King’s strike deal

By Tom Royston

  From Varsity, 25th Feb 2000

CUSU are claiming victory today despite a potentially serious division in their ranks after two large college strikes moved towards compromises over rents. King’s Alliance voted last night by a large majority (yes: 173, no: 16, abs: 12, on a 75% turnout) to approve a deal which was reached after the KCSU ‘fair ballot’ met with great success. The college authorities last week refused to allow any strikers to choose rooms for next year, but virtually every undergraduate showed solidarity with the strikes, who constitute around three quarters of students, and backed the alternative ballot.

After that response, Senior Tutor Rob Wallach and Financial Tutor Keith Carne suggested a deal which involves the suspension of rent rises until the ‘costs of providing accommodation’ are properly known. The issue, to be dealt with by a committee involving students, will be the subject of a report next Autumn. The maximum rise for next year is 3.5%, although this does not take into account the fact that the maximum term length will be shortened by a week. College authorities vote on the proposal today, and are not certain to approve it, but strike leader Mat Coakley told Varsity he was ‘Two-thirds confident’ of its being passed. ‘There’ll be a massive ruck if they don’t’ he added. The Provost is understood to be supporting the agreement.

The Corpus strike, 65 strong and constituting about a quarter of students, ended early this week following negotiations between the new Senior Tutor, Chris Kelly, and the Access Alliance. Corpus will also have a committee involving students to advise on rent and access. They will also institute a new bursary scheme following a £1m endowment for that purpose. Fines imposed on strikers have been repealed. The Alliance told Varsity they were ‘proud to be playing a leading role’ in the university-wide movement and claimed that the ending of strikes did not mark an end to the campaign, but a change of tactics to reflect the college’s changed stance. The Alliance have not secured a definite moratorium on rises, but Kelly assures them that if the figures they have provided for discussion on ‘comparable rents’ at other universities are correct, rents will not go up.

The problem for CUSU is that the agreements currently being reached are indisputably compromises. The Rents Campaign view the King’s deal as ‘setting a good precedent’, but if other colleges do not take the bait, a rents campaign without the major strikers will have little chance of making them change their mind.

Dan Blaney, Academic Affairs Officer and ex-King’s student, said he would not vote for the current agreement, and went to the Wednesday meeting to argue his case. He claims the minutiae of the King’s agreement contradict CUSU policy. Several other figures involved in the rents campaign have been annoyed by a King’s ‘sell-out’, and although dangers of a rift between CUSU and King’s have been averted, some King’s Alliance members were extremely angry on Wednesday night, claiming in contrast that CUSU doesn’t want King’s to stop striking solely because it damages the credibility of ‘their’ campaign.

The next few weeks will be crucial for the rents campaign. Firstly, the colleges which are dealing with compromises at present must accept them or brace themselves for an onslaught of direct action. Secondly, CUSU must convince colleges which have been unaffected by strikes to follow suit in reconsidering rent rises, or be faced with a chaotic mish-mash of half-agreements which would leave the CUSU ideal of a university-wide resolution in tatters.