More on strike

[lnr]

I went along to the rally yesterday, and also talked to my mum about it at the end of the day. She forwarded me a letter which the NUS have put together for students, explaining some of why they are backing the strike. I've turned it from word doc into rough HTML and you can find it here:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~eleanorb/temp/nus-letter.html

I know some people still think that given the average salary of academics appears to be somewhere around 35K (not the > 40K claimed by the UCEA) we're being greedy in asking for more. Consider however that in many cases these academics could be earning more as doctors, lawyers and even in some cases as teachers. Perhaps that's not enough reason. I can't seem to manage to express any better why I think this pay claim *is* reasonable, and I admit I find it very frustrating to be so bad at arguing my point.

I'm kind of sad how small a proportion of the staff in Cambridge are members of AUT though, and how small a rally can be and still be an excellent turnout. I'm glad I showed my support though. And I'll be self-reporting as being on action short of a strike even if they do say they'll dock full days pay for it, despite the fact it make no difference to my work in practice.

My mum also forwarded me the letter which their vice-chancellor sent to all staff about the strike and the consequences with respect to pay. I have to say it's a complete eye-opener when you see how much more reasonable it is than the similar letter I received in Cambridge.

Comments

[compilerbitch.livejournal.com]

It is definitely a bad state of affairs. As you probably know, I'm currently finishing my PhD (home stretch -- writing the conclusions today!), and was faced recently with figuring out what to do next. I was prodded by my supervisor to trawl around for postdocs, fellowships and the like. Initially, I was considering staying at Cambridge, but a lukewarm response from the lab (basically it would be fine -- I'd find my own funding, then they would keep half of it and generously give me a desk in half an office), coupled with a near-zero chance of a JRF scuppered that. I had a postdoc offer from ENS in Paris, which would have required me to live in Paris on about 2000 euros per month. Not *at all* easy. I also asked around within contacts at NASA and the US Air Force. They both offered jobs, with NASA's being more concrete from the point of view of actually taking things further. To cut a long story short, I'm going to be a 'Staff Scientist' (not actually a postdoc -- this is a for-real permanent research scientist post), and I've been offered $117k. Given the lower taxes compared with the UK, I'd have to earn about 70k or more here to get close -- maybe our head of department might earn that, but I'd be surprised if my (full professor) supervisor does (unless you count his consultancy income, but I won't need to do any of that to make ends meet). As best I can tell, this would be on the high side for a lecturing post in the US, but it's not *that* far out of the range. It's probably 2 - 3 times what a junior-ish lecturer in the UK would typically earn, however.

Hmm.

[j4.livejournal.com]

in many cases these academics could be earning more as doctors, lawyers and even in some cases as teachers

Out of interest, what factors do you think should contribute to determining the salary that a person is paid to do a job?

[nomme.livejournal.com]

According to a pdf of an article ranking all VCs pay 2004-5, your VC (A. Richard) was/is on 190,000 p.a. which represents 5.6% increase over the previous year and 41.8% increase over the previous 3 years.

If you would like a copy of the pdf I'll email it you.