The University and College Union at GCU today welcomed the statement of support from GCU students regarding the forthcoming industrial action 25th – 29th November and 2nd – 4th December.
The statement from the GCU Student officers is reproduced here:
GCU employees who are members of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) have voted to go on strike between the 25th and 29th November and the 2nd to 4th December 2019 and take action short of a strike.
UCU members are taking industrial action on pay, gender pay gap, contract casualisation and excessive workloads. Research from the UCU has shown that across the university sector, more than half of academics are employed on precarious contracts, pay has fallen by at least 7% in the last 10 years and there is a 15.9% gender pay gap.
GCU Students’ Association fully supports the reasons behind this industrial action. We will back our GCU colleagues who have been forced to take this difficult decision for strike action for which they do not get paid.
Whilst the GCU campus will remain open throughout, we recognise that the industrial action will have an impact for students, for example it may lead to classes being cancelled, reduced access to learning materials or delays to assessments being marked. We will represent you to minimise any negative repercussions to your assessments and exams. We will be lobbying the University to ensure you are not examined on topics which are not covered due to lectures or seminars being cancelled. Additionally, we will be asking the University to change assessment deadlines set during the period of industrial action, where striking lecturers may be uncontactable.
We will be lobbying the University to raise the concerns of staff to the University & Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA), who negotiates the national pay increase on behalf of the universities, so that we can avoid this industrial action and disruption to GCU students’ learning.
This may be a challenging few weeks, however, we must stand by our lecturers and all other university staff taking part in the strikes. Their working conditions are our learning conditions.
We will work hard to keep you updated on the industrial action, providing information from both the University and the UCU.
Eilidh Fulton, Student President
Moses Apiliga, Vice President GSBS
Bethany Stevenson, Vice President SHLS
Susan Docherty, Vice President SCEBE
Further Information:
UCU @ GCU - Working For You - It's never 'Business As Usual' 