Universities

This article was written before UCU eballoted members asking for a consultation on very poor deal, meanwhile stopping the strikes. What about striking while consultation takes place, or better, allowing elected HE committee to make decisions? As Solidarity goes to press, members of the University and College Union are about to begin six days of strike, from Wednesday 15 to Wednesday 22 March inclusive. Action was suspended almost a month ago after the joint union leaderships claimed there had been ‘significant progress’ in talks at ACAS. However, as many activists feared, there is little...

The Higher Education Committee of the University and College Union (UCU), meeting on 24 February, voted to call a strike on 15 March alongside other unions on Budget day. The strike will interrupt a “pause” in strike action put in place without any real consultation with the union’s democratic structures by general secretary Jo Grady. The pause was justified on the grounds that “calm” was needed while negotiations at ACAS continue. Yet the pause coincided with the employers imposing a below-inflation pay deal and no significant progress on many other aspects of the union’s long-running and...

On the evening of Friday 17 February, University and College Union (UCU) members received an email from the General Secretary announcing that strikes in higher education had been suspended by all unions to allow a "period of calm" in negotiations at ACAS. But the joint statement makes clear that employers are refusing to move on the headline pay offer of 5-8%, to be paid over 18 months. Part will be paid from 1 February 2023 and part from August 2023. So it is not even 5-8% for this year; it represents a further cut on top of years of below-inflation settlements. They have yet to make any...

As Solidarity goes to press on 14 February, the Higher Education unions have been in talks with employers at the government arbitration service ACAS. In the Guardian , Jo Grady, general secretary of UCU, which represents teaching and higher-grade professional staff, has hinted that improvements on non-pay elements such as workload, casualisation and equalities might be key to a deal. Enforceable framework agreements on these issues would certainly be welcome, but they need to be accompanied by a serious pay rise, not another below-inflation offer. Any offer we do get should be discussed in...

A round of balloting before Christmas in Unison Higher Education disappointingly failed to deliver a new tranche of branches for the 2022/23 pay action. Only three more branches got over the 50% turnout threshold; these were branches that had taken slightly longer over balloting. This highlighted that a lot of the problems with delivering a vote for strike were technical: a shortened timescale for balloting as Unison tried to catch up to the UCU timetable; problems with issuing and receiving ballot papers in the post throughout the CWU strikes; balloting around Christmas time; little support...

University and College Union (UCU) members will strike on 18 days during February and March in disputes over pay, pensions and working conditions. After 1 February, action will escalate to two days a week (9-10 February), then three (14-16, 21-23) and four (27 February to 2 March) and five (16-23 March). Management’s latest pay offer varies from 8% for the lowest paid (a rise that would be necessary in any case to meet living wage expectations), to 5% for those at the top of the scale. The latest round of pay talks saw a cynical increase in the offer for this top grade — mainly UCU members —...

The University and College Union has voted for escalating strike action over February and March, plus a reballot to extend the mandate into the summer term. There will be no marking and assessment boycott until then. Management’s latest pay offer is between 4 and 7% for 2023 (higher rises for the lower grades), with part of that paid in February. The union has rejected this as well short of inflation. The eighteen days of strikes announced are a big improvement on the General Secretary’s proposal for only ten, though they will not have the immediate impact of indefinite or four day a week...

Thursday 24 and Friday 25 November saw a national strike by University and College Union (UCU) members in Higher Education. A third day of strike is set for 30 November, with a national demonstration in London which will march to the office of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), the employers’ representative in pay talks. UCU is demanding “a meaningful pay rise to deal with the cost-of-living crisis as well as action to end the use of insecure contracts and deal with dangerously high workloads”. Many branches are also in dispute over cuts by employers to the USS pension...

Nineteen Unison Higher Education (HE) branches will strike alongside UCU on 24/25 November, and some on 30 November. The dispute is over pay: the union demanded a rise in 2022-23 of RPI +2% but the employers imposed an offer of around 3%. Some universities have also made bonus payments in an attempt to head off strikes. While it is a minority of all Unison HE branches, the number is set to grow. Around 40 branches that did not make the threshold for striking in this round and some branches who opted out of balloting up till now have opted into a second round of balloting for more strikes...

Higher education members of the University and College Union will strike on 24, 25 and 30 November in a dispute over pay, conditions and pensions. After a successful aggregated ballot, almost every UK university will be out. Workers are demanding a pay rise of 12% or RPI plus 2%, whichever is higher, plus action on equalities, precarity and workloads and a 35-hour working week. Those covered by the USS pension scheme (mainly older pre-92 universities) are also demanding the revocation of 2021’s massive cuts and a restoration of benefits. This year’s pay offer from employers was a miserable 3%...