Uasu should think beyond strikes and pay

Trade unions play significant role in shaping academic freedom, standards and prosperity within the higher education sector in Kenya.

They promote the welfare of their members, influence decisions on behalf of members and wider society among other functions. 

A vibrant union such as University Academic Staff Union has managed to among other things to ensure that university dons’ salaries and allowances are increased and that they are no longer easily harassed by both the state and university management as it used to happen in the past.

Unfortunately, more needs to be done to make UASU and its sister unions such as Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU), more vibrant, more responsive to the needs of their members and, finally, more viable institutions.

Given that university lecturers do not have any statutory or professional body similar to say Law Society of Kenya for lawyers, it is important for the same people to think of ways that can shape and make their union stand out of the rest.

After all, the universities are the citadels of the society. That means the agenda of the universities unions should not be set by other unions such as Kenya National Union of Teachers or even Central Organisation of Trade Unions. Instead UASU should be ahead of the pack.

As professionals, UASU officials should be elected to office for a three-year term renewable only once.

This will make the unions more vibrant and not moribund, more democratic and not autocratic, more embracing and responsive to its members emerging needs.

By serving a short period in office, academic staff can also get back to class or office to continue with their calling. Lawyers complete their term of office within one or two years at the helm of LSK and get back to their daily chores.

For UASU officials, one can stay in office for as long as they are alive. I have never understood how a professor of biochemical sciences, for example, would be useful to the society when he spent his 15 years negotiating for higher salaries with employer or declaring strikes.

In my opinion, a union representing academic staff should have a term limit not exceeding six years.

 Due to this infinite term of office, the UASU National Delegates recently voted to increase individual monthly subscription from one percent to two percent of the basic salary.

In their wisdom, the cost of living and operations have gone up. The problem with this thinking is that no critical thinking informed it. First lecturers’ pay has not risen by 100 percent to warrant the union bosses to increase their cut from one to two per cent of the basic salary, which in my calculation gets to 100 per cent increment.

If the union wants more union money it should call for employment of more lecturers and increment of salaries. That’s how unions like KNUT have managed to collect dues running into billions.

UASU should go beyond salaries talk and seek better terms of service for lecturers to make the profession attractive and hence retain more members. That means lecturers should have comprehensive medical scheme that serves them and their dependants.

Creating conducive working environment is also critical. In most public universities most of lecturers do not have offices space or even desktop computers.

This means students seek out their lecturers from parking areas or along the corridors; university examinations are set and processed in cyber cafes or other unprotected environment.

On several occasions, I have personally witnessed university exams being typed by attendants at cyber cafés in Ongata Rongai Township. Due to lack of offices, many lecturers are forced to work from homes or even matatus as they go to teach.

Many lecturers, despite their education, cannot afford proper medical care.

Instead of investing in comprehensive medical scheme, many universities simply ask their employees to seek treatment or treatment in specified officials. That means one is not allowed to fall sick outside those hospitals or jurisdictions.

As a result, a few get attended to. I remember a youthful senior lecturer of law who died in a “small” hospital within Nairobi and one of his former colleagues asked me whether that was the best hospital they could take a learned man of law to seek medication: “Am sure they wanted to kill him,” she quipped.  I was too embarrassed to speak. One wonders why universities cannot get medical insurance for their staff. This is a fertile area for UASU and other university-related unions.

Lecturing is a strenuous exercise. A lecturer is expected to work by standing or walking around the lecture hall for between two and four hours per session.

This means unlike other people such as politicians, lecturers should be paid standing allowances computed on number of hours one stood.

They should also be paid commuting allowances based on the distance from their homes to the university. Universities should also put up exclusive members’ club for their academic staff. Because of poor pay and non-existing social places, many dons are forced to seek entertainment elsewhere.

The writer ([email protected]) teaches journalism and mass communication at Multimedia University of Kenya, Nairobi.