AUT Strike

[Shelley]

Does anyone know what's happening with the strike (or 'action short of a strike') that's going on at the moment?

I heard that there would be negotiations yesterday, but i've also heard that there wouldn't be any until after the exams...

I've also heard that exams may have to be postponed, and that we may not be able to graduate(!)

The fact that the university hasn't officially informed us of anything is frustrating to say the least. As a fourth-year i really don't need the extra anxiety just now!

[orudge]

There was an e-mail sent out to all management students about the strike, which I daresay can be reproduced here:


Dear Students

We all hoped before you left for the Easter vacation that the national dispute between the AUT and UCEA who negotiate on behalf of all University Principals and Vice-Chancellors would be resolved by the time you returned. As you now know that has not happened. The Action Short of a Strike continues and with less than a month to go before the exam diet there is now a serious risk that many of you will not be examined or get credits for your work this semester. For some of you this may mean delay in graduating, with inevitable consequences for employment or further study.

What has happened nationally is that UCEA has told the AUT that unless it suspends its industrial action it will not be allowed to participate in pay negotiations. The union was excluded from talks at the end of last month at which an offer of 6% over two years was made to other unions and rejected by them. UCEA has now suspended negotiations for the Easter holidays. This is terribly frustrating. Academic salaries have declined in real terms by 40% since the mid-80s and university principals have often expressed sympathy and regretted there were no funds available to remedy this. Unions and universities together won the argument with government, but once the new money appeared (around £3.4 billion) academic salaries seem to have become bottom priority. AUT's decision to take this action - of which the assessment boycott is the most important part mainly because it is the only means we have of concentrating the employers' minds - was made with a real regret. We tried to begin negotiations last October, precisely to avoid it dragging on into the exam period, and the vote in favour was overwhelming. We hoped this show of opinion would get UCEA to come to the table rapidly. But it looks very much as if they are playing chicken, hoping lecturers will back away from the action, even if students are harmed in the process.

Locally, action is being taken across the university and the numbers joining the union are growing weekly. The local association of the AUT is in regular communication with the Principal's Office (as with the Student's Association). Unlike the situation nationally, we have very good relationships and good communication with management. Even where we disagree, these disagreements have been expressed courteously. We were very pleased to read the Principal's promise that the university is not prepared to compromise on the quality of assessment. As you know we continue to give you the best teaching we can during this difficult time. We greatly appreciate the support so many of you have given us. Like the Principal we deeply regret the likely impact on your education.

AUT members are taking action right across the university. What this means is that if the dispute is not resolved in the next month it is likely that in some Schools no examinations and examination boards will take place. It is difficult to predict the full effects of the action. But immediately the dispute is resolved we are absolutely committed to making as rapid recovery as possible. As soon as there is agreement, examination papers will be produced, coursework marks will be released and - if it happens in time - we will go into examination boards and work as hard as we always do to make sure you get the degrees and grades you deserve.

What can you do? The Principal's recent advice to students is sensible: continue to work as normal, to submit coursework and to prepare for examinations. Everything depends on getting a swift end to the dispute. AUT nationally cannot do anything until it is allowed to join the negotiations. We wait for the employers to agree to meet and to make a more reasonable offer. We hope very much that the Principal will use his considerable influence to urge UCEA to reopen negotiations immediately and to make a serious offer. You can help most by asking him to do this.

With best wishes

Professor Peter McKiernan
Head of School of Management

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[Adam Fellows]

Letters were meant to have been sent out to all students from Principal Lang about the University's view on the matter, but they seem to have been lost somewhere.

Anyway, the Students' Association is trying to update its website on the issue as soon as we hear anything.

www.yourunion.net/education then the first link titled "AUT Industrial Action"

It's a work in progress, as we trawl through various bits of information, but there are copies of the letters available for undegrads and both research and taught course postgrads, as well as some other information.

When we know, we'll let you guys know.

Adam Fellows
SRC Education Officer

[Adam Fellows]

Oh, I forgot to say that the Education Subcommittee will be having a long meeting on Friday about it all, and the class reps will be sent an email about it later, so hopefully they can spread anything they find important for each of your courses to you as well.

[Guest]

Here's a link to Lang's letter:

http://www.yourunion.net/system/systempages/file/407/file/undergraduates.pdf

[ah!]

Question. So there has been quite a bit of talk that if exams are not held in May due to the strike they may be rescheduled to sit as a later date. BUT, what if you're a JYA/JSA or if you're transfering to a different Uni next year, then what? Is it not unfeasbile and unfair to expect students to be able to make their way back to St. Andrews to resit the exam?

[Ben Reilly]

If exams have to be rescheduled, they will take place at a variety of locations across the world.

[Cain]

Quoting Ben Reilly from 21:36, 19th Apr 2006
If exams have to be rescheduled, they will take place at a variety of locations across the world.

That sounds so cool. I'm just imagining dozens of people sitting down at exactly the same time (because it couldn't be done at 0930 local time, as this would be a different time for different candidates, and could lead to exam-gossip) in rooms on their own all around the world.

[hr]

I hold an element of surprise

[Ben Reilly]

There are a number of universities in the UK that hold exams across the world.

A classic way of doing it is to host them at British Council offices.

Because of the geographic distribution of students on particular courses (PGTs on business courses mainly in the far east, JYA and JSA students from the US) the time difference would not be as bad as one might think.

