Over 70,000 university staff at 150 universities, who are members of the University and College Union (UCU), will go on strike for eighteen days in February and March over attacks on pay, working conditions and pensions.
The National Union of Students (NUS) has backed the strikes, which will be the biggest ever to hit UK universities and could impact 2.5 million students.
The full strike dates are:
Wednesday 1 February 2023 (one day)
Thursday 9 February and Friday 10 February (two days)
Tuesday 14 February, Wednesday 15 February and Thursday 16 February (three days)
Tuesday 21 , Wednesday 22, Thursday 23 February (three days) Strike action paused
Monday 27, Tuesday 28 February, Wednesday 1, Thursday 2 March (four days) Strike action paused
Wednesday 15 March, Thursday 16 March, Friday 17 March (three days)
Monday 20 March, Tuesday 21 March, Wednesday 22 March (three days)
UCU have said disruption can be avoided if employers act fast and make improved offers. If they don’t, strike action will escalate.
Staff will also continue industrial action short of strike (ASOS), which includes working to rule, refusing to make up work lost as a result of strike action and refusing to cover for absent colleagues.
Your lecturers, tutors and support staff DO NOT want to strike. Striking is always and only ever a last resort. Our working conditions are your learning conditions, so the things we are fighting for affect your future and the future of Higher education.
Here are some FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS about the UCU Strike Action. Click the question to go directly to the answer.
1. What is happening?
UCU, the University and College Union, has achieved an historic mandate for industrial action. The Union has gone through democratic processes and outlined a plan of action that includes 18 days of strikes (outlined above). This may also escalate to a marking boycott if employers do not provide a fair offer.
None of these dates and actions have to take place. In November we held limited action to allow employers to come up with a reasonable offer. They have refused. We have demonstrated the strength of feeling and our belief that our current working conditions are unsustainable. Employers, in the case of UEA, the Vice Chancellor and Executive Team, now have the opportunity to negotiate meaningfully. They can stave off disruption.
2. Why are UCU members doing this?
The dispute ties together a number of problems that are fundamentally reshaping the nature of higher education in the UK:
- Casualisation: many staff are living on precarious, short-term contracts and often don’t know in the summer whether they’ll have an income in September.
- Rates of pay: have fallen steadily in real terms and are now worth around three-quarters of their 2009 value. This makes embarking on a career in universities the privilege of the independently wealthy.
- Systemic inequality, with a particular focus on the longstanding gender, ethnic and disability pay gaps
- Workload and working conditions, with a focus on manageable hours and reducing levels of stress and ill health. Spiralling workloads and out-of-balance staff-student-ratios means students in 2022 do not receive the kind of attention and education staff would want to provide and which they were able to provide a mere couple of years ago.
Technically a separate dispute – but likely to be coordinated alongside the other one – is an attempt to resolve long-running problems with the management of USS, the pension scheme used mainly by UCU members at older universities, including UEA. That pension scheme has slashed pensions by roughly 35-50% based on a valuation of the fund from March 2020, when the world had crashed. Members have been challenging this sham slashing in multiple ways, including via courts, but USS has refused to reverse its cuts. Thus far.
https://twitter.com/ucu/status/1591819910656962565?s=20&t=YpQw2jWf1olvlkOohydLGw
3. What is the strategy to win?
The strike days take place over a series of weeks. At any point, employers could table an offer that will end the dispute on pay and commit to restoring our pension benefits to end that dispute as well. On the 1st February, members from several local unions will travel to the city centre to take part in a wider national action to tackle the rising costs of living. Across the country, 150 UCU HE branches will be demonstrating to UCEA (which represents most UK universities) that enough is enough. If they still won’t listen, UCU will hit employers with a marking boycott and further strike action in the new year.
The pay claim that has been put to UCEA is a joint claim for all workers at UK universities. At many universities both UCU and other trade union members will be striking and rallying on these strike days.
This strategy is very different to that adopted in recent disputes. It combines escalating strike action with a nationwide marking boycott. In addition, as the General Secretary has outlined in a new strategy document, the industrial strategy will be accompanied by a full spectrum of campaigning activity, including media, lobbying, member recruitment, and working with students.
4. Remind me again when UEA UCU is striking?
The full strike dates are:
Wednesday 1 February 2023 (one day)
Thursday 9 February and Friday 10 February (two days)
Tuesday 14 February, Wednesday 15 February and Thursday 16 February (three days)
Tuesday 21 February, Wednesday 22 February, Thursday 23 February (three days)
Monday 27 February, Tuesday 28 February, Wednesday 1 March, Thursday 2 March (four days)
Thursday 16 March, Friday 17 March (two days)
Monday 20 March, Tuesday 21 March, Wednesday 22 March (three days)
5. And what other forms of action are happening?
UCU has also been taking part in action short of a strike (ASOS) since the 23rd November which entails:
- working to contract
- not undertaking voluntary work
- refusing to cover for absent colleagues
- refusing to reschedule classes cancelled due to strike action
- refusing to upload materials to support classes cancelled due to strike action.
UCU has also indicated that a marking and assessment boycott may commence in April unless negotiations have progressed.
6. I’m a student, where am I in all this?
Staff working conditions are students’ learning conditions. The fight to make UK universities a safe and sustainable place to work is also the fight for higher education as a safe and sustainable place for all. UCU and NUS continue to work together to fight the rampant marketisation of HE that is wrecking the sector.
7. What happens on a strike day?
Strike action is when staff refuse to work on a particular strike day. At universities, this includes not doing any work-related activity, such as teaching students, marking coursework, attending meetings, preparing for meetings or lectures, sending emails related to work and carrying out administrative tasks.
Striking staff may create a picket line by standing outside their workplace to tell people why they are taking part in industrial action and ask them not to cross the line.
9. How can I show my support for the strikes?
Write to your Vice-Chancellor.
UCU at UEA have a template you can use to email yor concerns to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. David Richardson (D.Richardson@uea.ac.uk).
Tell your lecturers and tutors that you support them.
Whether it’s in the form of an email or a few words in person, it means an awful lot to people who are striking that their students support them. We recognise that this is likely to cause significant disruption to your education, and it’s not an action we take lightly or enjoy taking.
University staff risk, and in some cases sacrifice, their financial livelihood in order to strike. Many tutors and lecturers live paycheck to paycheck, particularly those of us who are on precarious zero-hour or low guaranteed-hour contracts.
We *do not get paid* for the days that we strike. It’s a common misconception that we do. Many staff are considering breaking the strike in order to work so that they are able to get paid, because they can’t afford to sacrifice the money they would normally earn.
Talk to your friends.
Talk to your friends. Discuss the issues and actions. Get their support.
Join us on the picket line.
Our UCU@UEA branch will be organising pickets. Find out when and where they’re happening, get some friends together, make some signs, and come on down to support your lecturers and tutors. You can get updates from Twitter (@UEA_UCU)
Learn more about trade unions and why we were striking….
Speak to staff, visit the pickets, ask what you want to know. Here’s a short presentation with these points mentioned above that you can share!