From Leicester UCU to UC… solidarity!

Published: 4th March, 2020

Struggles for fair pay, fair treatment at work, and fair pensions have no borders.

In the U.K., we confront the dreadful impact of the hostile environment as well as the consequences of marketisation of our education sector. In France, teachers, as well as workers from many other sectors, went on a strike and took to the street in their fight over pension changes last year. 

Just last week in the U.S., UC Santa Cruz sacked graduate students who went on a wild cat strike to get a dignified salary. The UC President also targeted international students with termination, in full knowledge that this would risk their visa status. However, this cowardly response to the strike only backfired: this left the students as well as other faculty members in justified anger, and wild cat strikes spread like a wildfire amongst UC campuses. 9 out of 10 UC campuses are participating in the Cost-of-Living-Adjustment (COLA) strikes, and they have a widespread support from faculty members as well as UG students.

Problems we face in the HE are global: marketisation, precarity of work, intensification of workload, gender inequality, systematic racism, intorelable living conditions, and a growing and seemingly inevitable health crisis that emerges from them.

Those of us on strike in the UK and especially at Leicester UCU, want to express our solidarity and send all our strength and love to fellow colleagues at UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis and all future striking workers struggling to make a living and fighting for a better future for the themselves, their families, students and HE sector at large.

Your fight is our fight!

In solidarity,

Leicester UCU.