffering?) 9/33 #UCUstrikes #underfunding #understaffing #schools #teaching

"...don't you care about your students?" Of course I do. I care a great deal about my students. But I know from experience that, if I don't also care for myself and my colleagues, my students will suffer as a result. 10/33 #UCUstrikes #selfcare #mentalhealthawareness

"...I have it far worse than you!" Then unionise and go on strike. This isn't a competition: I don't want you to suffer. I will join you in solidarity on your pickets. But I will not join you in job insecurity and food poverty. 11/33 #UCUstrikes #solidarity

"...isn't this selfish?" Having everything and wanting more at the expense of those who have less is selfish. Having a raw deal and wanting to get screwed less is self-defence. 12/33 #UCUstrikes #UCUstrikesback

"...it's so disruptive!" That's how strikes work. Believe me, we tried everything less disruptive that we knew how to try, but when it all fell on deaf ears, this is what we were left with. 13/33 #UCUstrikes UCUstrikesback

"...what do your students think about this?" They've come out in overwhelming support. They know that I was a student not too long ago. They know that they'll be working for a probably shitty boss not too far in the future. 14/33 #UCUstrikes #UCUstrikesback

"...something incoherent about ivory towers!" Tell that to the tenured high six-figure mouthpieces at the top, not the overworked, underpaid grunt workers at the bottom. The former are the people we're protesting against, by the way. 15/33 #UCUstrikes #UCUstrikesback

"...working in academia is a privilege!" It is an enormous privilege. It's also just a job. It's what I use to pay my rent. I shouldn't be working unpaid evenings and weekends and losing sleep just to do that, just like you shouldn't. 16/33 #UCUstrikes

"...why don't you just leave?" I might - with appropriate caution. Changing careers might mean another decade of retraining, unpaid internships, chasing disappearing jobs, etc. Out of the frying pan, into the fire, another decade of my life down the drain. 17/33 #UCUstrikes

Alright, so: if you're a student, what can you do to help? 18/33 #UCUStrikes #UCUStrikesBack

(1) Show support however you can. Start conversations. If you must go on campus, wear prominent symbols of support like pins or badges. But consider boycotting if you can. It's especially powerful if you get a whole class to refuse to show up. 19/33 #UCUstrikes #boycott

(2) Some of us staff are scared, angry and upset. I cannot overstate how much the little actions mean. Come and say hello to us on the picket lines. Remind us that you support us. 20/33 #UCUstrikes #supportthestrikes

(3) Respect striking lecturers. It's not their fault, and they're not punishing you.
(4) Respect striking students.
21/33 #UCUstrikes

(5) Have compassion for non-striking students. Many students live behind picket lines. I don't even want to think about how non-attendance would interact with visas / immigration. There are all kinds of educational, financial, legal or personal factors. 22/33 #UCUstrikes

(6a) Think carefully before judging non-striking lecturers. They have, mostly, made a regrettable choice. But many of them will have been forced. Not all bosses will respect their legal right to strike. Not everyone has the flexibility to take the financial hit. 23/33 #UCUstrikes

(6b) (But striking isn't binary. Maybe you want to go on strike, but there's one thing you 100% cannot refuse to do in good conscience. Fine, do what you must. But you can also keep it to an absolute minimum, and then tell your boss you were on strike anyway.) 24/33 #UCUstrikes

(7a) There will also be lecturers who cover our cancelled classes behind our backs, and oh boy, do I have a lot to say about them. 25/33 #UCUstrikes

(7b) Firstly: (6a) will apply to a few of them. Their bosses might force them to cover classes via threats, even illegal ones. (Hey, that's part of the problem!) But this will not apply to all of them. And for them... 26/33 #UCUstrikes

(7c) They're going to claim it's for your benefit.

"How can I justify not teaching them something they'll be examined on?" You write the exam, dipshit. Just remove that topic.

Don't fall for this feigned ignorance. 26.5/33 i can't count #UCUstrikes #virtuesignalling

(7d) "But what if it's a really important topic?" Well, shuffle your lectures around and remove another topic. Or trim everything down and remove a lecture's worth somewhere else. Or include it, but ask your students to learn it from a book. 27/33 #UCUstrikes #virtuesignalling

(7e) "There's something I have to teach. Their entire future rests on it. I think it can't be self-taught or learnt from YouTube for some reason." Sigh. Okay, dude. My students aren't idiots, but if you insist that yours are, at least see (6b), yeah? 28/33 #UCUstrikes

(7f) Ultimately, many will try to claim the moral high ground. They do not occupy the moral high ground. If they render our strikes useless, they fuck over their colleagues *and* make things worse for future generations of students. 29/33 #UCUstrikes #strikebreaking

(7g) What should you do in this case? Class-wide boycotts are ideal, but again, see (5). Even if you attend, you can still object. Tell them you don't agree with their choice to #scab. Wear UCU badges in their class. Don't answer questions or laugh at jokes. 30/33 #UCUstrikes

If you take only one thing away, let it be this: we are all human. We all study & we all work. We all need food and shelter. We all need mental and physical health. We all need community and security. We will all need to care for others at some point. 31/33 #UCUstrikes

We're yesterday's students. You're tomorrow's employees. There were many before us, and there will be many after. We all need the same things. I'm not fighting for me: I'm fighting for you, for them, for us all. We win this fight by all coming together. 32/33 #UCUstrikes

This week, we're the ones on strike. In a few years, it might be you. I'll be there to support you when your child's school has no teachers, your tuition fees go up to £20k, or your boss withholds your salary. Will you be there for us? 33/33 #UCUstrikes #UCUstrikesback