University strikes start this week

After weeks of threats in the air, lecturers confirmed on 16th November they will strike this week over pay and pension cuts and bad pay rates. Academic staff will walk out from 1st to 3rd December unless their ‘four fights’ (pay, pensions, workload and gender/ethnic equality) are resolved.

Speaking to The Burst News Show, Epigram’s News Editor, Megan Evans, said she expects the strikes to be extended. “This is going to be the fourth instance of strikes in four years,” she told us, “so it doesn’t look like an issue that’ll be easily resolved.”

Bristol University’s UCU members voted 82 per cent in favour, significantly higher than the overall national average of 70 per cent. The action, supported by the National Union of Students, also says that members of staff at sixty four universities will engage in ‘action short of strike’ by working strictly to contract and refusing to take on any additional duties. This could last for up to the five months unless universities reach a resolution with the union. Whether the University will be responsive, or whether the Union will accept a compromised offer is as yet unclear.

Written by The Burst News Team