Warwick Uni staff to strike

University staff throughout the UK have planned a one-day strike on October 31 due to disputes over salary.

The strike is being organised by Unite, Unison and the University and College Union (UCU).

The strike has potential to cause large-scale disruption at Warwick University as it includes lecturers, administration workers, and technicians. The number of participants in the strike is as yet unknown.

However, press officer Peter Dunn asserted: “As in past such strikes, the University intends to operate as normally as possible on that day. Heads of Departments will, as ever, use their common sense to respond to any particular issues that arise on the day.”

Warwick UCU president Dennis Leech accused the University of obstructing the union’s legitimate action: “The management of the University are trying to tell members that they must notify them in advance if they will strike but actually they have no right to do so.”

Explaining the cause of the strike, he added: “Many of our members feel very angry that they are working very effectively and achieving great things at Warwick yet get a kick in the teeth of an offer of a 13 percent real terms cut in their pay.”

The strike will have some impact on student contact hours.

Second-year English Literature undergraduate, Ciara Faughnan-Moncrieff, said: “Due to the fact that I’m paying £9,000 a year for tuition, missing valuable contact hours seems all the more irritating.”

In contrast, Rebecca Gittins, first-year Politics student, admitted: “I fully accept that it is the prerogative of the lecturers to strike to improve the conditions in which they work.

“I recognise taking valuable contact hours away from students is not ideal, though as long as the course material is eventually covered and sufficient support is provided by seminar tutors, the proposed strike will not have much effect on the students.”

Peter O’Brien, first-year English Literature and Theatre Studies student, recognised the legitimate cause of the strike: “It is a sad thing when teachers are forced to hinder the learning of their students because of their pay, which is something so trivial compared with the knowledge that they impart.”

However, he was not convinced of the success of the strike strategy: “In reality, it’s just another strike for the government to brush under the carpet and it’s just another few missed seminars and lectures for the student. The unions need another approach.”

Whether or not the strike will significantly prevent the University from running smoothly will only become apparent on the day itself.