Which Side Are You On?

I'll be going on strike tomorrow for the first time in my admittedly relatively short professional life. UCU has called for a series of strikes in defence of pensions and pay first in the four nations of the UK, starting in Scotland last Thursday and moving across Wales and Northern Ireland before ending in England tomorrow, and then across the country as a whole on Thursday. I have my reservations about the structure of university education in the UK, and particularly the roles that graduate students and more junior members of staff play within it, but employers are seeking to both impose substantial salary cuts in real terms (pdf) and undermine pension rights (pdf). This is exactly the sort of situation in which collective action is appropriate, and I am glad to see that UCLU supports the strike action.