Confirmed Local Strike dates Wednesday 16- Friday 25 March, Picket Lines 10am-2pm
***UPDATE 6pm Friday 11 March: Goldsmiths UCU branch has successfully negotiated with UCU National branch for an exemption from the national strike days that are scheduled for the final week of term (28.3 to 1.4). Goldsmiths UCU will not be on strike that week and classes will run as normal.***
Dear students,
Goldsmiths UCU executive sends our gratitude to you for your solidarity and patience during these difficult and uncertain times. We are keenly aware of the pain, hardship, and in some cases even ill health the current situation at Goldsmiths is causing for our students. Some of us are students ourselves. Everyone is getting a raw deal. We have withstood the pressure so far, but the real crunch is about to come.
On 25 March, an email will arrive in the inboxes of up to 14 lecturers in History and English and up to 32 Professional Services staff ‘regrettably’ informing them that their job has been ‘deleted’ and that their last day of work will be 30 June. Let that sink in: one of these members of staff could be your tutor, your departmental administrator, your wellbeing support officer, and none will be replaced. This is also just the first of three rounds of redundancies. This is a make-or-break moment in the dispute over the College’s ‘Recovery Plan’ and restructure. The union branch has therefore taken the very difficult decision to call for additional strike dates from the 16-25 March.
It remains the union’s position that these redundancies are not necessary. Substantial savings have already been made, the short-term financial situation is improving, and deep staff cuts will not resolve the financial problems Goldsmiths does have. We have therefore called upon SMT to halt their plans so that we do not have to strike on these additional days. We hope very much that they will put student interests first and come to an agreement. During the strike in November and December last year, the union requested that all pay withheld from striking staff be redirected into the student hardship fund, but Goldsmiths refused.
A separate, additional week of national strike days has been proposed by the UCU national branch for the last week of March as part of the ongoing ‘Four Fights’ campaign to stop pension theft. We have negotiated with our national union to be exempted from this week of strike and we will return to work Monday 28 March, to teach the last week of term.
Why do we strike? Don’t we care about students? We care deeply about students – that’s why we strike. We know that the imminent staff cuts will make the continuation of several programmes impossible. Some students face having no one to grade dissertations. Students in English and History know that far fewer modules may be offered next term. The College is already in a chaotic state administratively. Department managers have been deleted or redeployed, leaving departments struggling to help students with enrolments and other issues. What else can we do?
The SMT is determined to push through the Recovery Plan, even though they have admitted that redundancies are no longer necessary. So why do it? They are using students as an excuse by saying that the redundancies are about ‘improving student experience’. This is false. You know better than anyone that cutting staff is NOT going to improve your experience at Goldsmiths!
What can students do?
Join us! We will be on the picket line from 10 am to 2 pm from the 16-18 March and again from the 21-25 March. You may also find and propose teach outs using this google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m7e2XpWYJ8hzk8cWrOlcmqNSHXN8LfBChzN-vlebuh8/edit
All students should lodge a fees-compensation claim from the College. You can find more information about how to do that on the Student Union website:
https://www.goldsmithssu.org/democracy/campaigns/strikes/compensation/
You can request that SMT halt their redundancy plans so that staff can call off the strike by sending emails, letters or postcards to f.corner@gold.ac.uk and e.hill@gold.ac.uk.
You can organise yourselves – if you are not in your department student WhatsApp group, join it (or create one).
You can approach the staff union reps in your department to see how you can work together.
You can join the Goldsmiths Community Solidarity whatsapp group and also write to the admins of that group (or to Hafsa Haji, the SU Welfare and Liberation Officer hafsa@goldsmithssu.org) if you want to join the student organisers groups that are working to support the strike with student actions.. You can follow and retweet and repost updates from Goldsmiths Community Solidarity on Twitter and Instagram
You can read about the way SMT is treating students here: https://www.huckmag.com/perspectives/how-universities-are-clamping-down-on-student-protests/
You can sign this national petition to the UK government to refund fees: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/601792You can follow and retweet updates from @GoldsmithsUCU and @GoldFeesStrike.