Professors supporting colleagues on strike...
"We are all Sussex University professors who wish to signal our support for the industrial action being taken by UCU, Unite and Unison today. We support industrial action over a 13% real-terms pay cut since 2008, with staff having been offered just 1% this year by the university employers' association. The squeeze on staff pay comes at a time when pay and benefits for university leaders increased, on average, by more than £5,000 in 2011-12, with the average pay and pensions package for vice-chancellors hitting almost £250,000; at Sussex, that figure hits £280,000. As higher-paid members of the university, we support the claims of our lower-paid colleagues.
We support the strike because universities have acquired over £1bn in surpluses as their staff's salaries have fallen. At Sussex, the university had a financial surplus of £13.7m in 2012. Students now face greatly increased fees and staff work harder to provide more contact time and a better student experience. But none of this increased revenue is passed on to staff, despite the evidence that rewarding staff appropriately increases the quality of education for students.
We support the strike on behalf of all university workers from the lowest-paid upwards - our porters, cleaners and low-paid clerical, technical and administrative staff - and on behalf of women colleagues for whom the gender pay gap means unequal pay for equal work. We support the strike in protest at greatly increasing inequality across the UK. Company shareholders, investors and the highest-paid members of staff see their salaries grow significantly, while those of lower-paid staff fall to the point where people struggle to pay utility bills and afford food, whose prices are rising far faster than pay. There is a trend of increasing inequality in the UK since the 1970s, so the gap between rich and poor is as great as at any time since the 1930s.
Signed by 24 professors."
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/30/professors-supporting-colleagues-strike