Mary Finch, Unison member, personal capacity
Unison members in higher education (HE) are now in our third year of fighting for better pay.
Strike action at 16 universities in 2022 won an increased pay offer in the middle of the cost-of-living crisis. After another paltry increase for 2025, Unison is balloting for action again.
The university employers’ association UCEA claims it can only afford between 2.5% and 5.7%, with the lowest-paid workers given the highest uplift.
Universities are indeed facing a cash-flow crisis: Tory and now Labour governments have starved universities of public funding, forcing them to rely particularly on exploitative fees from international students to survive.
Now the bubble is about to burst, and workers will suffer the consequences. Cardiff University has announced 400 academic jobs will be cut and entire courses closed. Without determined and united strike action, this will be repeated across the entire sector.
The lecturers’ University and College Union (UCU) and Unison together have enormous industrial power. Unison represents workers from every area of universities, from security and cleaning to admissions and exams. Joint strike action between both unions could shut down entire campuses – not just teaching and research.
This austerity-driven Labour government has no solutions – only a united movement of workers and students can win the changes necessary to save universities. That would mean scrapping all tuition fees, giving all workers a real pay rise, and providing full public funding for education.
