Letter: A response to ‘Staff Strike Unsettles Students’

As lecturers we felt that the article ‘Staff Strike Unsettles Students’ (1st Nov 2013) gave a somewhat confusing picture of last week’s strike.

On Oct 31st Humanities staff engaged in the completely legal and legitimate practice of picketing outside their place of work.  Taking industrial action – striking and picketing – is protected by UK, EU, and international law.

UCU members were fully briefed and very clear about the nature and legality of our role: to raise awareness about the strike and to politely ask staff and students not to cross the picket line. In practice this meant handing out leaflets and chatting to passers-by, which hardly constitutes ‘intimidating’ behaviour. This is also perfectly normal trade union practice during industrial action.

No attempt was made to ‘intimidate’ students or prevent them from entering the Humanities Building. The leaflets distributed stated very clearly that ‘whether or not to cross a picket line is your decision.’ In fact, conversations tended to be extremely  friendly, in many cases leading to some genuinely interesting opportunities for staff and students to learn more about each other’s perspectives of Higher Education in 2013.

The decision to go on strike was not taken lightly. No lecturer wants industrial action to impact adversely on their students. However, like other public service workers such as fire fighters, nurses, cleaners and school teachers, we are occasionally compelled to temporarily withdraw our labour to make visible the hard work we do all day, every day.

As lecturers deeply committed to ensuring the quality of our students’ education, both now and in the future, we felt it was necessary to take industrial action to protect the right of academic staff to a fair pay. Only lecturers in secure positions earning a decent  wage can provide the good quality education that all students deserve.

Over the course of the strike we were overwhelmed by the level of support we received from students. Some of them came to support us on the picket line and many emailed us their solidarity. We were also extremely pleased that Warwick Student Union as well as the National Union of Students came out in favour of the strike.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Jack Elliott

Dr. Joseph Jackson

Dr. Michael Niblett

Prof. Christopher Read

Dr. Aditya Sarkar

Dr. Laura Schwartz

Dr. Claudia Stein

Mr. David Toulson