Members of the UCU were taking strike action at the University of Westminster yesterday, on 13 November.
The strike was held in all those four campuses of the university including Harrow, Regent, Cavendish, and Marylebone.
The strike decision was made by the union after the university turned into the only one in the UK imposing an overdue deal without paying back pay it owed its staff.
The union said that it had been five years of negotiations between the union and the university to make an agreement on back pay. However, no progress had been made in those talks.
The university failed to carry out the deal called the Framework Agreement, and made new moves towards staff working conditions, such as changing grading structures.
UCU Westminster branch representative, Peter Mcloughlin indicated that in June this year, the university told the staff it would be carrying out the Framework Agreement, but still would not be paying back pay, which caused many staff’s discontent.
Since the union failed to make an agreement with the university on the right of both the union and the staff, they had no other choice but to take strike action on Friday. So those students who had classes that day were affected.
Rikki Morgan-Tamosunas, the Deputy Vice Chancellor in the university said, “the university believes this strike action is unwarranted and unfairly damaging to students”.
One student from MA Global Media also said, “the tuition is so expensive, it’s unfair to force us to accept such a result.”
“To students, we regret that they missed the class. I believe it did affect them, but not that much. We wanted to persuade the employer without hurting students, but finally we had no other choice but to take strike action to protect our own rights”, said Peter.
He also indicated that if they did not get the result they wanted, they might organize more strikes in the following time.
The strike was held in all those four campuses of the university including Harrow, Regent, Cavendish, and Marylebone.
The strike decision was made by the union after the university turned into the only one in the UK imposing an overdue deal without paying back pay it owed its staff.
The union said that it had been five years of negotiations between the union and the university to make an agreement on back pay. However, no progress had been made in those talks.
The university failed to carry out the deal called the Framework Agreement, and made new moves towards staff working conditions, such as changing grading structures.
UCU Westminster branch representative, Peter Mcloughlin indicated that in June this year, the university told the staff it would be carrying out the Framework Agreement, but still would not be paying back pay, which caused many staff’s discontent.
Since the union failed to make an agreement with the university on the right of both the union and the staff, they had no other choice but to take strike action on Friday. So those students who had classes that day were affected.
Rikki Morgan-Tamosunas, the Deputy Vice Chancellor in the university said, “the university believes this strike action is unwarranted and unfairly damaging to students”.
One student from MA Global Media also said, “the tuition is so expensive, it’s unfair to force us to accept such a result.”
“To students, we regret that they missed the class. I believe it did affect them, but not that much. We wanted to persuade the employer without hurting students, but finally we had no other choice but to take strike action to protect our own rights”, said Peter.
He also indicated that if they did not get the result they wanted, they might organize more strikes in the following time.
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