The Saw Swee Hock building, home of LSESU

UCU Strike

Students have voted for the LSE Students' Union to lobby LSE to accept UCU demands!

MAKE A FORMAL COMPLAINT & REQUEST A REFUND 

SEND A LETTER TO LSE's SENIOR MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 

Updates On marking boycotts: 

On 3rd April UCU have voted with 85.6% majority and a turnout of 56.4% to renew their strike mandate for another 6 months. For LSE this means that staff will be taking part in a marking and assessments boycott.

For essential information about how this will affect your assignments and exams, LSE have updated their support page for students regarding marking boycotts. You can visit the page here. 

What does this mean for YOU?

  • All assessments – coursework, in-person or take-home exams, project assignments or other summative work - will go ahead as planned, and you should prepare for and complete your assessments in the normal way.   
  • LSE will share more information directly with you as soon as it is available, and before in-person exams begin on 9 May at the latest.
  • LSESU is in conversation with LSE to find out more details about how this strike will affect graduating students and continuing students. 

UCU action ACHIEVMENTS! 

UCU have reached a point in discussions and have made significant progress across a range of their demands. This includes: 

  1. UCU are at the start of a process that will restore USS pensions and potentially lead to a reduction in the percentage of the salary UCU members pay into every year based on newly published data which supports the case for restoration.

  2. UCU are establishing time limited negotiations for new agreements on:
    1. tackling casualisation
    2. improving work life balance and reducing workloads
    3. addressing equality pay gaps
  3. Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) are currently consulting their members with a recommendation that a mandate to end the use of involuntary zero-hour contracts on campus is passed.
  4. UCU have made progress on pay with commitments from the UCEA to remove the lowest point from the pay scale, and review the pay spine generally.

UCU Strike action tIMELINE

UCU (University and Colleges Union) have recently passed a national-scale ballot to strike for better working conditions for professors, GTAs (Graduate Teaching Assistants), and other University staff like researchers and librarians. 70,000 members of staff are set to go on strike nationwide. Following strike action in November, LSE are still yet to make any further offers on the issues of casualisation, workload and equality pay gaps. 

As a result, UCU have announced unprecedented strike action spanning 18 days in February and March. Dates of the strike action were as follows:

  • Week 1 - Wednesday 1 February
  • Week 2 - Thursday 9 and Friday 10 February 
  • Week 3 - Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 February 
  • Week 4 - Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 February
  • Week 6 - Thursday 16 and Friday 17 March 
  • Strikes during Week 4 (Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 February) and Week 5 (Monday 27, Tuesday 28 February & Wednesday 1, Thursday 2 March) did not go ahead as a result of positive movement in negotiations. 
  • All the action scheduled after these dates remained in place for Week 6 (Thursday 16, Friday 17 March) and Week 7 (Monday 20, Tuesday 21 & Wednesday 22 March).

DO STUDENTS SUPPORT THE STRIKE ACTION?

As a union for students, including many PhD students and GTAs affected by management’s intransigence, it is our responsibility to stand in solidarity with our fellow union members at UCU. After all, teachers’ working conditions are student learning conditions. The more collective support for the strike, the shorter disruptive action will be.

We also understand that students will have nuanced opinions on the strikes, and as a member-led organisation, we want to reflect these in our actions. For this reason, as well as to get concrete numbers to take to LSE, the Executive Committee of the LSESU hosted an indicative vote to ascertain whether students thought the SU should actively lobby the LSE to accept the demands of the UCU. LSE students voted overwhelmingly that YES the LSESU should lobby LSE. 

We would love to hear your thoughts on the strikes and how LSESU can support students and striking workers. Tell us what you think via this survey!

If you have any questions about the strikes, or the nature of this indicative vote, please contact su.representation@lse.ac.uk

FAQ'S

A Teach Out's consist of a teaching session of any variety outside the university structure, to help foster discussion, solidarity and resistance. They are friendly informal spaces, a good way for people to participate in the strike, a way to build staff-student solidarity and breakdown hierarchies in the university. They can involve music, poetry, crafting, conversation, theatre, reflection, reading. They can be about the issues the strike is over (equality, insecure contracts, unsustainable workload, the cost of living crisis), connected issues in higher education (e.g. fees, course cuts), worker’s rights and the history of worker’s struggles around the world, wider related issues like anti-racism, climate justice, the hostile environment for migrants, mental health, housing.

A picket line is where workers and union reps stand outside a workplace to tell other people why they are striking.

Picketing/demonstrating outside a building or entrance can serve any or all of three main purposes:

  • Trying to persuade colleagues not to cross
  • Making the existence and strength of the strike visible
  • Handing out leaflets/talking with staff and students about the strikes

Where will the pickets be?

  • Centre Building
  • Old Building
  • Marshall Building
  • The library may also be picketed but this has not been confirmed. We will update this page once we aware.

Why shouldn't students cross the picket?

Ideally students would not cross the picket line. University staff are being exploited, and students are in the unique position of being able to do something about it. But crossing the picket line is a personal decision and there can be many different reasons for doing so. However, students must weigh up the benefits of crossing the picket line against the damage that doing so would cause to the strike movement itself. Honouring a picket line shows your support for the picketing workers, their union, and the labour movement as a whole. Refusing to cross a picket line tells the employer that unless they end their dispute with the employees there will be no business as usual.

 

  • The UCU demand a meaningful pay rise to deal with the cost-of-living crisis and action to end the use of insecure contracts.
    • Employers imposed a pay rise worth just 3% this year following over a decade of below inflation pay awards.
    • A third of academic staff are on some form of temporary contract
  • UCU is demanding employers revoke the cuts to their pensions and restore benefits.
    • The package of cuts made last year will see the average member lose 35% from their guaranteed future retirement income. For those at the beginning of their careers the losses are in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

 

We believe firmly in showing solidarity with other unions which fight to make our education better, and UCU’s action, particularly that for pay and equalities, is integral to improving education. UCU also represents Postgraduate Research students – students who are also LSE SU members.

UCU’s action is also part of a wider fight against marketisation and erosion of education in the UK. Government reforms have forced higher education providers to fight each other in a 'market' over student fees. As a result, providers have driven down pay and conditions for front-line staff to put those savings into activity that improves their 'competitiveness' such as marketing and recruitment. The market regulation of education puts staff and students in a more precarious and disadvantaged position. The logic and forces that have driven down staff's pay, conditions and pensions are the same that have hiked our students’ fees and rents.

We know that the student experience will always be better with satisfied staff who are able to teach and support students to their fullest ability. Currently, precarious conditions and a decline in pay exacerbated by gendered and racialised pay gaps do not allow this to happen, and so we stand together with UCU to make sure it does.

Students are encouraged to engage with those striking regarding the reasons they are striking and why it is important. Students can attend teach outs, write to key decision makers (such as the Senior Management Committee, or UUK) explaining your support for the UCU’s demands, attend protest marches/rallies organised by UCU, make supportive flyers/posters and distribute these amongst your fellow students.

  • You can find a letter to send to LSE's Senior Management Committee regarding the Marking Boycotts  here.

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A Teach Out is a teaching session of any kind outside the University structure, to help foster discussion, solidarity and resistance. They are friendly informal spaces, a good way for people to participate in the strike, a way to build staff-student solidarity and breakdown hierarchies in the university. They can involve music, poetry, crafting, conversation, theatre, reflection, reading. They can be about the issues the strike is over (equality, insecure contracts, unsustainable workload, the cost of living crisis), connected issues in higher education (e.g. fees, course cuts), worker’s rights and the history of worker’s struggles around the world, or wider related issues like anti-racism, climate justice, the hostile environment for migrants, mental health, housing.

Staff taking part in industrial action are not legally obliged to provide advance notice if they decide to take part in the strikes. Where possible, you will be informed in advance by your department or teacher if strike action is likely to impact any of your scheduled lectures, classes or seminars. Unless you are told otherwise, you should attend your scheduled lectures, classes and seminars as planned.

You can make a formal complaint and request a refund for classes missed by clicking on the button at the top of this page.

Look at our advice team’s guidance regarding fee compensation here.

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