interviewed SUE BLACKWELL, press officer of Birmingham Association of University Teachers (AUT) about February's 50,000 strong strike over pay SR: Can you tell us in detail what the strike is about and what action is being taken? SB: Basically, there are 3 main elements. Firstly, over the past two decades our pay has fallen by 40 percent compared to other groups of workers. Therefore we are asking for a large "catch-up" element in this year's pay rise, as we have been for about the past 10 years!
We have asked for 28 per cent over 3 years; the employers have offered, instead, 3.44 percent this year and about 3 percent next year - hardly level with the rate of inflation.
Secondly, at the same time, they are trying to introduce a new single pay spine, which will unify not only academic staff at the old universities (us) and the new ones (mainly represented by NATFHE), but will also bring non-academic, "support" staff (represented by Amicus, UNISON and the GMB) onto the same single pay scale.
Once we are tied in to this spine any .... Birmingham ten about. Moreover, the proposed spine is appalling -51 points, i.e. a very long scale, with tiny increments between each point. It would take much longer to climb up the scale, so over time we would lose enormously in career earnings.
Thirdly, while the spine would be a national one, where each group of staff would be placed on it would be determined locally by job evaluation. So, it would introduce local pay bargaining indirectly. Someone doing the same job as me at, say, Lancaster, could be paid a very different rate. The AUT believes in equal pay for work of equal value, not just within institutions but across them allowing for London weighting of course). SR: What is the mood of the workforce and the response to the strike? SB: The turnout in the ballot was 54 percent, which is very good for a postal ballot. Of those voting, two thirds voted for strike action and 81 percent voted for action short of a strike. This is not a soft option - it means a total, indefinite boycott of all forms of examination and assessment until the employers see sense and return to negotiations.
As for the mood, I can only speak for the Birmingham University situation. As always, industrial action tends to polarise people. We have had a handful of resignations, but at least twice as many new members. And I have been astounded at the enthusiasm with which members have volunteered for picket duty.
People I have never heard of, let alone seen in a union meeting, are keen to stand in the cold and argue with their colleagues that they should not come in to work! SR: What will be needed to win the claim? SB: Resilience, and solidarity. This won't be won easily. It is about far more than this year's pay claim: it is no exaggeration to say the whole future of the union is at stake, tiate pay nationally it really won't have a future role of any significance. vote in the ballot. shutdown of Higher Education on Wednesday over top-up fees. union leadership? Andrew Wiard