University staff across the UK who are members of the University and College Union (UCU) will be taking strike action from Thursday. Over 70,000 staff at 150 universities will be striking over pay and working conditions.
The strikes are due to take place on Thursday 24th, Friday 25th and Wednesday 30th November, where some BU staff may choose to take part. UCU also plans to commence a?continuous period of Action Short of Strike (ASOS) from Wednesday 23 November 2022.
UCU represent staff across a variety of academic roles, but not all BU academic staff are members of UCU. Whilst UCU is asking its members to take strike action, not all will choose to do so or may not strike on all three dates.
It is difficult to predict how students will be affected, but SUBU is working with UCU and BU to find out more and keep students updated. We urge students to check communications from BU, as some lectures and seminars might be affected on these dates. BU and SUBU buildings and facilities will remain open during the strike, for example, libraries, study spaces, the Old Fire Station, Dylan’s Bar, the Union Shop and food outlets. SUBU events and clubs and society activities will continue as normal.
As decided by our members at the SUBU Summit in November 2021, we stand in solidarity with UCU’s four fights to address systematic problems in the education sector. The four fights include low pay, casualisation, workloads and equal pay.
While we will always support better and more equal pay and working conditions for all staff, we may not support action that would result in significant disruption to BU students. We are continually seeking feedback with students on their experience, and we encourage you to speak to your Student Rep or log feedback via SimOn.
If you would like to support staff who take part in the strike, you can do so by:
- Talking to staff to understand their experience and why they are on strike
- Attending UCU’s Teach Outs – these are free public events open to students, staff and members of the public, raising awareness around the issues at the core of the strike
- Following the actions on social media @BU_UCU #ucuRISING
Our role as a Students’ Union is to support our members – our students – and we will continue to do so throughout the strike actions by providing transparent and accessible information for all.
If you have any questions or concerns about the strike actions, get in touch via email subu@bournemouth.ac.uk. You can find out more information about the UCU strikes at www.subu.org.uk/ucu