Eight days of strikes at Scottish universities on from Monday

Scottish universities will be hit with eight days of strike action from Monday (25 November) after no agreement could be reached between university representatives and UCU over pensions, pay and working conditions.

Earlier this month, UCU members backed strike action in ballots over both pensions, and pay and working conditions. The results mean that UCU members at 12 Scottish universities* join another 48 across the UK in walking out on Monday. Striking staff will be on picket lines early on Monday at entrances to their universities and there will be a rally that day in Edinburgh starting at 1.00pm in Bristo Square, Edinburgh..

Across Scotland, 78% of UCU members polled voted for strikes over changes to USS pensions and 73% backed strikes over pay and conditions. The disputes centre on changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and universities' failure to make improvements on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads.

As well as eight strike days, union members will begin "action short of a strike" from Monday. This involves things like working strictly to contract, not covering for absent colleagues and refusing to reschedule lectures lost to strike action.

UCU's Scotland official Mary Senior said: 'Strike action is always the last resort, but universities' refusal to deal with the key issues of increased pension costs, pay and working conditions leave no alternative. It is unbelievable that universities have not done more to work with us to try and find a way to resolve these disputes

'We're asking students to call on university principals to get their representatives back to negotiating table for serious talks.'

Last year, university campuses were brought to a standstill by unprecedented levels of strike action. NUS Scotland have said that the union has the full support of the student movement.

* Scottish universities affected by strike action from Monday 25 November

Heriot-Watt university

Aberdeen university

Dundee university

Stirling university

Edinburgh university

Glasgow university

St Andrews university

Strathclyde university

Glasgow Caledonian university

Glasgow School of Art

Queen Margaret University

Scottish Association for Marine Science