The University of York saved £392k from striking staff salaries

The University of York saved approximately £392,000 during the strike action of November 2019, Nouse reports. The amount of money saved is from striking staff members wages.

The upcoming 14 day strikes by UCU are under double the length of the 8 day action last November.

In a statement the university told Nouse they "fully respect the rights of colleagues to take industrial action, but are also fully committed to reducing the impact of teaching. Education continues to be [their] main priority and [they] will do all [they] can to minimise any disruption to teaching, learning and research."

In response to the strikes a petition has been started by University of York students asking for a full reimbursement over the contact hours they have lost due to industrial strike action earlier this academic year and the impending action.

Petition organisers highlight they "understand and support the reasoning for industrial action" however argue that the impacts such as "timing of the strikes and inability to gain support from a university [they] pay thousands for is unacceptable."

In the reasons for signing the petition comments third year student Christopher Raven said he has "lost 5-6 weeks of education because the university hasn't taken ownership and responsibility for their actions" and he "fully supports [his] lecturers and their right to strike, but does not support the response from the university."

The petition now has over 1,000 signatures and is rapidly growing.

In response to the strikes in 2017 the university offered graduating students in the two subsequent summers free graduation gown rental and two print runs for dissertations. However, there has been no confirmation yet if the university will provide free gown rental for 2020 graduation.

When The York Tab spoke to students about the upcoming industrial action a lot of them voiced their support for striking lecturers but did want some form of compensation from the university.

Industrial action is set to start on February 20th and go ahead for 14 days throughout February and March.