A campaign to improve college supervisors’ pay are supporting the strikes despite being unable to take part.

Because they lack the “employment contracts which are a prerequisite for striking”, the Justice for College Supervisors Campaign (#J4CS) are supporting the strikes through a “postcard campaign”.

The action involves collecting postcards signed by supervisors who are paid by the hour and support the campaign’s demands. They are asking for training payments to be guaranteed, open negotiations on “secure employment contracts” and a pay rise.

A representative for the campaign told Varsity that the “college supervision system is so exploitative that most of us don’t even have the right to negotiate with our employers and withdraw our labour from the colleges in protest”.

The campaign is one part of the broader UCU anti-casualisation movement, one of the UCU’s ‘Four Fights’. Strike activity for the ‘Four Fights’ will take place across two weeks, first from Monday 21 to Tuesday 22 of February and then from Monday 28 of February to Wednesday 2 March.

Despite being unable to strike themselves, the campaign said they “stand in full solidarity with our striking colleagues” this week.

The campaign also condemned the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association’s recommendation that staff taking “action short of strike” should have their pay cut. In a comment, they said that this was “indicative of the disastrous state of UK higher education” and that “UK higher education has institutionalised overwork and underpayment” as staff were “being penalised for working to contract”.

Striking against pension cuts began today (14/02), with over 50 students joining staff at picket lines at Senate House, Downing site, and Sidgwick site.