KCLSU members should have supported the UCU strikes

Roar writer on why members of the KCLSU should have supported strikes being considered by the University and College Union (UCU).

On October 18 the UCU began balloting members to determine whether UCU members should consider taking strike action before the end of this year. Since then the King’s College London Students’ Union (KCLSU opened its own ballot, asking members of the KCLSU if they should support strikes. Students voted from October 22-24 to decide whether or not they would support any strike action.

On October 25, the KCLSU announced that its members had voted against supporting the UCU strikes. Two camps formed on the vote; some insisted they didn’t want their education to be “disrupted” and that they had already witnessed a year of “disaster”, claiming that supporting the UCU strikes would have a “disastrous impact” on their education. Still others claimed that professors who were supporting such strikes were “selfish”. On the other side, there were those who did want to support the strikes, as they felt it was important for “equality, equal opportunities, women’s rights and a fight against racism and discrimination” which is what the UCU has said the strikes are for. 

The UCU opened up the ballot to its members over higher education-wide concerns over unfair staff pay. Staff, here represented by the UCU, are specifically dissatisfied with the failure of the college to adequately respond to demands they have made over to important issues: 

Changes the college wishes to make that would affect the workload of permanent staff as part of the proposed longer teaching year in the new “Flexible Academic Model” (FAM) scheduled to start in August 2022.

• Fair working conditions for casual staff. 
• To protect staff, the UCU is demanding an agreement for pro-rata hours and protection of existing contractual terms for teaching and research and “remaining time” which covers “activities which include knowledge exchange, line management and leadership, college citizenship, executive education, and administration”. 

At the same time as this, there have also been reports that the previous KCL’s Principals salary “was about *11 times* median total pay & n. of high paid staff went up” according to King’s College London’s 2019/20 financial statement.

And while we wait for Prof Kapur to tell us, let's look at @KingsCollegeLon 2019/20 financial statement. Principal's total pay was about *11 times* median total pay & n. of high paid staff went up. Surely worth considering if we talk inequality, no? ???? https://t.co/Im1jzfoGdU pic.twitter.com/IQ7rgHehqF

— KCL UCU is voting yes! (@KCL_UCU) October 24, 2021

If that is not a big enough reason enough to demand higher and more equal pay, the UCU has also reported that 71% of University staff say that ‘”insecure contracts” have damaged their mental health.

Despite disruptions at colleges and universities, strikes will take place regardless of whether or not students support them. However, it is important to support a cause if we witness a crisis, whether or not it affects us. From overworking staff being burnt out, to a mental health crisis, to staff from minorities feeling marginalised in society, the UCU has a lot of reasons to go on strike. And if these reasons are not enough for students to stand up for the rights of the people who have taught them so far and claim that these staff members would be “selfish” for doing so, it would be an extremely hypocritical statement while we live in a democratic and free society where people are allowed to fight for their rights. 

The UCU strikes aren’t limited to pensions and pay but they are also about fighting gender inequality, the gender pay gap, discrimination based on disabilities, and racism. Multiple movements across the UK such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) and women’s rights movements have been supported by students as long as it didn’t affect them negatively. But when it comes to lecturers demanding the same, students walk away just because they’re missing their lectures. On one hand, we all have to agree that our education is important; however, on the other hand, we need to understand that we wouldn’t be here in a more free society if it weren’t for people who made such sacrifices for us to be blessed. 

It is also inevitable that despite us being students now, we will enter the workforce sooner or later and we will face the problems that our lecturers or member of staff are facing at our institutions. Women will be paid lower than men, there will be a mental health crisis and racial injustice will rise. After having worked all your life, you probably will have to settle for a low pension. So people who are taking part in these strikes aren’t only fighting for them, they are fighting for us as well. 

After interviewing a senior lecturer, who did not want to disclose their name, they claimed that they had been on strike in the past and would gladly do so now because “it is unfair upon all of us and we have no intention of disrupting anyone’s education. However, we aren’t just fighting for ourselves, we are fighting for everyone. If we don’t do what is required of us today, you will face the problems we are facing now. And the issue is, it might get much worse.”

People might regret not voting for these strikes or not voting at all. But it isn’t too late at all. No one wants to disrupt or disturb anyone’s day-to-day lives however, this is a matter that concerns all of us. If not now, we will be affected by these issues in the future. So we need to support the people who are fighting for their rights now so that we won’t have to ask others to support us in the future.