Letter to the editor: letter of solidarity UCU strike action

In the absence of any organized student response in support of the University and College Union (UCU) strike action (25th and 26th May 2016) we the undersigned wish to offer our support to those staff members who will be undertaking the proposed strike action in
relation to an ongoing national pay dispute. Noting in particular that Glasgow’s own Student Representative Council (SRC) has chosen not to take a positon on this matter, we, as a small group of postgraduate students have felt that there is space for a position of support to be
expressed in relation to this strike action.

Although we understand that the university management would wish to avoid any and all strike action we hope that the management would do so by engaging with the Union in relation to the dispute. Moreover, as students we feel that given the current broader political climate in which the workers’ rights to industrial action appear to be, to an ever
greater extent, under threat it is especially important that narratives of support from parties (such as ourselves who have no direct interests in the dispute but are nevertheless proximate) are heard. Indeed, we do not consider the proposed strike action to be an inconvenience in and of itself; rather as students pursuing postgraduate degrees, which many of us hope will lead to careers in academia, we wish to express our support for the decision of the UCU to take strike action over this national pay dispute.

We understand that any decision to take strike action is a difficult one given the impact such action may have and thus that the decision to strike is not taken lightly. Therefore, our main priority in sending this letter is to ensure that the staff is aware that we support their action
and stand in solidarity with them.

Signed:

Chris Boyd (PhD Candidate, School of Law)
Elaine Ferguson (PhD Candidate, School of Law)
Keith Hammond (PhD Candidate, School of Law)
Gail Lythgoe (PhD Candidate, School of Law)
Jack Meakin (PhD Candidate, School of Law)
Athene Richford (PhD Candidate, School of Law)
Federico Szczaranski (PhD Candidate, School of Law)
Zaphiro Tsitsiou (PhD Student, University of Glasgow)