UCU staff strikes - A statement from your SU

From Monday 28th March to Friday 1st April, there will be further staff strikes taking place. This is due to two key factors; changes to pay and working conditions. Recently, it has become more difficult for staff to deliver quality teaching and learning due to being treated unfairly, and the main issues staff have been facing include casualisation, pay, equality and workloads.

Sheffield Hallam Students' Union supports these strikes and has an ongoing policy. This states that the Students' Union resolves:

1. To stand in solidarity with striking staff and to lobby the University to meet all of Sheffield Hallam UCU branch's demands.
2. To actively support the strike and any student led campaigns to support the strike and encourage others to do the same.
3. While supporting the UCU, make provisions to ensure students are not significantly negatively affected and support students who complain to the University, ensuring complaints are directed towards the University management rather than individual lecturers.
4. To lobby the University to put any pay docked from striking lecturers into student services such as mental health and sexual violence support.
5. To allow the SU building to be available for student facing events run by the UCU including, but not limited to, events such as teach outs and Q&As.
6. To use its social media and email database to tell as many students as possible why the strike is happening, why the SU is supporting it, where they can get support during the strike and how they can get involved with supporting the strike (they can get involved by contacting the Sheffield Solidarity Group who have a society at Hallam).
7. To lobby the Vice-Chancellor to ask UUK resumes negotiations on the pensions dispute that is affecting teaching staff at other universities such as the University of Sheffield.

We understand that the strikes have implications for students' learning, and that teaching will be heavily disrupted throughout next week. We want to ensure that you are receiving the support you need, so if you have any questions or concerns, you can contact our Student Advice Centre.

The Student Advice Centre offers free, confidential and independent advice to all Hallam students on funding, housing, academic issues and more, and have a team of expert advisers on hand to help. Get in touch with the team.

Want to get involved in supporting the strike? There are ways you can support staff who are striking which include:

• Show up on the picket lines - Stand with staff who are demonstrating outside of university buildings, and feel free to chat with them and show them your support
• Email the Vice-Chancellor - If you're angry and frustrated, contact Chris Husbands, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, c.husbands@shu.ac.uk. This may hopefully encourage action to be taken to help end the strikes
• If you are able to and feel comfortable doing so, don't go into university - The more disruptive strikes are, the more effective they are and students refusing to turn up to university shows the University that you support your staff and want to see them win so we can all have a better university experience. Don't cross the picket lines but also be respectful of international students and disabled students who cannot support the strike in the same way.

Passionate about change? Want to take action on the issues that matter most? Get in touch with our Student Rights team at studentrights@shu.ac.uk.