Local deals and the UCU disputes
As the long-running University and College Union (UCU) disputes in Higher Education (HE) continue, further local settlements have been offered to branches to withdraw disruptive marking and assessment boycotts. The local offers provide cash for staff in certain campuses, but the national picture of the strike is being eroded. On the one hand, branches winning settlements are ensuring higher pay for campus staff in the near-term, highly important in the context of an escalating cost-of-living crisis. On the other, the likelihood that our union will win our national disputes reduces in the short...