Staff condemned the University of Cambridge’s gender pay gap today, as members of the University and College Union (UCU) began their first day of striking.

Over fifty staff members and supporters from Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) stood at picket lines across lecture sites this morning, before gathering outside Senate House and marching through the city centre.

The strike was called over a range of pay-based concerns – including a proposed pay increase for this year of 1.1 per cent, which was rejected by the UCU as “insulting”; increasing pay levels for university vice-chancellors; and casualisation of contracts, including the use of ‘zero-hour’ contracts.

The UCU have also criticised what they describe as a “shameful” gender pay gap of 12.6 per cent in universities nationwide. In Cambridge, this figures rises to 17.4 per cent, according the UCU.

Staff formed picket lines outside Great St Mary’s church, and on the Downing, New Museums and Sidgwick sites.

Mathematics professor Clément Mouhot, who was among those on strike, told Varsity that currently salary conditions are "unbearable", and described the protest as “very close to student campaigns against neoliberal structures”.

At midday, the groups gathered in front of Senate House. A brief speech was given to organise the group, and a photo was taken to show solidarity with the campaign to raise awareness about the disappearance of Giulio Regeni.

The group chanted as they marched through Market Square and across Christ’s Pieces. They culminated at Wesley Methodist Church, where several speeches were given.

Liz Lawrence, UCU’s national President, said that employers and the government had failed to “engage in meaningful conversations” about pay and working conditions, and that universities had become “addicted to cheap labour”.

She said that “fighting on pay is about demonstrating our strength as a union”, and action taken by staff was “about defending the education sector”.

Lawrence reinforced that the proposed pay rises were “not the total picture”, and condemned the “substantial gender pay gap”.

In February, a Freedom of Information request by Varsity revealed that of the 101 staff paid £140,000 or more by the University of Cambridge in 2015, only 11 are women. Jackie Ashley, President of Lucy Cavendish College, told Varsity that this disparity “should act as a wake up call”.

Professor Sarah Brown, Branch Secretary of Anglia Ruskin UCU, echoed Lawrence’s statements on the gender pay gap, and spoke about the creeping workload increases which staff face.

She said that many young academics may begin shouldering additional responsibilities such as marking exams “partly out of goodwill”, but said that “doing all these extra things are esteem markers which may help people get promotion”.

As a result of this, said Brown, “everyone’s workload goes up and up”. She said that this creates a “pressure on academics to do much more than is easily fitted into the week”.

Jon Duveen, secretary for the Cambridgeshire branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), offered his “solidarity and support” for the striking UCU members, and voiced his belief that “teachers are of the mood to take action” as well.

He said he has hopes that the “link between UCU, NUT and other unions which are in the struggle is brought closer”.

Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, sent a message in which he gave his apologies for being unable to attend. In the statement he said that “action is so important”, in part because “Cambridge is a very expensive city in which to live and work”.

The final speaker was Waseem Yaqoob, a Research Fellow in Politics and History at Pembroke, Research Staff Rep for Cambridge UCU, and head of the local Industrial Action Committee.

Cambridge can seem a like a “posh university with posh buildings, bursting at the seams with cheese and port and largesse”, he said, but said that didn’t mean issues over pay and casualisation don’t affect staff here.

Last month, Varsity acquired reserved University Council minutes, which showed that the appointment of Cambridge’s next Vice-Chancellor could be accompanied for pay rise of up to 38 per cent for the role.

Yaqoob described UCU as “fighting an uphill battle to make people think collective action can actually change things”, but said that he felt they had the support of “young people who trust us to provide them with a good education”.

The strike will continue tomorrow. A University spokesperson told Varsity that Cambridge “has policies and plans in place to ensure it can respond effectively to any potential disruption to the University's core activities.”