Solidarity with rent strikers
This branch notes: More than 450 students at Sheffield Hallam University are currently on
rent strike and are withholding fees for accommodation from the private providers that the
University is partnered with. In communicating their action to the University, the students
highlight two key issues. Firstly, that students are having to pay rent for rooms they cannot
legally enter, and secondly, that their wellbeing has been consistently neglected by the
University and its private accommodation partners.
The key demands of the campaign are as follows:
Individually based, non-means tested, financial support/refunded rent for the time they have
been prevented by the lockdown from accessing their accommodation.
No repercussion for rent strikers and guaranteed safety for international students.
Zero tolerance of sexual assault and violence – there are disturbing allegations of sexual
harassment and assault within private accommodation providers not being properly
addressed, as well as allegations of “slut shaming”, racist, ableist and transphobic language.
This branch believes: Our union has a long-standing national policy of opposing the
marketisation of Higher Education, including the abolition of tuition fees. The privatisation of
university accommodation over the last two decades is one symptom of marketisation that is
contributing to spiralling costs for students. As such we stand against the profiteering by
private companies, particularly at a time when students face such extreme conditions due to
the Covid19 pandemic. Students have also given solid support to the UCU in all our
campaigns in recent years, including during our industrial action over workloads and the 4
fights dispute in the 2019-20 academic year. The student rent strikes, in writing to the
university have made one of their core demands: ‘no zero-hour contracts or job losses at the
Students’ Union or university and no changes to terms and conditions for all staff’.
This branch resolves: To support the student rent strikes in any way possible, through public
campaigning and the sharing of resources, and to propose this motion to the next delegate
meeting of Sheffield Trades Union Council.
The Branch meeting voted on the motion and the motion was carried with these results:
For – 48
Against – 1
Abstain – 3