UCU

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...

On 4 January, UCU members at Sheffield Hallam University voted in an emergency branch for no confidence in the industrial strategy of General Secretary Jo Grady. Members expressed anger at the General Secretary undermining the democratic processes of the union and doing so publicly. It was judged that Grady has effectively derailed and de-escalated the industrial dispute and is now offering a strategy that — as evidenced over the past four years — fails to deliver. Caught between a rock and a hard place, members know that two days here and three days there will not win, but neither can we move...

Last week UCU’s negotiators (currently in talks with University Employers Association over pay) wrote a statement for members about the state of the negotiations. The union dithered over circulating the statement. It was then rewritten and sent out in the General Secretary Jo Grady’s name. However key points in the statement about the union’s strategy, as agreed by its Higher Education Committee (HEC), were left out. Grady’s statement was vague about escalating strike action and did not even mention a marking and assessment boycott. Yet the HEC had voted (in November) for a boycott from...

After three days of strikes (24-25-30 November) and a demonstration in London, members of the University and College Union are now working to contract in “action short of strike” (ASOS). The last strike day, 30 November, coincided with the first pay negotiations since the last round in Spring 2022 concluded with an offer of just 3%. Pay talks would not usually start until March 2023, and the fact that employers are prepared to talk now shows they are worried. The five Higher Education unions (UCU, Unison, Unite, GMB, and EIS) have agreed to urgent negotiations between now and 31 January in an...

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...

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%...

Staff represented by the University and College Union will be joining Unison colleagues on the picket lines in three days of action: 24, 25 and 30 November. Thanks to victory in an aggregated ballot, virtually all universities are involved in the dispute on pay and conditions. Some employers — particularly those hit hard by action last year — have been offering local bonuses, but none has yet delivered a rise to match inflation. There will be a national demonstration on 30 November, beginning 1pm at King’s Cross, London, to coincide with a key employers’ meeting. At Birkbeck University of...

The University and College Union (UCU) has announced three days of strikes in higher education: 24, 25, and 30 November. The union is also committed to escalation of industrial action if there is no progress in negotiations. The action will run up to scheduled negotiations with the employers (UCEA) at the end of the month. Indications are there may be some movement on pay. But will it be enough? Some better-off employers have already paid an extra 2% (some in the summer and some more recently); something like 5% could be formalised as an offer. To settle for that, or anything below the current...

On 24 October, the University and College Union (UCU) announced the results of ballots in Higher Education (HE) of academic-related and professional services staff on taking industrial action over pay, conditions and pensions. The ballots were successfully aggregated, achieving over 50% turnout (58% and 60%). On pay and conditions, 81% voted for strike action and 88% for action short of strike. On pensions, 85% voted for strike action and 90% for action short of strike. These are incredibly strong results. The whole of the union could now strike and join UCU members in Further Education, some...

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) in higher education have returned two aggregated ballot mandates for industrial action: on pay and conditions, 57.8% turnout with 81.1% for strikes; on USS Pensions 60.2% turnout with 84.9% for strikes. UCU’s higher education committee meets on Thursday 3 November to decide next steps.