Bristol is implementing a 'reward' system on pay.
Substantial numbers of staff - overwhelmingly non-academic - have been
red-lined, which means that the University believes they are overpaid in
the current, local, market. 21% of secretaries are scheduled to
experience a real loss of pay of 12%+ as are 44% of craftworkers. Tne AUT
(sorry UCU) has recommended the deal to its members as the 'best
available' and got a positive vote at a meeting!
On Fri, 2 Mar 2007, 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/
>
--
Prof Ron Johnston FBA
School of Geographical Sciences
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1SS
UK
phone +44 117 928 9116
FAX +44 117 928 7878
http://www.ggy.bris.ac.uk/staff/staff_johnston.html
|