Trent Students join strike at University of Nottingham

On Tuesday December 3, Nottingham Trent University students joined University of Nottingham students in a protest for fairer wages and working hours for their lecturers.

More than 20 students protested in the Trent building at the University of Nottingham outside the office of UoNā€™s Vice Chancellor, Professor Shearer West.

This comes amid strikes being carried out by the University and College Union (UCU) in no less than 60 Universities across the country.

One NTU protester, Sam Harris, 20, a second year Politics and International Relations student, joined the protest in order to fight for justice for lecturers.

ā€œItā€™s unfair that the Vice Chancellor gets paid hundreds of thousands, whilst we have lecturers who are overworked and underpaid,ā€ Sam told us.

ā€œWe demand that the Vice Chancellor comes out in complete support publicly of the UCU strikes,ā€ he added.

In a video posted by the University of Nottinghamā€™s Student-Staff Solidarity Network, they stated that their protesters had taken occupation of the building in the night and ā€œwill not relinquish control until our demands are metā€.

They continued: ā€œOur demands are fair and reasonable, and we are calling for your support.ā€

ā€œVisit us in the Trent building and join staff on the picket lines to oppose the injustice of pension cuts, pay inequality, casualisation and unfair pay and working conditions.ā€

The protestersā€™ demands include putting an end to the outsourcing of labour through UniTemps and zero-hour contracts, recommencing talks with UCU staff to improve wages and pensions, demilitarising the UoN engineering department and ending the draconian attendance monitoring for staff and students.

A statement from the University and College Union

UCU members and protesters also formed a picket line outside of the University, advertising the protest and encouraging other students to join.

The students claim that they will not leave the Vice Chancellorā€™s corridor of the Trent building until their demands are met, but ā€œdo not take pleasure in causing disruptionā€.

By Faith Pring

Images credit: Sam Harris

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