Lecturers on Strike with Students in Mind

On the first of 18 days of Univerisity Union strikes, staff from both Bournemouth University and Arts University Bournemouth walked out over pay and working conditions.

A group of Arts Bournemouth staff stood outside the university this morning in protest of low wages, high workload, casualisation (short-term contracts) and pay inequality.

English lecturer, Emma Lay said, “We do not want to be here this is our last resort, this is a conversation that has been going on for years, we are fighting for not only our working conditions but our students’ learning experience”

The intention of the group is to remain there all day and the majority plan to strike all 18 days if necassary. Many were holding signs including messages such as ‘on strike for fair pay’ and ‘UCU and proud’.

As they stood with their signs they received cheers from passers by and many drivers honked their horns in support.

Ms Lay was keen to underline that workload was as important as pay in this dispute. She said “heavy workload has a massive impact on both staffs’ mental health and work-life balance.”

At Arts Bournemouth, full-time lecturers work on average 2 days extra (unpaid) per week, often working weekends and evenings. 2 in 5 lecturers are considering leaving their role altogether due to the heavy workload.

Ms Lay also said “we want to be with our students and want to have all the energy and the passion that we have for what we do, but when we are exhausted it is really hard to do that so students lose out”

The University Union strikes will affect up to 2.5 million students in the UK.

Natasha Watts, a first-year Bournemouth University student said “none of my lectures and seminars went on today. Some of them we knew about but one of them we came in and waited and the lecturer didn’t arrive. It is not ideal but I fully support all of my lecturers and their right to strike.”

Ms Lay said, “the vast amount of students understand why we are here and we’ve had messages of solidarity”.

The strikes are planned to continue until the 22nd of March unless changes are made, such as employers substanitially improving their suggestion of a 4-5% pay increase.