The Independent Student Newspaper
Number 772 Friday 1st November 2013 www.varsity.co.uk DIASY SCHOFIELD
Published in Cambridge since 1947
10 News
As colleges debate and make changes to the role of women’s officer, Christina Sweeney-Baird takes a look at the issues involved.
14 Comment
Priscilla Mensah argues that the revival of fancy dress trend ‘Blackface’ shows that Black History Month is still needed in 2013.
18 V Vulture
Somewhere to write home about. Students send in postcards about their experiences abroad, ranging from Copenhagen to Burma.
30 Sport
Roxana Antohi pays a visit to the hidden world of the University’s Revolver and Pistol Club, in her quest to try a new sport each week.
The main demonstration took place in front of the Senate House, where demonstrators rallied together to voice their discontent
“We are the University”
Cambridge students and staff joined yesterday’s nationwide strike in protest at a real terms cut to wages, with demonstrators urging others not to cross picket lines Amy Hawkins
Academics and support staff at the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University went on strike at sites across Cambridge yesterday, in protest at what is effectively a pay cut for the next year. Picket lines were formed at various lecture locations around the University, including the Sidgwick and Downing sites. Many students also boycotted lectures and seminars to join the picket lines in solidarity with the workers on strike. The protest culminated in a rally outside Senate House at midday. Representatives from Unison, CUSU and the Labour Party spoke to the crowd of about 150 students who had gathered to hear the speeches. Daniel
Zeicher, the Labour parliamentary candidate for Cambridge, told the crowd that the call for higher wages was “an entirely reasonable demand.” In an effort to highlight the politics of salaries, Zeicher called attention to the government’s tax cuts for the wealthy, supported by Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge Julian Huppert. In response to this, an angry crowd member shouted: “Labour have done nothing!” Many of the speakers drew parallels between the fight for decent pay and the fight for a decent education. Mordecai Paechter, a first year student from King’s who was speaking on behalf of CUSU called the one per cent pay rise offer “insulting”. “The students will support the staff all the way,” he said. Andy Murray from Unite was similarly emphatic in his speech. “We are
sending a very clear message to employers that we are not prepared to accept a measly one per cent pay rise,” he shouted to the crowd. Glyn Hawker from Unison gave a rousing speech to close the rally. “The University would not be open ever were it not for the hardworking staff,” she told the audience. “It’s time they treat us with the respect we deserve…we’re done with being disrespected. We are the University!” Before the crowd dispersed, Hawker led an enthusiastic chant of “They say cut back, we say fight back!” This is the first time that members from of all three trade unions in Cambridge have coordinated; the universities’ staff who took strike action are all members of Unite, Unison or the University and College Union (UCU). They voted in favour of the strike
motion after being offered only a one per cent pay rise for the next year. The current rate of CPI inflation is 2.7 per cent, meaning that employees are facing a decline in wages in real terms. In the past four years, according to a statement from Cambridge UCU, staff wages have gone down by about 13 per cent in real terms. On average, 60 per cent of members across the three trade unions voted in favour of the strike. In a statement from Cambridge UCU that was released earlier this month, the union said that their members “have not rushed into this decision to take industrial action, and are very keen to see the dispute resolved without the need to take it.” They called on the University’s Vice-Chancellor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz to support their claim.
News: The campaign for all colleges to pay staff the Living Wage gathers speed (p. 8)