Pondering new strikes

The conflict wasn't resolved after the first round of strikes! So there needed to be a second round. The union called a meeting and I went. Not so much to make sure my voice got heard; more to try to help me make up my mind about the situation. If we would strike any more, the risk would be we could not graduate any students. There is a quite strict protocol. That involves certain meetings of which I'm sure you need a certain percentage of staff present. And certain committees meeting.

The other union members were more militant than me. They wanted to make sure their strikes had impact! Some thought we needed to keep the students on our side, some thought we needed to piss them off as that's the only impact we have. Some wanted to target lectures, some exams, some marking, some exam board meetings. We will probably be doing a bit of all of the above.

And me? I don't think I'm happy with stopping students from graduating. That goes a bit far! If you don't do a lecture they can go to the library and find some information themselves. But they can't go and get a diploma themselves. I would not be happy if that happened to me! So I'm not comfortable with doing it to others.

I suppose official strike guidelines will come from the national union soon! I may strike on lecture days but I won't get in the way of the exams or the exam board meetings... and that won't make me popular with the other union members but one can't have it all!