‘Vice chancellors are about to witness another huge show of strength,’ UCU (University and College Union) General Secretary Jo Grady said yesterday, speaking ahead of strike action resuming at 150 UK universities today.
A UCU national rally is taking place at King’s Cross Station, London, at 1.00pm today – the stage will be located at the corner of the King’s Cross concourse.
Speakers include Jo Grady; Janet Farrar, UCU President; Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary; Dave Ward, CWU general secretary; Christina McAnea, Unison general secretary; Nehaal Bajwa, NUS vice president; and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Streatham.
‘Last week, university staff delivered historic strike action and this week they are doing it all over again,’ the UCU’s Grady said.
‘University staff are prepared to do whatever it takes to win decent pay, secure employment and fair pensions and vice chancellors need to understand that they cannot simply ride this out.
‘Students and staff are united like never before. At the national rally in London, the entire movement will show it is behind UCU’s campaign to save higher education. It is clear those who run our universities are becoming increasingly isolated.
‘Our union is ready to deliver more industrial action next year, but avoiding that is entirely the responsibility of employers who have this week to make an improved offer. The ball is in their court.’
In the pay and working conditions dispute: UCU is demanding a 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.
Employers imposed a pay rise worth just 3% this year following over a decade of below-inflation pay awards.
On average, university staff do two days additional work unpaid per week, whilst a third of academic staff are on some form of temporary contract.
In the pension dispute: UCU is demanding employers revoke the cuts and restore benefits. The package of cuts made earlier this year will see the average member lose 35% from their guaranteed future retirement income.
For those at the beginning of their careers the losses are in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.
