Why UK researchers are striking | Daily News Byte

More than 70,000 academics and staff members at 150 UK universities launched the biggest strike in higher education history on 24 November to protest poor pay, unsustainable working conditions and pension cuts. Among them is what the researchers say Nature That poor working conditions are destroying the future of UK science.

The industrial action comes after members of the University and College Union (UCU) voted in favor of strike action in two national ballots last month. Since 2018, UCU members have gone on repeated strikes to reverse pension cuts, and to demand better pay, more acceptable working hours and job security.

Massive strike over ‘unsustainable’ working conditions at UK universities

This time, the strikers’ frustration over a 3% pay rise offered by universities for the 2022-23 academic year comes amid a cost-of-living crisis and inflation in the United Kingdom running past 11%. Staff also say their workload is dangerously high. UCU says that on average, university staff work two extra unpaid days per week, and one-third of academic staff are on temporary contracts.

In a statement, the University and College Employers’ Association said the union’s demand for a 13.6% pay rise was unrealistic and would cost institutions around £1.5 billion (US$1.8 billion).

The strikers also want universities to reverse pension cuts implemented in April, which they say lead to an average 35% loss in retirement income. The cuts followed a March 2020 assessment of the University Superannuation Scheme (USS) that it had a deficit of more than £14 billion. But the UCU says the deficit has since been resolved and the USS’s June financial monitoring report revealed a £1.8-billion surplus. Universities UK, which represents employers involved in the US, says that despite the cuts, the program remains one of the country’s most attractive private pension schemes, and that the monitoring reports are not comparable to the full assessment, which is a more comprehensive assessment. Plan

Nature Talked to three UK scientists about why they’re striking out this year.

‘Recipe for Bad Science’

Helen Culshed, a chemist at King’s College London

While some Vice-Chancellors earn £500,000 and can claim expenses for all sorts of luxuries, our PhD students and staff are using food banks. They are deciding which days they can eat, or which meals to skip. That level of discrepancy is not acceptable in a university.

At King’s, we’ve got a 15% gender pay gap and a 19% racial pay gap. There is a real lack of commitment to change that. If we are not paying people equally, how can we be the best and brightest in terms of equality of access and diversity of perspectives in universities? That’s a recipe for bad science and lack of innovation. The fact that we can all be on strike at the same time means it’s harder to ignore.

At King’s, student numbers have increased by 25% in the past two years. At the same time, we have increased our staff by 3.9%. Therefore, our staff-to-student ratio has deteriorated, which affects our availability of time and headspace to think about research.

What universities are doing is a direct attack on the future of science. Although it may not seem direct, it will implicitly affect the future of science in the United Kingdom and globally.

‘The whole community is struggling’

Robert Thomas, a biologist at Cardiff University

I have been involved in strikes since I started as a university lecturer, and this must concern senior management teams, as their behavior continues to fuel strike action.

My research is mainly fieldwork based. Due to excessive workload, it has been affected extensively. At one point, I was doubling the university’s maximum tuition allocation. And that translates into about 60 minutes a week for all my postgraduate supervision, my own research, work publications, reviewing other people’s publications, etc. It is unacceptable in a modern, research-oriented university.

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At Cardiff University, we do not have a functional workload model. Therefore, there is no central data on who is doing what, and this leads to dangerously high workloads that are not officially recorded. This is unsustainable. We are calling for dialogue so that we never have to strike again.

It is easy to feel lonely when you are working on your own in the lab or in the field and feel that you are not able to have a proper home life and research life due to the heavy workload. But taking time out during a strike and talking to others in the same situation brings a powerful realization that we are not struggling in isolation. We are struggling as a whole community of teachers and researchers.

‘I Will Stop Peer Reviewing For Profit Publishers’

Richard Harris, Geographer, University of Bristol

I don’t often go on strike. But I’m going this time for two reasons. This is the 12th year in a row that employers have offered below-inflation pay increases, meaning pay scales are getting lower and lower each year. They have offered a 3% pay rise, but inflation is around 11%. That’s an 8% pay cut in real terms, equivalent to losing a month’s salary.

Pension cuts have been added to it. We’ve had cut after cut, and I don’t think that’s scientifically sustainable in the United Kingdom, because people will go and have already started to leave. Academia is becoming a less attractive job for PhD students.

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Until the industrial dispute is settled, I will stop doing peer review for for-profit publishers, because it depends on good faith and very little of it is paid. The wider academic system — and this includes publishing — relies on good faith and people doing things outside of their contracts.

There is no particular reason why an academic should review a paper for a journal; It is not in their agreement to do so. The reason we do this is because universities are about sharing information and knowledge. But when you keep cutting people’s salaries and pensions, that goodwill starts to erode.