Staff at University of Birmingham will be striking this December

Academic staff will be striking early next month


University of Birmingham students will be hit with three days of strike action from Wednesday 1 December to Friday 3 December.

Today, the UCU announced its members will stop work in early December in an attempt to halt pension cuts and improve pay and working conditions of university staff.

Earlier this month 58 universities voted in favour of strike action after disputes over the major issues regarding pay and pensions, with UoB being one of 33 universities striking over both issues.

On Thursday, 11th November, UoB students received an email from the Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Kathy Armour stating “some of our students may be disrupted by industrial action over the coming months.” 

The email continued: “we are extremely disappointed to have to bring you this news at this particular time and in light of the recent pandemic-related disruption.” Many students have had their studies disrupted due to the pandemic and will continue to have them affected this winter as further strike action is likely to occur if disputes aren’t resolved.

Further issues were raised by David Bailey, Branch President of the BUCU. Last week he said on behalf of the BUCU “Staff face crushing workloads and many are on fixed-term contracts with no job security. We are also trying to tackle equalities issues for women, minorities and disabled staff.”

These are major concerns of the BUCU that affect both staff and students, but an ‘improvement in working conditions … would also improve the quality of education that students receive.”

DM us and let us know how you feel about the upcoming strikes.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• It’s official: Lecturers will be striking for three days in December 

• University of Birmingham UCU have voted in favour of staff strikes this winter

• Lecturers at more than 50 UK universities have voted to go on strike this winter