A SUSTAINED campaign of industrial action by members of the University and College Union (UCU) in 67 of the UK’s best-known universities will start on Monday, the union announced yesterday.
The action will commence with UCU members ‘working to contract’.
This means they will simply work to the terms of their contract (including their obligation to perform their duties in an efficient manner).
If that does not force negotiations then the union warned that the action would escalate to rolling strikes and a boycott of student assessment.
Yesterday morning, the union said universities should play their part in breaking the impasse on negotiations and help bring about a swift resolution to the action.
The 67 institutions affected include all the Russell Group universities and over one million students could be hit if the action escalates.
The union has been frustrated by the employers’ negotiators’ steadfast refusal to negotiate and said it does not believe that hawkish stance is shared by all universities.
The UCU said it would review the work to contract action at universities that publicly call upon the employers to negotiate and do not subject members to punitive and unfair salary deductions.
The dispute is about changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension scheme – the second largest private scheme in the UK.
Scheme members are furious that changes they vehemently opposed were imposed on October 1st.
Those changes will see them pay more to work longer with less protection should they lose their job.
In two referendums, over 90 per cent of scheme members who voted, voted against the changes and in the industrial action ballot over three-quarters (77 per cent) of UCU members backed the sustained industrial action campaign.
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: ‘We are keen to resolve this dispute as quickly as possible with minimal disruption.
‘However, you cannot negotiate with an empty chair.
‘The university employers have tried every tactic in the book from slick PR and misleading adverts to direct intimidation and legal threats against union negotiators.
‘If they had focused just a fraction of the time they have spent trying to force these unpopular changes through on negotiating properly, we would not be in this position.
‘We want to negotiate and hope those universities keen to avoid unnecessary confrontation and disruption will start to apply pressure on those refusing to talk.’
Meanwhile, midwives have been angered by a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) strike warning.
Commenting on the NMC statement issued on Thursday on industrial action, Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), said: ‘I am surprised that the NMC has seen fit to issue such a statement especially at a time when the majority of nurses and midwives are not considering industrial action.
‘Midwives are highly trained health professionals and are acutely aware of their responsibilities.
‘That is why for example that many of them work beyond their contracted hours, often without breaks, with no extra pay, to ensure women and their babies are safe and receiving high quality care.
‘Midwives also have to abide by the NMC Code of Conduct and are obliged by this to provide a high standard of care.
‘The RCM is not balloting its members on industrial action, but if this was ever the case, they would of course ensure that no mothers or babies were put at risk by any action.
‘Currently midwives are working under severe pressure, yet still managing to deliver high quality care.
‘However, they cannot be expected to continue to do this in the face of threats to their pay and pensions and not take any action at all.’
Public sector union Unison said yesterday that women are the biggest group to be affected by government ministers’ plans to change public sector pension schemes.
According to new figures gathered by Unison, more than 3.7 million women ( six in ten) working in public services across the UK could be affected by the plans to make them pay more, work longer and receive less pension in retirement.
After eight months’ of talks, Unison has decided to ballot 1.1m of its members in local government, the NHS, police support staff, the environment agency, water companies and passenger transport executives for strike action.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: ‘We have found that women are being badly hit by the recession both as providers and as users of services.
‘In the public sector, they face pay freezes at a time of rising inflation, job losses and now an attack on their pension entitlements.
‘These women are often low paid and struggling to make ends meet as prices rise and wages are cut; many are single parents.
‘They already pay a sizeable proportion of their salaries into their pension schemes to save for their retirement.
‘And those schemes are already sustainable and affordable.
‘Government ministers want them to pay up to 50 per cent more with no guarantee that the money will go into the pension schemes.
‘It is effectively a tax on public sector workers.
‘I have said that we are willing to negotiate anywhere, anytime, but after eight months of talks, we don’t seem to be making much progress.
‘So we are asking members to vote yes to strike action in the forthcoming ballot.’
Unison noted: ‘Nurses, care staff, teaching assistants, social workers and school meals workers are just some of the women will be affected by the plans.
‘The average pension for a woman working in local government is just £2,800 a year and in health it’s around £3,500 a year.
‘Members pay in between 5.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent of their salaries to save for their retirement.
‘If they did not save, they would end up on means-tested benefits, at a cost to taxpayers.’
