Higher Education pay deal: Opportunities lost – further action can get more

Higher Education pay deal: Opportunities lost – further action can get more

LATE IN the evening on 6 June, negotiators for the newly formed
University and College Union (UCU) reached a deal with the employers
UCEA over pay in Higher Education.

Thomas House

The leadership of UCU has missed a significant opportunity by
recommending this deal to members. Because action will be suspended
while the ballot is taking place, members will be pushed by management
into catching up on three months’ marking over the next few weeks, in
the knowledge that whatever the outcome of the ballot further action
will have no effect until the next academic year.

There will be widespread anger that, just as the action was starting
to bite, it was called off without adequate assurances about return to
work, reversal of pay docking, and full implementation in every
university.

There will be still more anger at the details of the offer, which
falls far short of the initial claim of 23% over three years. UCEA’s
derisory ‘last and final’ offer of 12.6% over three years was rejected
in May by union negotiators, and this decision was resoundingly
supported at AUT and NATFHE’s final conferences.

A more recent offer of 13.1% over three years was also rejected by
negotiators, so it is surprising that the offer accepted is only roughly
10% over the next two years, with the UCU leadership arguing that they
will be able to win a significantly better deal in the third year, when
there will be three years of students paying top-up fees.

With Gordon Brown’s talk of a public-sector pay freeze and likely
increases in inflation over its current rate of 2.6%, this is unlikely
to be possible without a fight.

This deal comes after three months of struggle, consisting of a
one-day strike in March followed by an assessment boycott. While it is
clear that UCEA were starting to move due to the action, opportunities
to get a better deal were lost. It will be necessary to build further
action in the next academic year.

Support for the unions had been growing steadily, partly due to the
bullying anti-union tactics of many university managements and the
intransigence of UCEA. This included docking pay of union members
boycotting assessments, attempts to employ scab markers and revision of
exam regulations in an attempt to break the action.

Membership increase

The action caused many to join the precursors to UCU – AUT and NATFHE
– which were seen to be finally doing something about declining pay in
universities.

Despite the predictable barrage of hostile media, which focused on
students and commentators hostile to the unions’ action, significant
sections of students supported the action.

Particular credit must go to Socialist Students societies, which
campaigned in support of the AUT and NATFHE even when their local
student union was hostile.

Even some university staff too well-paid to benefit from any pay deal
showed solidarity and undertook the assessment boycott.

Even Sally Hunt, one of the joint general secretaries of UCU, said in
her email to members recommending the offer that the offer: "is not
enough to show that the employers are finally treating you with the
respect that you deserve".

More could have been won by continuing the action. UCU members
should, therefore, reject the offer and plan to continue the dispute in
the new academic year.

While many members are worn down by the pressures of the assessment
boycott and are keen to end the dispute, there is no guarantee that
employers will keep even their current meagre promises.

In fact, accepting the offer now will show weakness to university
managements and encourage them to scupper the deal in local
negotiations.

An emergency conference of UCU should be called after the summer
break to plan future action. It will be necessary to re-evaluate the
tactics used, since while an assessment boycott or other actions short
of a strike can be useful, they are isolating and leave open greater
possibilities for divide and rule between students and staff.

Future action must involve escalation of strike action. Actions short
of a strike should include boycotts of management activities so that
students do not feel victimised.

It is also vital to include students from the outset and link the
demands for better pay not to the introduction of top up fees but to a
united campaign against the privatisation of our universities.

The National Union of Students should be approached on strike days to
organise a full higher education (HE) shutdown, demanding an end to
fees, fair pay and conditions for university staff and no to cuts,
closures and privatisation.

The HE attacks are just a part of New Labour’s neo-liberal agenda in
the public services. UCU urgently needs to start making links with other
trade unions – a good start would be supporting the "Public Services not
Private Profit" rally at Westminster on 27 June.


Vote ‘no’ in the ballot

SOCIALIST PARTY member Andrew Price, a member of the UCU NEC, told
the socialist: "Working in and representing teaching staff in the
further education sector I am concerned at this settlement as it has
implications for all members of UCU.

"The negotiators were far too quick to grasp a slightly improved
offer from the employers, ignoring the call for a special conference on
the matter. In my view our members should vote ‘no’ in the ballot and
through their branches demand a special conference in the autumn to plan
a programme of escalating strike action to win the full claim."