Going on strike – doggy style!

We’re all aware of staff going on strike and now there’s a threat to stop marking students’ work. As the struggle for better pay continues, The Tab tracked down the University & Colleges Union’s cutest little spokesperson – Stirling’s very own Loki the dog.

Loki points himself out. Look, there!

Hello, Loki. Why did you join your master on the picket line two weeks ago?
Well it’s all about fair pay if you’re human, and getting better tins of dog food if you’re me. The university staff – the ones that teach and service ones too – have all been given this 1% pay rise. Which I thought sounded good, but if you think about inflation it’s actually in real terms a 13% pay cut in the last six years – and I mean human years, not dog ones.

But maybe the university just can’t afford to pay people more.
For the last few years, the university of has never made less than £3m profit. It’s building up huge amounts of cash and it’s only offering a 1% pay rise while the principal gets an astronomical sum of money with his 6% pay rise.

Loki sports this season’s hottest trend: the UCU logo

How will strikes help?
On full days off I get to play fetch more and catch Frisbees. But for the humans it’s their form of protest to encourage the University & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) to negotiate with the staff’s union (the UCU).

So far the negotiation has been “we’ll offer you 1%, take it or leave it”. It’s decided unilaterally by the employers, so Stirling just gave everyone the 1% rise even though my master and his chums didn’t agree to it.

And do you like going on strikes?
Some days they just have strikes for two hours – so can I come in and have everybody adore me. Meanwhile the people on strike don’t get paid for those two hours, so they asked the principal to put the salary they would have been paid into a student hardship fund, but he refused and just gathered some additional profit.

When not striking, Loki loves to run about

The UCU has now threatened to stop marking students’ work – is that fair?
Well I have decided to take a step of solidarity by pledging that I will stop marking my territory, because my master doesn’t have enough money to clean up after me.

But refusing to mark students’ work is different. It’s the union’s ultimate sanction and it has annoyed some students. Although we don’t yet know quite how the boycott would work, students will probably get some form of feedback and will eventually get their degree, even if they might not be in time for graduation.

Wouldn’t you feel guilty for wrecking graduations?
I would hope that the principal would feel guilty about it. If students are unhappy I would tell them to ask why the principal deserves 6% and everyone else just deserves 1%.

Loki ponders economics and the politics of workers’ rights

It’s not so big an issue in Scotland, but what about students who are angry about missing classes that their tuition fees are paying for?
The point there is: where is the money going? It’s clearly not going into staff salaries, although some of it is clearly going to the principal.

And it’s not in students’ interests to have a workforce who are unhappy and demoralised at the lack of recognition that the universities are offering them.

Will you be coming to future picket lines?
Almost certainly! I love the people and they all love me and, as a reward, I might get a walk around the loch. It’s really the only upside of the whole situation.