By Socialist Alternative members in UCU
Between October 20 and November 28, the University and College Workers Union (UCU) is balloting Higher Education (HE) workers to take national strike action. UCU is demanding a pay increase in line with inflation (3.5% or £2,500, whichever is the greater) and national agreements, to avoid the arbitrary closure of degree programmes and compulsory reductions in the workforce.
Under successive governments, wages in the HE sector have stagnated while student fees are at an all-time high. Starmer has now disgracefully linked annual increases in these fees to the rate of inflation. Using the crisis in international recruitment as an excuse, almost half of all UK universities have carried out large rounds of redundancies. These very same institutions often hold large cash reserves or invest millions of pounds in projects of dubious social benefit, such as opening campuses in countries with favourable taxation rates to attract the super-rich and reduce operational costs.
The Starmer government has failed university workers, students, and ordinary people. A programme for public investment in HE could be easily carried out by increasing taxes for the rich and by bringing the whole sector back under public ownership with workers’ control. Instead, the government feeds into the rhetoric of university bosses.
A national strike of the UCU can win significant concessions and start the process of reclaiming higher education and research. The strike will need active involvement from UCU members and students, and transparent planning by the national leadership of the union. Attempts must also be made to link up with other sectors both to strengthen the strike, and to make it clear that this is part of a wider political struggle.
A university system for the people is possible, but it will need mass mobilisation alongside a democratic and militant strategy of action.
