on the contrary, that's a great example of TAs not letting the
university take them for a ride, self-organising and trying to win real
gains in the workplace. unfortunately the pay wasn't what you wanted but
now you have a position of power from which further progress can be made
in the future. that was all down to you and a few sympathetic lecturers.
the fact is that you had to fight hard to win even that tiny gain, and
had you not done that the faculty would have quite happily carried on
cutting your pay without a care in the world. now at least they'll think
twice next time.
ant
jon swords wrote:
> A couple of points...
>
> Firstly, the point is surely not that VCs get paid 6 figure salaries but
> they get double figure pay rises.
>
> Secondly, universities aren't all bad. At Newcastle we recently had a
> dispute about TA pay to take first year tutorials. At the start of this
> academic year the faculty decided to cut our pay by a third for teaching
> this module (without any consultation!). As you can imagine we weren't
> happy about it and kicked up a fuss. Dispite some apathy on the part of
> some postgrads the geography dept did listen and responded positively.
> So, although we didn't get the money we wanted, TAs are now represented
> on the school Board of Studies and Teaching and Learning Committee. We
> also have much more ownership of the module which, we feel, benefits the
> undergrads.
>
> That said, it would be nice to see TA pay rises to match inflation each
> year.
>
> Jon
>
>
>> From: Storey AI <[log in to unmask]>
>> Reply-To: Storey AI <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: how much is your VC worth?
>> Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 19:39:00 -0000
>>
>> It is heartening to know we can join the UCU but......
>>
>> Perhaps the problem is that postgraduates working in 'the machine' don't
>> recognise how they're being exploited. I mean, I sit here and I moan
>> about not having a formal contract for the TA work I do; not getting
>> paid enough; not getting paid on time, or even at all; having unpaid
>> prep time eat into my thesis. I sit and I moan about all these things,
>> with good reason, but really it's all a side show. The real issue is
>> that the university exploits our intellectual property to advance its
>> own selfish interests. We sit around for three years and write
>> marvelous, incisive theses which are turned into papers and books, and
>> then the university claims all the credit for it at the next research
>> assessment exercise. As a reward we get paid a fraction of what we
>> would for research in the private sector, we are ignored when we vent
>> legitimate grievances to the univesity authorities or our finding
>> councils, and we get landed with low-paid teaching work that we have to
>> do to pad out our CVs. And all the time we're told that we're "valued".
>>
>> My suspicion is that universities would far rather we spent our energy
>> complaining about the pay scales for ad-hoc teaching than the fact that
>> we have to whore our intellectual property to the RAE so VC's can
>> trouser a six-figure salary.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Andy
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ant Ince
>> Sent: 01 March 2007 18:38
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: how much is your VC worth?
>>
>>
>> as a PhD student who teaches from time to time, as well as having
>> somewhat radical unionist views, i've struggled with this a lot
>> recently.
>>
>> i saw very little student activity in support of the strike and ASOS
>> earlier last year, and despite a lot of effort including leafletting,
>> networking with other student groups and - if anyone read my
>> not-very-well-articulated intervention in antipode - baking cakes, and
>> the result was expectedly minimal. indeed, i was disgusted that
>> Liverpool Guild of Students, whose president at the time was a good
>> friend of mine, organised a demonstration against their own lecturers.
>> needless to say he and i are no longer such good friends!
>>
>> as far as i can tell, a fair few students did not cross picket lines
>> that day, but on a pessimistic note, there were most likely two reasons
>> for this: the fact that many students live within a few yards of their
>> lecture theatres, thus living on the wrong side of the pickets anyway,
>> and the fact that those who lived outside did not turn up because most
>> of their lectures had been cancelled. a fair few people i spoke to
>> didn't even know that you're not supposed to cross picket lines (and
>> even fewer knew it was called 'scabbing').
>>
>> anyway, i'm rambling...
>>
>> from my own experience of being and being around grad students, i get
>> the impression that many of us are highly politicised, articulate, and
>> keen to see equality and justice. however, part of the problem as i see
>> it is a disparity between distant others' and one's own position in 'the
>>
>> machine'. it is easy to say 'poor little african kid with a swollen
>> belly - what awful global trade rules!'. there's a harrowing, visual
>> anchor around which one can sympathise. it's extreme, and no-one could
>> disagree that that kid is being killed unnecessarily. however it is hard
>>
>> to explain the link between that little african kid and the fact that
>> TAs don't get formal contracts or guaranteed hours. even harder to
>> explain the reason why both the little african kid and your TA work are
>> reasons why you should never cross a picket line.
