Foodbanks, Fear, and the Fight for Fair Pay: The reality behind the UNISON strikes

An Interview with Angela Blackburn

Despite the cost-of-living crisis plunging many families into poverty this winter, the University of Leeds sits on over £730 million in reserves, with record numbers of students having enrolled in the past 2 years. Universities across the UK have made huge profits throughout the pandemic, but the university staff largely responsible for these profits remain underpaid and undervalued. Staff members that facilitate the student experience from the moment you apply to long after you graduate, staff involved in your admissions, who clean your campus and ensure you are safe, have been forced to strike. 

Pay that does not meet or go beyond inflation is effectively a pay cut. Staff at the university have been presented with such offers each year, most recently being propositioned with a ridiculously low 3% pay award from the University and Colleges Employers Association in May. Workers who were previously deemed to be receiving a comfortable mid-range salary must now go to food banks and take on second jobs to survive.

University staff play an integral role in every student’s life, whether it is as the person on the other end of the phone or working backstage to ensure the semester runs smoothly. It is the responsibility of the student community to speak on their behalf when they are facing such injustices. Strikes are not just an inconvenient fact of the academic year, they exist because staff have no other option, no other way to advocate for their financial security and the families that rely on them.

Only 40%-50% of students’ fees are spent on the direct costs of education.

Higher Education Policy Institute, 2018

UNISON, one of the UK’s largest trade unions, represents over 1.3 million public service workers and has enabled university staff across the country to vote to strike over unfair pay. Angela Blackburn, Branch Secretary of UNISON University of Leeds, who has worked in student support and admissions within the University, has seen first-hand the suffering that many university staff members have had to endure as a direct result of unfair pay. She helped organise the strike action within the branch and advocates for students to support the staff strikes. 

The following interview was conducted with Angela to discuss how deep the impacts of these strikes truly are.

What are the UNISON strikes in relation to? Is this issue limited to Leeds or does this go beyond the university? 

Put simply, the UNISON strikes are related to pay. Over the last 13 years we have received below-inflation pay offers each year, meaning we are now 33% worse off than we were in 2009 against inflation. Staff have lost thousands of pounds, even though they are in the same jobs, doing the same work, and over the last 13 years, workloads have increased massively. University pay is negotiated nationally, so this affects all staff working in Higher Education. 22 UNISON branches have been out on strike during September/October, up from 9 last year. Staff have had enough: they want to see their work being paid fairly. UCU and Unite, our sister trade unions on campus, are currently balloting their members about taking strike action over pay as well. 

Why should students support the strikes? 

If it was not for the staff, students would not be able to attend University. Staff see students through their entire University journey, from Open Day events, applying for a course, registering for study, teaching them and ensuring their pastoral needs are met. There are also staff behind the scenes cleaning and maintaining residencies and teaching buildings, ensuring student safety on campus, keeping libraries open, providing careers advice and arranging for graduation. All these staff have been earning less and less each year as other costs have gone up. We are not taking strike action lightly and we are not just doing this for us, we are looking to ensure that anyone, including students, who wish to enter the Higher Education workforce in the future, are paid fairly for the work they do.

In 2020/21, the most recent financial year, universities finished with £3.4bn more cash in the bank than they started it with.

UCU, 2022

How have members of staff been affected by low pay? 

At this University, we have staff using food banks. People who students walk past every day could be surviving on one meal a day. An increasing number of staff are taking second jobs to make sure they can pay the bills. These are staff who are on the middle pay grades, so not even the lowest paid staff. Students could be requesting support from staff who have worked an evening shift the night before just to make sure they have enough money to pay their rent. This is unheard of up to now, and we are shocked to hear of staff on what were previously considered “comfortable” grades having to take up second jobs. We have members telling us that they cannot afford to turn their heating on when the weather turns, that they are eating the leftovers from their kids’ meals, and that they are terrified of what the next few months hold for them and their families. Staff are also telling us they are having to move to shared housing to mitigate rent costs and give up pets, not having any money to do anything except pay bills. We know the cost-of-living crisis is affecting everyone, including students, but after 13 years of below-inflation pay awards, staff at the University are even worse off. 

What do you think are the long-term implications of low staff pay? 

The University is haemorrhaging experienced, long-standing staff. With them, all of their knowledge and experience is lost to the institution. This will only have a detrimental effect on the service to students, and staff morale is at an all-time low. Staff feel undervalued by not being paid fairly, while also being expected to cover more work when colleagues leave with no recompense, on top of ever-increasing workloads. During the pandemic, University staff were offered a 0% pay “rise” – this was the year that all provisions were moved online within a matter of weeks. In return, staff received nothing. The University refused to even discuss a one-off payment to cover equipment, heating, and lighting costs for staff during this period of working from home, despite the unions asking for this and other institutions giving such a payment to their staff. With record numbers of students enrolled over the past 2 years, Universities still say there is not enough money to pay staff fairly, but senior managers and Vice Chancellors are given bonuses and pay increases much higher than staff. Naturally, the staff are getting increasingly angry. 

“Managers must put people before profits and pay staff proper, fair wages. If they don’t, employees will vote with their feet and leave universities for better paid, less stressful jobs.”

UNISON Head of Education, Mike Short

Is there anything you would like to clarify about the strikes? 

Is there any widespread misunderstanding amongst the university? Ultimately, this is a last resort for staff, we do not consider or take strike action lightly, and we know the negative effect this has on students. But what other option do we have? The University is not listening to staff, so we are left with taking strike action to show the University how important our work is, and that staff deserve fair pay. We know students appreciate the work that goes into making their time at University a great one, but that comes from the staff doing their jobs and we think they deserve fair pay for that work. The University will often point to the fact that the lowest paid staff got a 9% increase this year – to be clear, 6% of this was the rise in National Minimum Wage and legally had to be paid, so it was not a generous offer by the University for the lowest paid staff, it was a legal requirement. University-figures show that just over 20% of its staff would have been below the legal minimum, without this extra uplift. 

The Vice Chancellor’s salary is £302,000*. She was awarded a 7% pay rise last year, when staff received just 1.5% – it would take a minimum wage worker well over a decade to make what she does in a single year.

*UNISON Leeds Flyer

How can students support you?

If the University and UCEA (the national body which negotiates pay on behalf of universities) refuse to come back to the table to negotiate a better pay deal and/or a one-off payment for staff here at Leeds, we will be taking further action and dates will be released in the near future. All student support is critical for staff taking action, it lifts the spirits of everyone taking action to hear from students that they support us and our fight. Student fees are paid to the University, but where do they go? It is not to the staff on the ground, it is paid to the senior management who are on over £100k per year, increasing the Vice Chancellor’s pay and building new buildings. New buildings are fine, but who cleans them, who opens them, who ensures they are safe, who teaches in them and offers student support in them? The staff.

Students interested in supporting the staff strikes are encouraged to get involved in the Leeds Student Staff Solidarity (LSSS) campaign to help staff carry their voices at and beyond the picket lines.

Header Image Credits: Wikipedia Commons.