A strike by lecturers and researchers at University of Brighton has ended today after 129 days.
Members of the University College Union (UCU) walked out on 3 July in response to a plan to cut more than 100 jobs – around 10 percent of academic staff.
While employment of the staff targeted with redundancies ended on 27 October, members remained on strike until today to press for the dropping of disciplinary action against four branch representatives.
The strike caused serious disruption to student graduations and the beginning of this academic year, with staff also having their pay docked for participating in a national marking and assessment boycott (MAB) until 6 September.
Brighton UCU says their dispute with the university continues, with a focus now on defending the branch representatives threatened with victimisation for participating.
Brighton UCU chair Mark Abel said: “Following initial investigation meetings, we are waiting to see if management proceeds with disciplinary action.
“We have not ended the dispute while this is still a possibility.
“It is very disappointing not to have stopped the redundancies.
“It seems that the university preferred considerable disruption to the start of term to using savings from staff resignations in the summer to mitigate the compulsory redundancies.
“However, the vice chancellor and senior management’s aim went further than the redundancies.
“They wanted to break Brighton UCU, and the fact that we have stayed out until they were forced to offer a rebate on MAB deductions shows that they have failed to do that.
“They have lost two deans in the process and their plans for further attacks on the working conditions of academic staff are now in disarray.
“We came back to work this morning with our banners flying and our heads held high.”
Some of the staff who were made redundant are still waiting for their appeals against redundancy and employment tribunals could follow.
A University of Brighton spokesperson said: “We are pleased that the small group of staff taking strike action has now agreed to return to work to focus on delivering a high-quality experience for our students.”
Remind me: how much was the going rate for daily docking?
At one point the University leadership were taking the line that “there will be no pay for partial performance” and that a marking boycott was not a legitimate strike activity. I don’t know if that stance evolved at all between then and the recent capitulation.
I cant imagine anyone noticed they were on strike, students are far too busy partying to ever be bothered to go to lectures.
Ah yes, that one thing that boomers say when they have no idea what a student does, despite being on average being very much more engaged than most other demographics. Very good, carry on with your bigotry in the corner.