Hey! I mentioned this on stream recently but I'm on strike from my teaching job this week and I wanted to give some folks who tune in some insight into what that means! #UCUStrike #UCUstrikesback #UCUStrikes

So as most of y'all know, I'm a PhD student, but I also have two additional jobs - one is in my uni's student's union, and one is as an associate tutor. As an AT I teach students, lead seminars, supervise dissertations, etc, and am a member of the #UCU (Uni & Colleges Union)

The UCU recently balloted for strike action over issues broadly covered under two umbrellas of 1) pensions, and 2) pay. In order for strikes to happen, there not only had to be a big mandate for it, but also the turnout had to be over 50% - which was reached in most places.

The pensions issue is to do with a bunch of stuff - a switch by employers to a different and more precarious scheme in which employees get less when the retire; a rise in contributions; etc.

Here's the thing - I don't actually GET a pension on my current contract, because the contributions are so high that I had to opt out. This is because I'm on a temporary, 12 week contract, I'm a casualised member of staff - that's one of the things that the PAY dispute is about.

The pay dispute is over stuff like HUGE and unsustainable workloads that are forced upon staff; a massive loss in pay despite rises in tuition fees; the gender pay gap; and the rising casualisation of academia, to name a few issues.

For those not in the know - casualisation is where jobs that were previously permanent and salaried are moved to temporary, fixed-term, hourly paid so employers to save money at the expense of employees. Academia in the UK is currently estimated to be well over 50% casualised.

That means that undergrad students pay +£9k per year and there is an above 50% chance that the person teaching them will be hourly paid on a 12-week contract, probably also working a second or third job to make ends meet. Like me!

Anyway, as a PhD student working a casualised contract, PLUS a second job to make ends meet, as well as being a female academic when the gender pay gap persists AND not being able to afford to pay into a pension scheme - obviously this dispute is super important to me personally!

But also - it's not just a personal thing. Because learning and helping other folks learn and trying to make the world a better place (and dismantling academia and rebuilding it better than before... but that's for another thread) is SO important to me and my fellow ATs and staff

And the rhetoric from institutions - including my uni - has been that striking staff are selfish and don't care about their students. But the strikes are about the future of higher education and protesting its marketisation, and the way it exploits staff AND students.

My uni specifically has deliberately tried to delay talks with the local UCU branch in order to try to send the pickets into chaos (it didn't work - the pickets have been massive both days). It has also spread lies and misinformation about the strikes to staff and students.

My uni released guidlines that said Associate Tutors (casualised, many of us are PhD students) would have our pay disproportionately docked if we went on strike. When we complained, they 'corrected' it and said it was a mistake - but we're not stupid.

Other unis have released statements telling students that it is "unlawful" for them to join picket lines, in an attempt to frighten them into not supporting their lecturers and staff.

After the strike UCU members are encouraged to do ASOS. Note: not the online clothes shop it stands for Action Short of a Strike, it means you work to contract and don't do ANY of the stuff that is not included in your contract but that your uni unspokenly expects you to do.

So basically: ASOS is just... doing your job. Doing everything you're supposed to do, and politely refusing to do any additional work the uni asks of you. Doesn't sound too objectionable, right?

Nah some unis are saying they'll dock pay for staff engaging in ASOS.

I think there's an idea that uni staff are all rich AF and sit about not doing anything. There are people like that for sure (look up uni vice chancellor's pay if you wanna be depressed), but out on the picket line, most of us are casualised, low-paid, overworked, and STRUGGLING.

So I thought I'd give some insight into a few experiences I've had that have led to me supporting the #UCUStrikes.

First things first: I have already used nearly all of my allocated hours of marking and seminar prep for the semester as stipulated in my contract and it's only Week 9 out of 12 of the semester. All of my end of semester marking will be done for free. #UCUStrikesBack

This is because 1) most contracts at my institution assume that modules only have an end-of-semester essay, and ignore the fact that many also have mid-semester assessments and formatives that also require marking.

But also 2) they assume an essay can be marked in 15-20 mins.

Last semester I did not get paid for office hours - allocated time that seminar leaders must offer for students to come talk about problems. I did over 20 hours of unpaid student meetings. This comes to over £269 of work I didn't get paid for. #UCUStrikes

In the 2018/19 academic year, I got paid the same in the Autumn semester as I did in the Spring semester, despite the fact that in the Spring semester I ran an additional class, taught double the amount of students and marked double the amount of essays. #UCUStrikes

My AT friend and I have STILL not been told if we have teaching allocated for the Spring semester this year. We got told "if you haven't been emailed, you probably haven't got anything" last week, but did not receive official correspondance letting us know allocations were done.

Not only were modules allocated to Associate Tutors incredibly late this year, but the fact that we weren't told if we were unsuccessful until we sought the info out means we now have only a month to find work from January onwards.

My pal is having to go back to work in the uni's coffee shop. I may have to go back to work in their shop kitchen (despite it being horrible and exploitative in different ways. Also they electrocuted me one time. Argh!)

My department has lost 11 staff in the last three years, and only hired one replacement for them. Yet it won't employ us ATs to help - instead choosing to pile more work onto the remaining permanent staff, and leaving us ATs with nothing. #UCUStrikes

The module that I worked on with a fellow AT last year has this year been assigned to my PhD supervisor to run solo. Other permanent staff members are being removed from modules in their specialist areas to cover other stuff that they know less about in order to save money.

Anyway, I've been writing this thread for the best part of an hour - I think I'll stop now. But hopefully it gives folks some insight into why the #UCUStrikes should be supported by all. Staff and students deserve better! Academia needs to be better! #UCUStrikesBack #UCUStrike

I'll add more stuff if I think about it but let me end with: Support the strikes!

Also education is a right not a privilege and should be FUCKING FREE