UCU pensions: reinstate the action!


Sam Morecroft, Sheffield UCU education officer (personal capacity)

On 20 November the UCU lecturers’ union suspended the marking boycott started two weeks earlier.

The boycott, in opposition to pension cuts at pre-1992 universities, began after the highest ballot turnout in UCU history, with 78% voting to strike and 87% voting for action short of a strike.

Although marking boycotts can be difficult, the action held strong. At my own university, I’ve been blown away by the determination of young and casualised members to fight.

The employers are clearly divided. Five universities – Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, Essex and SOAS – publicly declared the proposed changes are unworkable, unsustainable and unnecessary.

But some universities, including York, Liverpool and Bradford, threatened to dock 100% of pay for workers taking part in the boycott. York backed down following a national backlash from staff and students. Other pay docks resulted in local strike ballots.

This dispute was winnable. Our strong position has been squandered by the union executive.

The promise of a national strike if members were victimised never materialised. Following the strong ballot result, UCU promptly abandoned its opposition to moving from final salary to career average pensions – a red line for many members. Finally, UCU has suspended the marking boycott until 15 January with just the promise of more negotiations.

Branches should support the call for an emergency pensions conference and to censure the leadership, the majority of which are Labour members.

Preparations should begin now to resume the dispute in January, this time including strike action to show the employers we are serious.