This research is the cornerstone of the climate justice movement; from a demonstration of the destruction caused by colonial nations to ways in which the financial sector has increased the extraction of fossil fuels.
The workers who have produced this critical knowledge that has increased in importance each year have made it clear that their situation is untenable. In order to carry out the climate and environmental research we urgently need, we need a university that is not market-oriented.
In 2019 and 2020, when the last wave of strikes began at British universities, UCU members joined the climate strike in a demonstration.
Students and teachers walked side by side, calling for climate action to provide free, high-quality education for all. This is a coalition against the education system movement that treats students as consumers and uses their degrees to bottom out the business drudgery that usually pollutes companies.
To pay
On the contrary, the university can be a space for collective exploration of ideas, suitable for an era of slower contemplation and discovery, where students and researchers can freely understand the world beyond the need for profit.
In particular, universities need to be a space for students and workers to develop their ability to cope with climate and ecological crises. As long as the university is just another market-oriented institution, this is impossible.
As a result of the wage increase proposals that were below inflation for several consecutive years from 2009 to 2019, the salary of higher education fell by 17.6% relative to inflation.
Given the increase in inflation, wages across the industry are more likely to be squeezed. To make matters worse, university management failed to address the gender and ethnic pay gap.
Across the industry, the pay gap between black and white employees is 17%, and the gender pay gap is 15.1%.This excessive gap is shrinking at such a slow rate that UCU estimate If no action is taken, the gender pay gap will take 22 years to close.
horrible
Coupled with the last shameful statistic, the disability pay gap is currently 9%. This inequality is self-reinforcing-a hostile environment for disabled, racialized, female, and non-binary faculty members creates a hostile teaching space for students who are also marginalized.
In addition to low salaries, there is also a clear shift to temporary contracts and a reduction in the number of jobs in security positions.
Scholars, especially graduate researchers, are forced to lead a miserable life, balancing multiple short-term contracts, often moving between universities, always worrying that the next contract will not come.
During the pandemic, thousands of workers saw their contracts not renewed, wandered in terrible conditions, and management used employee insecurity to force workers to return to university without the safety of the new coronavirus.
Unity
In addition to wage issues, deteriorating working conditions and job insecurity, there are also attempts to link the pensions of workers who have already established a foothold in the college.
In addition, in certain universities, entire departments that are deemed to be no longer profitable are threatened, such as goldsmith, As many as 52 employees are facing layoffs, and the three-week strike has begun to fight with them.
In summary, academic workers are being squeezed from all directions, damaging the quality of research, teaching, and student experience.
Whether it is an environmental organization donating to the local UCU strike fund, or issuing a statement of support to the local UCU branch, or just uniting with the strikers on the picket line, this struggle is also an environmental struggle.
This author
Harry Holmes is a climate organizer and writer living in London.
