The University and College Union (UCU) have announced strikes for 24th, 25th and
30th November which would involve 70,000 workers in 150 universities. In additiona national demonstration is scheduled to take place in London on the 30thNovember. The strikes are over pensions, pay, workloads and inequalities. UCUmembers will be joined in some universities by striking Unite and Unison members.---- The strikes coincide with those by postal workers on the same date. InScotland, school teachers in the Education Institute of Scotland are on strike onNovember 24th. It is imperative that joint actions-rallies and a jointdemonstration on the 30th -are argued for strongly by both university workers andpostal workers.The result of the strike ballots initiated by the UCU was announced on October24th. 81.1 % voted to strike on a turnout of 57.8% for the pay and conditionsballot. For the pensions ballot, support for strike action was higher at 84.9% ona turnout of 60.2%.Following the vote, the UCU called a UK-wide Branch Delegate Meeting, which intheory is another level of democratic decision making, but was felt by manydelegates to have been a waste of time, with only Branches who had not previouslyentered into strike action being called to speak. The Higher Education Committee,which met shortly afterwards, agreed to three days of strikes despite theoverwhelming mandate for strike action. UCU General Secretary, Jo Grady, arguedin a 12 page document that "to win a dispute of this magnitude though, strikeaction can only be part of the strategy and not all of it". This documentappeared one day before the higher education committee meeting and was clearlydesigned to halt any moves to greater strike action.The UCU leadership justified these tokenistic strikes by saying that it hadcarried out an online survey which involved 4,000 members of the union. 59.1%supported Grady's proposal of limited action, but for the starters this surveywas little publicised amongst the UCU membership, and secondly, it should beremembered that a large number of workers voted for strike action in the originalballots. So the opinions of a small minority were used to sabotage effective action.The old, right-wing UCU leadership had a history of ignoring decisions by rankand file members of the union, the new left leadership appears to becircumnavigating them.In addition Grady put off a marking and assessment boycott, which could be ahighly effective tool in the struggle, to February next year. The UCU leadershipdelayed the start of the strike ballot until September. As a result universityworkers did not come out on strike at the same time as BT, postal and railworkersin the summer and early autumn, and at the same time any assessment boycott offinal exams will require a new ballot mandate.Since the ballot result, the leaderships of both the the rail unions the RMT andTSSA and the Communication Workers, representing BT and postal workers, havecancelled strikes whilst they entered into negotiations. Particularly concerningwas the CWU statement that it was signing a joint statement with the Royal Mailbosses for a "de-escalation of tension" and a restoration of "calmness in theworkplace".The strategy of the UCU leadership is to appeal to Labour and Tory MPs and themedia! Really? A Labour Party that has told its MPS not to attend picket lines, aConservative Party with a viciously anti-working class agenda, and a mediarabidly hostile to strike action?Another part of this lobbying strategy is to aim for a joint statement with theNational Union of Students (NUS). This has long been a body that has been aconveyor belt for careers in the Labour Party and in charity organisations. Overthe years it has signally failed to fight against rises in tuition fees and cutsin education.Of course solidarity from university students is essential. As we havehighlighted in a recent article on student poverty, students themselves arehaving problems with the rising cost of living. They also face hikes inuniversity rents and massive tuition fees. In addition the cuts in highereducation have affected the standard of their education.Any solidarity from students must be at an organic, grassroots level. We cannotrely on the NUS to provide serious support for the strikes and they and the UCUleadership will attempt to sabotage any genuine rank and file action.We need to look towards the development of grassroots strike committees that looktowards building support from students and from local communities and forcoordinated actions with other groups of workers currently in strugglehttps://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2022/11/15/university-workers-prepare-to-strike/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten