There was
another strike on the 3rd of December. I participated. Why?
I
participated in strike action because in my heart of hearts I believe
Universities are sustainable. How does this belief matter?
Before
considering that some facts. We have been offered a 1% raise. There are a lot
of people in the UK hurting. There are a lot of people in the UK who are
looking at no raises. But they deserve better and I hope they would fight for
better pay if they were in my position. Because of who I am, perhaps I am not
the best person to give a raise to. I am not a big spender and demand
stimulates economies. I am too desperately trying to save for a retirement to be extravagant.
For now, I
do have a pension slowly building up but I expect it will have been gutted by
the time I retire. Similarly, a lot of people in the UK have already had their
pensions gutted or have none but the state pension. They deserve better and I
hope they would care about their pensions if they had one. Pension
theft is the new international sport.
What about
the sustainability of Universities?
If
inflation is running at 13% over a 3 year period of time and wages rise by 1%
this is not sustainable over the long term. If this continues for 9 years, the
standard of living will drop by 29%. I will retire in roughly 15 years. By then
the effective wage of academic in Higher education will have dropped by 44%. This
is not sustainable.
Do Universities have the money? I think they do, but they are spending it badly.
Were fees flat (they are not) as they were mostly up until last academic year,
fair enough. But with the new fees, last year there should have been about 8-10%
increase in income from teaching.
I have looked for the
release of the financial statements of universities for academic year 2012/13.
Usually they are signed off in November, but last I looked I could only find
older ones. If income is going to increase 8-10% per year there should be
enough to support a cost of living increase with some left over.
But no. We
are looking at 1%. I am now part of the 1% - those with a 1% salary increase.
If inflation were flat, fair enough.
If income were flat or down for what we do,
fair enough.
I don’t think either applies and the I think the Universities know that.
There is a lot of money sloshing around on campuses. For evidence look at the building
spree on campuses and associated research parks.
I will
strikenext time too, thank you very much.
