Profs Protest

Lecturers swapped their elbow patches for pickets yesterday morning to demand higher pay.

Yesterday’s strike saw almost two hundred lecturers and admin staff assemble outside Senate House, as members of the unions UCU, Unison and Unite put down their books, and many students enjoyed some well-deserved time off.

For Arts students, of course, it was just like any other day.

Tweedy, beard-stroking professors usually found hibernating in their offices hit the streets from 7am to campaign outside main uni buildings like the ASS, Wills and Queens.

They also set up outside all the main subjects like the Medical School, Chemistry, Social Sciences and the Vet School in Langford House.

Union bigwigs took to the podium to make some battle cries, and UBU also turned up to officially back the strike.

Speakers bellowed slogans like “Are we strong?  Are we solid?” and “We’re sick of the double standards.  We are all free beings!”

The 11am rally outside Senate House was wrapped up by 11:30, and the pickets were nowhere to be seen.  There was some talk of uni libraries, the computer centre and the careers service being closed, but all remained open with ‘reduced services’.

Slightly predictably, security weren’t too worried.  Security Manager Paul Sicolo said, “To be honest, they’re all university lecturers so I didn’t expect any trouble.  They’re not going to cause any disturbances.

“We just had two security staff and two PCSOs to help with traffic on Tyndall Avenue, because some people were standing on the road.”