Lecturers on the picket line
WORKERS, APR 2006 ISSUE
The one-day strike by university lecturers on 7 March was of particular significance in Leeds as members of the AUT and Natfhe picketed their respective universities in the city and then came together for a joint rally. It was the first day of a concerted campaign by both unions to secure a decent pay rate for jobs that are becoming increasingly demanding and stressful.
Both the University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University were effectively shut down, with very little activity in either institution. Students either stayed away or did not cross picket lines when they realised their classes would not be taking place. Workers in administration and catering, whose unions were not involved in the dispute, came out to the pickets with messages of support, hot drinks and scones on a bitterly cold, wet day.
7 March: lecturers from both Leeds universities throng the Parkinson steps at the University of Leeds in a joint rally as part of their fight for pay. Photo: Workers
At lunchtime the Natfhe members at Leeds Metropolitan University gathered outside their city campus and marched up the hill to join their AUT colleagues at Leeds University for a rally. Speakers from both unions praised their colleagues for braving the poor weather and the wrath of their employers. They also thanked the students who came along to support them. Contributors recognised that, although their classes had been disrupted on the strike day and the forthcoming sanctions on assessments would begin to bite, in the long term, the quality of higher education would be further eroded if pay rates slipped further behind the private sector and other parts of the public sector from which university lecturers need to be recruited. The pay of those training lawyers, doctors and now even nurses and school teachers continues to fall behind the people they educate.
Two significant things have come out of the campaign so far in Leeds. The first is a surge in applications to join both unions, which is mirrored nationally. During the rally the management at Leeds Met was "thanked" for sending an intimidatory letter to staff, which seemed to spark a further wave of recruitment to Natfhe. The other significant event was the symbolic nature of the march and rally, which saw the two unions come together and work in harmony, ahead of their planned merger on 1 June this year. Both of these are lasting victories already won in this campaign.
• See also "Academics fight for pay".