>>
>> in a way it can sometimes stem from a bit of a privileged standpoint -
>> "i'm english and well-educated so my boss would never dare to screw me
>> over." but in another way there are so many pressures to perform, so
>> many hoops to jump through, so much to cram into three years, that we
>> tend not to think about our own situation. in this second respect, with
>> high pressure to perform, and little time or money to spare, our
>> situation is very similar to many of the 'proper' teaching and support
>> staff.
>>
>> damn i'm still rambling, and even less coherently than before. okay.
>> i'll stop. a few bullet points (lecturers LOVE bullet points) to state a
>>
>> bit more succinctly why i think TAs aren't storming the VC's office and
>> organising their own unions:
>>
>> - lack of energy/time/cash outside studies
>> - commitment to furthering academic career at any cost
>> - short-term degrees: "what's in it for me? i'll be long gone before any
>>
>> gains are seen"
>> - no examples of TAs organising and winning gains in the UK
>> - ethical emphasis (seen through a paternalistic liberal gaze) on
>> distanciated others.
>> - lack of class analysis (wahey! i had to get that one in there
>> somewhere!)
>> - a belief that NUS is 'for' undergrads and UCU is 'for' lecturers. thus
>>
>> leaving no real or imagined space for postgrads.
>> - an obsession with 'critical' things (dare i say it, cf. the
>> paternalistic liberal ethics of the 'african kid' example above), and
>> disregard for more radical ideas (one of my pet hates at the moment)
>> - a lack of understanding of what unions actually do.
>> - a lack of respect for what unions actually CAN do if you pull yer
>> finger out and do it.
>> - for the more radical TAs among us, or for TAs who have been in unions
>> in the past, a scepticism about the fact that unions seem to do very
>> little and tend to roll over like a puppy dog whenever management tells
>> them to do so :-D
>> - a feeling that unions are a bit boring and generally for grey-haired
>> old men. [disclaimer: i am actually in a union, and before you ask, i
>> don't agree with this one - unions are for young sexy hip kids]
>>
>> of course, however, these are my subjctive impressions...
>>
>> ant
>>
>> Storey AI wrote:
>> > On a related point Ant, speaking of the people lower down the chain of
>>
>> > command who have to shoulder the burden of university work: we've
>> > heard a lot recently about the university lecturers pay dispute, and
>> > we're all aware of what a strong force for the good the UCU and its
>> > antecedents were in negotiating a fair settlement for faculty. I'm
>> > sure graduate students are grateful for the sacrifices our colleagues
>> > have made to ensure a better deal for us when we get academic posts.
>> > But what about those unrepresented hordes of graduate students in the
>> > UK who mark papers, take tutorials and seminars and lead field
>> > classes? Like junior faculty, the pay's not good and we get taken for
>>
>> > a ride a lot. Unlike junior faculty, we have no union, no
>> > representation, no recourse. Ad-hoc teaching is underpaid and the
>> > people who do it undervalued. Our sole channel for redress is
>> > directly to the employer with no collective voice.
>> >
>> > Lecturers have the UCU. VCs have their own little club, I'm sure - I
>> > forget the acronym. In North America, graduate TAs very often have
>> > collective bargaining rights. In the UK we have nothing. Why?
>> >
>> > Andy
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
>> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ant Ince
>> > Sent: 01 March 2007 09:50
>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>> > Subject: how much is your VC worth?
>> >
>> >
>> > from THES: http://www.thes.co.uk/upload/2035374/VCpay0506.pdf
>> >
>> > ant
>> >
>>
>> --
>>
>> Anthony Ince
>> Research Student
>> Department of Geography,
>> Queen Mary, University of London,
>> Mile End,
>> E1 4NS
>>
>> www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/student/ince.html
>>
>> www.iww.org.uk
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Solve the Conspiracy and win fantastic prizes!
> http://www.theconspiracygame.co.uk/
--
Anthony Ince
Research Student
Department of Geography,
Queen Mary, University of London,
Mile End,
E1 4NS
www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/student/ince.html
www.iww.org.uk
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