“As a single mum, I would sometimes say ‘it’s a baked bean month’ to my daughter, and take smaller portions of food so she had enough.“
I’ve been on strike this week to raise awareness and fight back against the way pensions are being undermined.
If this happens to our pensions, whose will be next? A pension is a basic right – yet ours is due to be slashed by a third. We have been to strike successfully twice already to get our employers to recognise our pension rights. We should not have to go back again for pension justice, but here we are.
Cover image: Anita on strike with her co-workers this week. Picture via UCU Wales
But I’m also on strike to raise awareness of casualised contracts. These are endemic in academia and it is shameful. Not only do these mean teaching staff struggle to make ends meet, we can’t concentrate on delivering high quality learning for students when worrying where the next meal will come from.
Zero hours contracts are wrong for Uber and Amazon workers and they are morally indefensible in universities where we are supposed to be supporting people to get a qualification and a better working life.
I have worked in the academic world for 25 years yet I was always on casualised, short-term contracts until the Open University recently gave 5000 teaching staff like me permanent jobs. Before that I worked at Cardiff University, University of South Wales and the Open University in Wales, always on low pay and short turnaround deadlines.
As a single mum, I would sometimes say ‘it’s a baked bean month’ to my daughter, and take smaller portions of food so she had enough. There were many sleepless nights when I wondered if we would have any income at all over the summer.
When I see this kind of contract is on the rise in academia, I can’t understand it. It was really hard to deliver well for students when I didn’t know if I would be back again the following term. It was impossible to engage with the teaching materials properly in a way which would best support my teaching. So I am on strike to raise awareness of the poor living conditions for many junior academics on casual contracts, but also of the poor learning provision this leads to in what are supposed to be premier, world-ranking universities.
Now I have a very small pension, because like many women, I’ve always had low paid part time jobs, so I’ve only been able to make small contributions.
The cut to our pension provision will hit me hard. I need to make up the shortfall if I am to retire above the poverty line. My daughter says. ‘Don’t worry, mum, you took care of me and I’ll take care of you.’ In our East Asian culture, kids do take care of their parents. But I have worked hard all my career supporting students in disadvantaged situations. I shouldn’t have to depend on my daughter when I retire. I worry that I will have to keep working until I am too old to enjoy retirement. I love teaching but I would like to step aside and let younger academics have a chance.
Our pension provision (the amount we receive each year after we retire) is due to be cut by a third, and our contributions (the amount we pay now out of our wages) is due to be raised.
We have also seen a 20% cut in real terms of our salary. To cut corners and put money into grandiose buildings, universities load more and more work onto exhausted staff.
I came off the picket line two years ago and put everything into supporting my students through the pandemic. Now my reward is to have no pay rise and see my pension provision slashed by a third. Since we kept things going during the pandemic, universities think we can keep working at that level. We are emotionally and physically exhausted, all we get are emails telling us to be mindful of our wellbeing – as if it’s a personal choice to work a 12/13/14 hour day in order to meet the targets we’ve been set.
So I am striking to raise awareness of this looming crisis in universities. We can’t go on like this. Our students support us because they care about us and they know their learning will suffer. Show your solidarity to striking university workers.
*Workers at the Open University and Swansea University in Wales are currently on strike alongside 44 other universities across the UK.
To show solidarity to Anita and her co-strikers, you can join their picket lines next week, times below:
Cardiff Open University – Custom House St, Cardiff CF10 1AP
Mon, 28th Feb (8-10am)
Weds, 2nd March (8-10am). NUS Student Strike Day
Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP
Monday, 14th Feb(8 to 11am)
Thursday 17th Feb – Picketing Singleton Campus from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday 2nd March– Picketing from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Singleton, Teach Outs at Singleton Campus from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. + NUS Student Strike
