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Academics can blame only themselves if national pay bargaining is in danger (News, THES, May 30). As a Birkbeck staff member for 20-odd years, I was only too aware of progressive relative impoverishment and felt that provincial colleagues - less squeezed - lacked motivation to join us on picket lines. Now as a provincial, I see that the erosion has cut so deep that recruitment problems are not confined to the capital. If a national pay structure is worth keeping, it is worth fighting for.

Ian Reid
Loughborough University