Lectures disrupted as strikes return to campus
1,200 staff members thought to have walked out in second wave of strikes.
Picket lines and demonstrations were organised on campus for the second time this month, as members of Imperial’s three staff unions protested this year’s pay package.
As announced earlier this month, industrial action occurred on campus from Monday 27th to Tuesday 28th October, with picket lines organised on South Kensington campus. Students and passers-by could cross the picket lines unimpeded.
According to Unite, one of Imperial’s staff unions, “around 1,200” staff members were expected to walk out over these two days.
According to student reports, lectures were disrupted across faculties, with cancellations in the Maths, Medicine, Computing, Aeronautical Engineering, Electronic and Information Engineering, and Physics departments. An important number of cancellations, some without prior warning, were reported in undergraduate Maths modules.
The University and College Union (UCU), Unite, and Unison, the three labour unions which together form Imperial’s Joint Trade Unions (JTU), had each voted for strike action in September, as a response to the College’s sub-inflationary pay award. Salaries increased by 2% across the board, while in August CPI inflation stood at 3.8% year-on-year.
The UCU has pointed at the discrepancy between Imperial’s seemingly healthy financials, which include a total reserve of over two billion pounds, and management’s rejection to negotiate the union’s pay claim on the grounds of unaffordability.
An Imperial College London Spokesperson said: “We remain committed to ensuring that staff are appropriately recognised and rewarded for the vital role they play. In uncertain times it is important that we plan for the long-term future of our institution for the benefit of our students and staff.”
Recent revelations that the benchmarking exercise used by Imperial to determine salaries had flaws running since 2021 aggravated tensions, with the UCU saying it was “left with little choice but to go on strike”.
A regional officer for Unite said: “In not going back to the negotiating table, our members are concerned that this sets a worrying trend where Imperial management could continue to ignore evidence and erode their pay, protections and working conditions further.”
As with previous strikes, confusion caused some students to skip lectures they believed to be cancelled. Some departments such as Physics have announced that make-up lectures would be organised.
Local branches of the UCU in the universities of Leicester and Nottingham are currently on strike too, while the University of Edinburgh branch has recently voted in favour of strike action. At Imperial, six more days of industrial action are planned in pairs over the next month, with the first block starting on 13th November.
