Since this article was written, UCU general secretary Jo Grady has reported on negotiations with the employers, via an hour-long podcast issued during the strike action on 15 March.
An email consultation was launched, asking members if they want to suspend strike action in order to conduct a referendum of members on the latest offer from the employers, with a Branch Delegate Meeting and a meeting of the Higher Education Committee on Friday 17 March.
Socialist Party members in UCU will be voting ‘no’. There is not enough progress to warrant suspending the strikes to go to a referendum at this stage. From the information provided in the podcast, there is no movement on pay since the offer we rejected, and limited progress on the other issues beyond promises to talk.
The employers are under pressure and the strikes must go on.
Unison members are reported to have rejected the pay offer and are moving to ballot.
UCU: After the ´period of calm´ comes a period of storm
Lluis Bertolin, Birmingham UCU
After suspending seven days of strikes over two weeks in order to “create a period of calm” for negotiations, the University and College Union (UCU) has resumed its strike action. One more day was added to the calendar – Budget Day – joining PCS and NEU in one of the biggest coordinated strikes for a long time. The remaining UCU strike days under the current ballot are 16-17 and 20-22 March.
It is clear to members that the strike action has got under the employers´ skin. After years of hard-balling and making threats, sector-wide strike action forced the employers to the negotiating table, having seen that the mood was strong and a bad deal could not be imposed.
Socialist Party members did not agree with the leadership in UCU suspending the strikes. While UCU honoured its part and members went back to work, the employers unwisely decided to sow the seeds of unrest! They unilaterally imposed an accelerated and underwhelming pay award of 5-8% and argued that that closes the pay dispute.
This rise had already been rejected by members before! Not only are they ignoring this, but the bosses are completely forgetting that this strike is due to far more than pay. Now that employers have been forced to recognise that casualisation is a problem, it is time to put pressure on them so that they do something about it at a national level.
Furthermore, overworking and the gender pay gap are still extremely important issues that need properly addressing. Members can see that a 5% rise, a real-terms cut, does not solve the issues.
This latest move by the employers is all for naught, for UCU members are once again dropping their anchors at the picket lines.
It is also vital members vote yes in the reballot, which closes on 31 March, to extend our strike mandate into the summer term and beyond.
