‘Repressive management of one of Bristol’s key institutions does not look good’

Senior management at the University of Bristol have entered an unnecessary and damaging conflict with their staff and students. In two years, Bristol Uni has gone from being one of the more reasonable employers in the country to become one of the most repressive and punitive.

There are two current conflicts gripping British universities. One regards a 35 per cent pension cut. The other is about casualisation, real terms pay cuts, pay inequality and excessive workloads.

These are all longstanding problems in British higher education that have become increasingly severe in the 12 years since the coalition government increased tuition fees.

In the last round of strikes, just before the pandemic, the University of Bristol leadership were keen to resolve these issues. There were fruitful negotiations on pay inequality and casualisation. Bristol were one of the employers that were supportive of pay increases to keep up with inflation and negotiated solutions to the pension dispute.

To show their commitment, senior leadership also visited staff on the picket lines and spread the docking of wages for striking across several months. In short, their approach was accommodating, and vice chancellor Hugh Brady even marched with the union down Park Street.

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Now, two years later, this has changed drastically. Senior leadership is nowhere to be seen. They are now cheerleading the drastic pension cuts and show no interest in seriously addressing job security or excessive workloads.

Worst of all, they have now chosen to take one of the most punitive stances against their own striking staff. They now refuse to contemplate spreading docked pay over several months for striking staff.

Still worse, they joined a small number of universities who threatened striking staff with continuing to withhold pay even after the strike if missed teaching was not rescheduled.

Make no mistake, these measures are strike breaking tactics. Employers want to scare staff away from strike action in this national dispute. But the tactic is misfiring badly. Union membership has grown significantly over the last few weeks.

And staff are angry. An employer that is happy to slash you pension, cut your pay, and shows no concern about your working conditions is not an employer that cares about you.

This is a problem for a university because universities run on good will from staff who take on multiple tasks and duties every week that are not strictly part of our job role. Bristol Uni’s punitive, repressive policies and attitudes do not produce good will.

Bristol and other universities have also sought to weaponise students against striking staff, saying that we are letting students down. But these are the same students that were last year completely shafted by university management with empty promises of blended learning. Students don’t trust management any more than staff do.

Indeed, students are central to how this conflict is escalating on the Clifton campus. Sensing that the strike action in itself is doing little to push university management, students and staff are thinking creatively about how to ramp up the pressure on the university through more direct action.

Students are still occupying the Great Hall in the Wills Memorial Building with a modest list of demands aimed at reversing the strike breaking tactics of management.

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Read more: Students barricade themselves inside Wills Memorial Building

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The occupation is thus in direct support of striking staff. And we show our gratitude through food deliveries and pressuring the university not to penalise the students.

A student rent strike is also on the cards and various new innovative form of disruptive action. This is after all a generation of students that has been deeply politicised through climate strikes, rent strikes through the pandemic, Black Lives Matter and ‘kill the bill’. They are not afraid to disrupt.

Staff are also thinking creatively about escalation. Assessment boycotts and targeting open days are on the cards. The three weeks before the next week of strike action will likely be filled with more planning of disruptive actions.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. If Bristol University management would go back to the reasonable approach to these issues that they held two years ago, the rising anger on campus would dissipate.

Vice chancellor Hugh Brady is leaving in the summer but what kind of relationships between management, staff and students will be his legacy?

Bristol has stood out as a progressive and politicised city in the last few years. Repressive management of one of the city’s key institutions does not look good.

It is high time that our local Labour politicians get involved to try to solve this escalating conflict. Labour MPs have supported the strike at various universities in the country and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has also called for a resolution.

But we are yet to hear from Marvin Rees, Thangham Debonnaire or any of the other Bristol Labour MPs. Green Party leader Carla Denyer did speak at the union rally a few days ago.

This need not be a partisan issue though. This is an escalating conflict that needs resolving. University management must reverse their ideological anti-union approach and leading city politicians must encourage them to do so.

Dr Oscar Berglund is a lecturer in international public and social policy at the University of Bristol’s School for Policy Studies

Main photo: Rent Strike Bristol

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