As employers threaten to dock all pay for lecturers on marking boycott, Counterfire UCU members argue that we need wider support and solidarity to win

The long-running dispute in the universities is heading to a crisis as employers are threatening many with 100% pay deductions for the new marking boycott aimed at winning improved pay and conditions. On 20 April university lecturers at 145 universities start a Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB). This is the latest phase of UCU’s campaign for improved pay, to reinstate pension levels and to address the ‘four fights’ (workload, pay inequalities, work casualisation, failing pay rates).

During the academic year UCU members have voted twice in official ballots for national action around these demands. Over the last 8 months they have undertaken repeated strike action of between 1 and four days in length over the period November to March.

The strike action has seen some movement from the employers over pensions in the older universities, vague promises made to ‘look at’ workloads, casualisation and pay equality gaps, but very little movement on pay with the offer on the table representing yet another real terms pay cut (something which has been the norm for over ten years now).

The next phase of the dispute will involve UCU members refusing to mark assessments, administer marks and undertake exams, or engage in examination processes and exam boards. The boycott aims to disrupt the normal routine of university working life at a crucial point in the academic calendar. It threatens universities’ ability to examine, grade and process students, or get them through graduation processes. In other words, complete disruption to the HE factory!

MAB is a tactic that focuses on university time-pressured vulnerabilities at the end of the academic year. The way to avoid disruption to students and graduates is clear: the employers’ body, UCEA, has to get serious with its offers, we won’t accept another pay cut.

The union has been threatening to unleash a MAB for a number of years now. Given this, it is a little surprising that the union seems to have been caught off guard by the employers’ response. This is another indication of the failings of the union leadership throughout the dispute. The militancy of the membership has too often been squandered by the General Secretary and the union leadership.

In the face of the threat from MAB, employers have responded aggressively. Many universities are threatening to deduct 100% of workers’ pay, for refusing to undertake this element of their work. Others are deducting up to 50% of pay.

We need to be clear: 100% pay deductions are, in effect, the equivalent of a lockout of union members, and 50% deductions in pay are completely disproportionate. Marking is not remotely close to 50% of our workload.

Every UCU branch should be holding emergency meetings about the employers’ offensive. We need to respond appropriately and effectively to management attacks and need to call immediate strike action to demand these threats are withdrawn.

We also need to be clear that this is a vicious employer attack on trades unionism. As a result we need effective solidarity from other unions. UCU members need to get out and visit other union branches, asking for solidarity and financial support.

We need that so members aren’t starved back to work. But we also need effective solidarity action. Universities should be boycotted: no post, no deliveries, no engagement with universities until payment deduction threats are removed.

The gloves are off in HE. We need a determined fight to push back against the employers’ offensive. We need to give the rank-and-file membership the tools to fight and stop leadership prevarications. The stakes have never been higher.