The lecturers’ strike, which started on Friday, October 2, has disrupted learning for 700,000 students and represents a major indictment of the shambolic management of labour relations in higher education.
While workers have a constitutional right to picket or strike in pursuit of better perks, an indefinite strike without a clear timeline nor a credible route to resolution is an unacceptable way to settle disputes.
Strikes are pressure tools, not substitutes for dialogue. In mature labour relations systems, unions demonstrate their members’ mandate, provide clear timelines and use industrial action strategically to compel employers to negotiate.
The University Academic Staff Union must embrace a responsible approach, recognising that prolonged disruptions punish students, burden parents and undermine public confidence in the very colleges that employ them.
The Ministry of Education must also shoulder its share of responsibility. Bureaucrats cannot wait for universities to shut down before responding to disputes that have simmered for long.
Uasu gave notice on September 24. Proactive engagement, credible financial planning and timelines for implementing negotiated agreements can prevent never ending rows.
Yet ordering lecturers back to class without resolving the perks claims solves nothing. It only works to deepen mistrust. The government must urgently bring unions and university management to the negotiating table, disclose what is affordable and agree on a binding timetable.
We cannot build globally competitive colleges on unpredictable academic calendars. Both sides must demonstrate sincerity, compromise where necessary and put students first. The future of higher education demands an amicable resolution, not another shut down and a lost semester.
