Alistair Tice, Sheffield Socialist Party
In a historic first, all four branches of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) in Sheffield have taken strike action in the same week. As well as members at both universities (Sheffield and Hallam) joining the national strike on 1 February, teaching staff at the Sheffield Further Education College took their second day of strike action over last year’s pay claim.
And lecturers at the International College University of Sheffield (ICUS) resumed strike action for four days, after the privately owned Study Group withdrew elements of an already rejected, well below-inflation pay rise.
This aggressive management action is in response to the first-ever strike of UCU members in a privately run higher education institution. The Study Group corporation, which runs the outsourced contract to teach international students on behalf of Sheffield University, is clearly worried that unionisation and strikes will spread to its other colleges, and wants to teach ICUS staff a lesson.
All it has done is anger the staff even more. They have now voted for a full five-day week-long strike from 13 February if an improved offer isn’t forthcoming.
