Elena Newton, Bristol University Socialist Students
Following another week of action by university staff, an April Fool’s Day themed rally to mark the end of this strike wave was held at the University of Bristol. After a morning of picketing, staff and students gathered outside the Victoria Rooms wearing fancy dress, the most memorable costume being the ‘spud of solidarity’. Staff wrote messages to vice-chancellor Hugh Brady, including ‘Boo to Hugh’, on potatoes which were placed on the steps of the building, in a strange but memorable protest.
Speakers at the rally continued to assert the University and College Union’s (UCU) ‘Four Fights’: for pay increases, job security, manageable workloads, and no pay gaps. Despite no deficit in university funds, management at the University of Bristol continues to remain complacent about cuts to staff pay, relying on causalised fixed-term contracts for teaching staff. Consequently, there is a lack of security in both the lives and careers of these workers.
In March, the university published a joint statement with the Bristol UCU branch on the dispute. However, staff and students alike recognise that this is not enough. Words must be matched with action. The UCU highlights that in relation to inflation, the value of pay for staff in higher education decreased by 17.9% from 2009-2019. This is alongside further cuts to pensions, and pay gaps in terms of gender, race, and disability. No pay rise is a cut to pay.
Students at Bristol University have shown solidarity with the UCU, with a student action group being founded to organise direct action, aimed at shaping the way in which the university is run. In March a group of students occupied the Wills Memorial Building, which was especially symbolic as this building is synonymous with the university’s wealth and prestige.
Student support for the strikes is both widespread and powerful, with students recognising that the UCU disputes are part of a wider trend in the marketisation of higher education. Speakers asserted that they will not be taken as fools by university management, in keeping with the rally’s April Fool’s Day theme. Staff are well aware that the university has the capability of meeting their demands, yet management are actively choosing not to offer concessions on the Four Fights. We can expect to see more strike action in the future if the UCU is met with further resistance from university management.
