British Academics Strike to Save Pensions
For the last five days, 42,000 professors at 64 different public universities across Britain have been on strike. Students have been attending the faculty rallies in solidarity with their professors. In the late 1990s, tuition at Britain’s public universities was completely free for citizens, today, they pay about $12,000 US dollars a year to attend school. At the same time, the number of part-time faculties has increased tremendously, and tenured professors face constant threats to their pay and benefits. The sticking point in this round of negotiations is a threat to their pension plans in their next contract. If the issues are not resolved soon, the strike could last a total of 14 days over 4 weeks.
See Steven Parfitt, Labor Notes, March 2, 2018