Email to students 19 January 2023

Dear students,

I am writing to confirm that one of the national trade unions (the University and College Union, known as UCU) has announced further industrial action over issues of pensions, pay and working conditions. 

Confirmation of strike days

This industrial action will take place in universities across the UK, including York.

• UCU has notified universities across the UK that strike action will take place on Wednesday 1 February 2023. 
• UCU has announced that, in total, there will be eighteen strike days spread across February and March. It has said that the dates of other days will be confirmed soon.

We are updating york.ac.uk/industrial-action with the key information when we receive more notifications, and will contact you directly with further updates.

In addition, ‘action short of a strike’ (ASOS) continues this term, which is where staff may limit some of their activities, for example, working to contract, not covering for absent colleagues, not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled as a result of strike, and not undertaking other voluntary activities. There is no marking and assessment boycott planned for this term.

Minimising the disruption 

While I know that any decision to take part in industrial action is not taken lightly, I am saddened by the possible impacts on our students when there are so many other difficulties to contend with in the current cost of living crisis. 

These are national-level negotiations, but we continue to do all that we can to influence the debate. For those who are interested, I wrote a comment piece in the Financial Times this week about how we need to tackle the root causes of the problems we face. 

The impact of industrial action will vary in different Departments/Schools, and from module to module, so it is difficult to assess the potential scale and impact; some students may feel more impact, but others may feel little or none at all. We will do what we can to minimise disruption to your studies and to support you through this situation. 

What you need to do

We have updated our Frequently Asked Questions page for you, which covers lots of information and guidance, and we are working very closely with Schools and Departments to understand any impact on your studies. 

We don’t know how many staff will be taking part, or to what extent. Staff are not required to tell us in advance if they plan to take part in industrial action, so you should assume your teaching and learning activities will go ahead as normal. 

This means it is very important that you engage with your scheduled teaching, labs, assessments and other learning activities, unless you have been told otherwise by your department. This applies whether you are here with us in York or enrolled on one of our online programmes.

All other University resources and support will remain open and available as normal, including student support and wellbeing services, our online resources, and our on-campus catering outlets, shops, the Library and the Sports Village for students here in York.

We work constructively with campus unions at York on the things under our control. However, we are currently seeing strike action being used in disputes about pay and conditions in other sectors, including nurses, transport workers and, most recently, some teachers. I will continue to do all that I can to find a route to a more constructive conversation at national level on the problems underlying these national disputes in higher education, and to try and find a way out of this damaging cycle of disruption. 

Best wishes, 

Charlie

Charlie Jeffery
Vice-Chancellor and President