In recent years, Senate House has been associated with high profile industrial relations disputes. In December 2018, a boycott of the University of London, including Senate House, organised by the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain and supported by a number of high-profile politicians, journalists and academics, including John McDonnell, Owen Jones, Ken Loach and David Graeber came into effect. This campaign of ‘direct action’ aims to put pressure on the University of London to bring outsourced workers back into the employment of the University by targeting what is a major source of both prestige and revenue for the university. Today, the boycott is still in place, with hundreds of events during the 2018-19 academic year cancelled or relocated, and over 350 individual academics, as well as a number of UCU branches all signatories to the campaign. In May 2019 receptionists, porters as well post room and audio-visual (AV) equipment workers were made University of London staff, followed by security guards in May 2020; cleaners are expected to be back in-house in November 2020.