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ISSUE 706 2 DEC 2019 exepose.com @Exepose
THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1987
Students back striking UCU staff
News Team
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N 25 November, striking University of Exeter staff members took to the picket lines across Streatham, and the students stood with them. At around 8am on a damp Monday morning, UCU members gathered across five picket lines: Stocker Road,
Queen’s Drive, Thornlea, St. Luke’s and the Penryn campus in Cornwall. On the Queen’s Drive picket, an English third year undergraduate said “The people teaching me deserve a fair wage. It doesn’t take much for students to stand on the picket for a couple of hours. We have to show solidarity.” The University and College Union
(UCU), the largest higher education union in the world, went on strike from 25 November to protest against freefalling working conditions and changes to their pension benefit. As a result, union members from over 60 universities will not give lectures, mark assessments or step onto campus grounds. UCU members include aca-
demics, professional service staff and postgraduate researchers. Picketers, who included both university staff and sympathetic students, handed out leaflets and cookies to passing students. Some picketers waved flags and placards branded with slogans such as “We Earned It – We Deserve It – We Demand It.” Image: Aaron Loose
Sharon Strawbridge, President of the Exeter UCU branch (EUCU), helped lead the week’s demonstrations. She noted a warm reception from the student body. She said “The support we received from students is because the students know we actually really care. The people out here aren’t trying to ruin student’s lives. We work intensely hard to make the student experience fantastic. It’s almost like we have been disrespected by the senior management.”
The picket line is a place of learning and there is warmth and camaraderie here UCU member “We have chosen to stay in Exeter, and we rely on Exeter to look after us. A lot of private sector jobs would be paying a great deal more than in academia. We are taking a hit by being here, but we like our students, and we like our jobs.” Another lecturer said “I’ve been manifestly delighted to see so many students coming here joining us on the picket lines. “I know that there were some nerves about this last week but those that have come along seem to have discovered and discovered quickly that, the picket line is a place of pedagogy, of learning and there seems to be warmth and camaraderie there.” The UCU are striking on two different disputes. One centres on a dispute between UCU members and University employers over the University Superannuation Scheme (USS), the £60bn pension fund for university staff. The other dispute focuses on staff working conditions, which many UCU members believe in serious decline.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
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Image: Harry Caton