MORE strike chaos to come as SUSU pledges support… AGAIN

The start of semester two is seeing more strikes than ever before – and in a second complete U-turn, SUSU is set to support them once again. The two strikes during […]

Higher Education lectures pay dispute Strike UCU

The start of semester two is seeing more strikes than ever before – and in a second complete U-turn, SUSU is set to support them once again.

The two strikes during last term weren’t too bad, let’s be fair: if it’s got to the point where you can’t write off two days of lectures or library work in the whole semester, it’s probably at least partly your own fault.

But if you thought the fun was over, you were sadly mistaken.

Your carefully colour-coded timetable now counts for nothing, as WEEKLY strikes are set to disrupt the beginning of the new semester.

This time round, SUSU are once again supporting the strike action, after 21 votes for and 17 votes against (with 6 abstaining) in last night’s Union Council session. This is SUSU’s second complete 180-degree turn on the issue, supporting industrial action for October’s strike but not for December’s.

Fresh from a two-hour long strike last Tuesday afternoon—which took much of the student body by surprise—MORE walk-outs have been planned by the various University staff unions for the coming days.  The strikes are as follows:

  • Thursday 6 February, all day.  UCU, Unison and Unite.
  • Monday 10 February, 9:00-11:00.  UCU only.

This brings us to a total of FOUR strikes in just over two weeks.  And the saga likely won’t end there: UCU have indicated that plans are afoot for the next wave of the campaign, saying:

We are currently planning our joint local strategy and will be meeting with sister unions later this week. Once we have firm plans in place we will send these out to you.

Are you missing lectures due to the strike action? Should SUSU have supported strike action again? Is your finger hovering over the Caps Lock button as we speak?  Let us know in the comments!