Why the strikes aren’t working

Matt Clarke thinks that the lecturer strikes aren’t working because they’re pissing off the wrong people. Lecturers need to galvanise students, not alienate them.

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As I understand it, strikes are meant to piss people off. They’re meant to piss people off to the point where they concede and change something. But, crucially, strikes need to piss the right people off. They need to piss off the people who can actually make a difference. That’s why miner or firefighter or postal worker strikes work. And that’s also why lecturer strikes, quite literally, don’t.

Striking fear into students’ hearts

Unison, Unite, the University and College Union and the Educational Institute of Scotland were on strike for the second time today because there has been a 13% pay cut in real terms since October 2008.

This has meant that their members, who are university lecturers and support staff, have been unable to cope with rising living costs. Obviously, it’s essential that all members of university staff receive a living wage. The reason to strike is completely justified. But I don’t think that cancelling classes is the best way to go about achieving change. It’s pissing off the wrong people.

Photo: Ismar Badzic

The aim is to piss off the people who control the pay: the university management. When support staff strike this aim is, to a certain extent, achieved. But when lecturers strike the university management don’t care. It pisses off students and the university already has students’ money. It’s no skin off their collective nose.

Perhaps it’s hoped that students, who miss out on tuition they’ve already paid extortionate fees for, are riled enough to petition the university for change. But this is unlikely to happen.

Firstly, if you want me to petition on your behalf, don’t piss me off. Encourage me. Ask me at the end of a lecture. Don’t cancel a day’s worth of classes. And, secondly, Vice-Chancellor Keith Burnett, whose socks are made from everybody else’s cash, sounds like a selfish prick. There’s no way he’ll give me my tuition fees back.

Look at my money socks

I understand that lecturers, being members of a union, must strike together, alongside support staff, to show solidarity. But I think that there are more effective ways to achieve the goal, without pissing off students in the process. Get us on side. Ask us to sign a petition rather than piss us off and hope that we do so of our own accord. We think that the pay cut is wrong too – of course everyone deserves a living wage. But we’re less likely to show our support if you’ve cancelled our classes.