University staff across the UK who are members of the University and College Union (UCU) will be taking strike action throughout February and March. The Students’ Union stands in solidarity with the 70,000 staff across the UK who will be striking. We believe that staff working conditions have a direct impact on your learning experience, and that unsatisfactory working conditions and pay pose a threat to the long-term health of the higher education system.
University staff across the UK who are members of the University and College Union (UCU) will be taking strike action in February and March. Over 70,000 staff at 150 universities will be striking over their pay, working conditions, and pensions. The national day of industrial action will take place tomorrow (Wednesday 1st February), with University of Worcester staff striking over pay and working conditions (they are unaffected by the pension dispute). The UCU have also given notice of a further 17 days of strike action throughout February and March. We urge students to regularly check for communications from the University, as some but not all lectures will be cancelled due to strike action.
Following a survey on @WorcSU’s Instagram story on 22nd January 2023, asking students whether they think we as your SU should support the strikes, 57% responded that they would like us to support the strikes and 43% voted for us to oppose the strikes.
In the interest of representing our members democratically, therefore, the SU continues to stand in solidarity with the 70,000 staff across the UK who will be striking over the coming weeks.
We believe that staff working conditions have a direct impact on students’ learning experience, and that unsatisfactory working conditions and pay pose a threat to the long-term health of the higher education system.
Many of the concerns we hear from students about their academic experience appear to be linked to the reasons that staff are striking. Together, we must fight for a fairer education system, for those who both work and study within universities across the UK.
We fully understand that further strikes will impact students and we will continue our conversations with the University for clarification on how this will affect your academic experience. We will continue to ask the University for fair assessment mitigations for any students who may have their studies disrupted. We will also advocate strongly for salaries which are forfeited by staff who choose to strike to be invested back in to supporting students.
Our role as a Students’ Union is to support our members – our students - and we will continue to do so throughout the strike action. If you have any concerns, questions, or feedback about the strike action, please get in touch with us via studentsunion@worc.ac.uk, our social media channels, or come in and see us in the SU building on St John’s Campus.