Image Credit: Lucy Heywood

The University and College Union (UCU), which represents over 120,000 employees of further and higher education institutions, recently announced 18 days of strike action across February and March. The ‘unprecedented’ disruption will affect 150 universities throughout the UK, including the University of Oxford.

A total of 70,000 UCU members are set to walk out unless ‘substantially improved offers in disputes over pay, working conditions and pension cuts’ are provided by university employers, according to the union’s website.

This comes after three days of strike action took place in late November 2022. Since that time, UCU members across the UK have also been undertaking industrial action short of strike action (ASOS). This consists of only working to contract, not covering for absent colleagues, not rescheduling classes and lectures cancelled due to strike action, and not undertaking any voluntary activities.

Strike action will be taking place on the following dates:

  • Wednesday 1st February
  • Thursday 9th and Friday 10th February
  • Tuesday 14th, Wednesday 15th, and Thursday 16th February
  • Tuesday 21st, Wednesday 22nd, and Thursday 23rd February
  • Monday 27th,Tuesday 28th February, Wednesday 1st, and Thursday 2nd March
  • Thursday 16th and Friday 17th March
  • Monday 20th, Tuesday 21st, and Wednesday 22nd March

No strike action is planned for the week commencing Monday 6th March.

The UCU plan to reballot their 70,000 striking members to ‘extend the union’s mandate and allow staff to take further action through the rest of the academic year.’ The reballot campaign is set to begin this week.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the UCU, said in a statement that ‘the university sector in the UK has over £40bn sitting in reserves, but instead of using that vast wealth to deliver a cost-of-living pay rise and reverse devastating pension cuts, university vice-chancellors would rather force staff to take strike action and see campuses shut down.’ Grady called for university vice-chancellors to ‘urgently reassess their priorities and deliver a deal that benefits staff and students.’

The University of Oxford’s new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Irene Tracey, has committed to an independent inquiry into university staff pay and conditions. In an interview with The Guardian she commented that the review would consider ‘everything from pay and pensions and in terms of quality of life, because often it’s access to stuff you can’t quantify that can actually make a difference.’

The university’s web page related to industrial action maintains that they ‘expect the majority of teaching to go ahead as planned’ and that all examinations and assessments will take place as scheduled. The university encourages students to contact their course tutor or head of department if they have questions about how their teaching will be affected by the strikes.

At the time of the strike dates announcement, the UCU revealed they planned to meet with the University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), the representatives for university employers. The UCU called for the UCEA to commit to a ‘meaningful pay rise to deal with the cost-of-living crisis as well as action to end the use of insecure contracts’, having previously rejected the UCEA’s offer of a 4-5% pay rise.

After meeting on 25th January, the UCU rejected the UCEA’s new offer, which they described as ‘marginally improved’ but ‘still well below inflation and [doing] nothing for years of pay degradation’. Jo Grady responded to the new offer by stating that the UCU remains ‘determined to reach a negotiated settlement’, adding that employers have ‘more than enough time’ to reach a solution and ‘avoid widespread disruption.’

The UCU is seeking to revoke pay cuts and restore benefits taken from staff in 2022. They noted that the cuts will ‘see the average member lose 35% from their guaranteed future retirement income’ and that ‘for those at the beginning of their career the losses are in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.’

In a live streamed message to UCU members, Grady warned that a successful reballot would give the union the mandate to potentially ‘shut down universities deep into this year’ and ‘shake employers’ to the core, taking the dispute ‘further and farther’ than ever before. According to Oxford’s website, around 12% of eligible staff are members of the UCU, and the industrial action relates only to staff’s duties to the university, not to their colleges.
If the UCU and UCEA are unable to reach a settlement and the strike action goes ahead, according to the UCU it will be the ‘biggest series of strikes ever to hit UK university campuses.’ Around 40% of Oxford’s teaching days in February and March are set to be affected.