[Ben Reilly]

Sorry, I should also say on this thread (as the other one has dropped off) that because of events, the email that was being consulted on and was going to go out today is now out of date. There is now a new email that is being consulted on at the moment. Hopefully it will be going out tomorrow.

[maenad]

So when would the exams be rescheduled for? As in, my summer is booked up already, will we be dropped in it at the last minute?

[Ben Reilly]

As the letter from the principal says, you should continue to prepare for the exams as normal, and not make any preparations to leave before May the 26th.

[sabra_girl]

We should organise a mass protest in Edinburgh with as many people from as many of the Scottish institutes affected as possible I reckon...a few thousand of us should do the trick. Old skool style with placards and loud-hailers, we could make it quite the party. If nothing else it should keep the protest in the media spotlight.

Wonder if this would all have been sorted out much sooner had it occurred last year.

[hr]

"There are not very many desires in life which we can actually meet. For instance, 'I want to meet the love of my life'. Probably not today! But 'I want a cup of coffee.' That I can do!" Chris Thile (Nickel Creek)

I assassin down the avenue.

[HezBez]

Quoting sabra_girl from 01:35, 20th Apr 2006
We should organise a mass protest in Edinburgh with as many people from as many of the Scottish institutes affected as possible I reckon...a few thousand of us should do the trick. Old skool style with placards and loud-hailers, we could make it quite the party. If nothing else it should keep the protest in the media spotlight.

Wonder if this would all have been sorted out much sooner had it occurred last year.

[hr]

"There are not very many desires in life which we can actually meet. For instance, 'I want to meet the love of my life'. Probably not today! But 'I want a cup of coffee.' That I can do!" Chris Thile (Nickel Creek)

I assassin down the avenue.

That's seriously a great idea. A) It'd be fun :p and B) It gets the message across so there's less chance our exams will be postponed... maybe (?). I'm working abroad all summer then going on year abroad September, I really can't afford the delay. Sympathies with the fourth/fifth years who may not graduate this summer

[sabra_girl]

I don't think it would be that difficult to organise (though granted I've never organised a large-scale event myself). If Ben could get in touch with people in his equivalent position at other Scottish higher education institutes, organise with them a date and place that's as mutually convenient as possible (a Wednesday afternoon somewhere appropriate in Edinburgh perhaps?), get them to send a link-up e-mail to all their students urging them to participate and to try to get an idea of numbers, lay on as many coaches as possible according to numbers and available finance and off we go!

I'm sure it's not really as simple as that but I don't see why it should be a great deal more complicated. I've been giving this a lot of thought recently. I myself am not due to graduate this year but a lot of my friends are and it pains me to see them go through the upset and anxiety of not getting what they have worked so long and so hard for and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. We need to act, to get our voices heard, to make people realise how dire the situation is looking and not let the reporting of it be relegated to a side-column. The future of an entire year, a generation of hard-working students is being endangered over an industrial dispute. Whether you are for or against the principles of the AUT strikers, this can hardly be seen as fair treatment to the innocents caught in the crossfire.

We need to fight for ourselves - it sure as hell doesn't look like anyone else is going to.

...Crikey, that all got a bit dramatic and rally-ish for a moment there, didn't it? In all seriousness though, we should do it. There's nothing preventing us but apathy and in this case 'I can't be bothered' simply will not do.

[hr]

"There are not very many desires in life which we can actually meet. For instance, 'I want to meet the love of my life'. Probably not today! But 'I want a cup of coffee.' That I can do!" Chris Thile (Nickel Creek)

I assassin down the avenue.

[Frank]

Ah, sounds like we need to flex our student-protest muscles once more. We had our opportunity with G8 and such, but that doesn't appeal to all. I can't think of any student that wants someone else to waste their time here!

A nice bit of a protest would be damn fine IMO, something to really get our teeth into...

As far as exams and things go: I'm in pretty much full support of the academic staff on this one, but I don't see why we should be compromising them on it, rather, if we *help* them come to a decision[by mass protest, the best form of help ever developed...maybe...] then we all win...

Ya the protest...

Frank

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[theflirt]

Quoting ah! from 20:38, 19th Apr 2006
Question. So there has been quite a bit of talk that if exams are not held in May due to the strike they may be rescheduled to sit as a later date. BUT, what if you're a JYA/JSA or if you're transfering to a different Uni next year, then what? Is it not unfeasbile and unfair to expect students to be able to make their way back to St. Andrews to resit the exam?

Surely exams wouldnt be postponed, rather their marking will be postponed. I know this is just as frustrating but we were told exams will still take place...it's the grading that will be affected?

[hr]

Oh pants!

[KateBush]

Exams will be postponed if the Dept haven't submitted an actual exam for you to sit. And I think I read somewhere that some depts have not submitted the exams- which means that people will be left short of credits for this semester.



[hr]

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[Jono]

Odd situation. Traditionallly it was the students out rioting over various injustices whilst the professors sat by apathetically. How times have changed.

Of course people get affected by strike action. Thats the whole point! Its the manner of exerting pressure on the powers that be. but then again, the government's only concerned with cramming 50% of school leavers into university. I sincerely doubt they care about what happens to us after that!



[hr]

Don't mention the Nazi's!

[The Kinky Monkey]

Quoting Ben Reilly from 01:19, 20th Apr 2006
and not make any preparations to leave before May the 26th.

Ha ha ha. Shit.

[hr]

Do good to all men, but at the end remember to collect your fee.