The Universities and College Union (UCU) will be taking further strike action this week, affecting students across Islington.
The union is striking for better working conditions, fewer casual working contracts, and higher staff pay. These are the same issues highlighted during its 2019 strikes. Since then, the UCU has gone on strike every academic year – including throughout the Covid pandemic.
The latest picket line was formed on 15 March and will run through until 22 March.
This is the third time during the current academic year that the union has taken strike action, after organising picket lines in November 2022 and February 2023.
In Islington, the strikes are affecting teaching at City, University of London, whose picket line was visited by former Labour leader and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn in November.
One striking lecturer, who asked to remain anonymous, told Islington Now that “students need to keep supporting the strikes” so that they can have an effect.
But they implored management to listen to the strikers over their concerns. “Pay, casualisation and working conditions are why we’re here. They know that, and we just want them to listen to us.”
Katie Jones, a student on City’s MA Interactive Journalism course, said she is “supportive in principle” of the strikes.
However, when she emailed the Vice-Chancellor asking to be compensated for lost teaching time, she claims her concerns were simply “dismissed”, and she was told that it would be difficult to calculate how much money she would be owed because her fees do not directly contribute to staff wages.
In February, the UCU paused strike action after “real progress” had been made in talks with administrations and management.
However, this decision was met with a backlash from some union members, who wanted more detail about this “progress” and felt the decision had not been adequately explained to them.
 strikes will affect Islington students from 15 March until 22 March.){kind=link}