Hello...
Just a quick email to ask your opinions. At my uni a lot of PhDs are funded by a teaching assistantship. We don't have contracts but the university has a policy in place to ensure that we only undertake certain duties. The school in which I work effectively ignores the policy document and expects us to do more work/gives us inappropriate teaching. We have had meetings with the Head of School but he makes promises then takes no action.
I'm going on strike - what do you all think??

Send a letter to the head of department, copied to your supervisor first. Going off on one without (apparent) reason is never a good plan and will harm your future prospects. Cool down and tread carefully. I would suggest in your letter that you provide some options they could pursue, ie: if you wish us to do X, then provide the training or suggest alternatives. This is more politic than "do this or else..." and makes you friends in the long run.

Thanks for the suggestion. We had a very calm meeting with the Head of School who thanked us for being reasonable and said he'd take action. But as soon as an issue arose, he just said "I'll make a note of it". This is constantly recurring, our supervisors are also tired of it and regularly have to have the same conversations over and over again.

Ah, but you can't produce a conversation as visible evidence that you have explored other options before taking radical action. By having a copy of the letter, you can successfully counter a claim of "I knew nothing about this".

There was another person at the meeting, and a number of emails have been exchanged formally stating the problems. Other staff are involved and have been kept in the loop.

The issues have been raised formally, but no-one is willing to do anything.

Supervisor, then Dean. That usually works. Failing that, inform them of your concerns and unless something is done, you wish to opt out of certain duties.

sleepyhead, in some of my more frustrated moments i, too, think of going on strike. the reason mainly being that if TAs would strike, then finally maybe some people would recognize what we do. because that, in my experience, is the chief problem - lack of recognition. this is expressed for example in low pay, in lack of support when necessary even if according policies are in place, and in the fact that TAs, although we are on the payroll, are usually not considered as "staff". most gravely, sometimes i feel the institution thinks that the teaching does itself, they do not recognise that there is work involved - a bit like housekeeping work, actually.

Bear in mind that strike action is usually only effective if

a) you are in a position of such indespensibility that your inaction will cause serious problems (unlikely in your situation).

b) If you are in a collective with others in your position and you can use your combined strength to negotiate a better situation (much more likely to have an effect here).

This is why individuals rarely strike, but entire contigents do.
PS make sure you dont do anything that could be construed as a "disciplinary matter" or it will make the situation much worse for you in the long run.

Sleepyhead, my first advice to you would be to join the UCU. Your branch and regional office will be able to give all the advice and support you need, including taking strike action, if that's what the branch decides - strike action is a collective decision taking by a recognised representative organisation.

You need to be aware that you cannot just take strike action. There is a process to go through. And whilst I am in favour of workers being able to walk out even if it means breaking the law, you would be very unwise to do this on your own. Seriously join the union, raise the issue with your branch members - they will be well acquainted with the way in which teaching assistants, just like hourly paid lecturers, are treated. If you don't have a viable branch, contact your regional reps. Website of UCU is
http://www.ucu.org.uk/

Hi all
Thanks for your messages of support and advice. This does seem to be a fairly common problem across universities, not just my own. I obviously do not want to do anything that will adversely effect my career, but even my supervisor believes we seem to have exhausted all options re: negotiating with the school management.
The Director of Graduate Studies has been informed, and we're waiting to see how he responds before anything else happens.