UCU higher education industrial action ballot results

The overall turnout was 39.34% (for England, Scotland and Wales), with 69.69% voting yes and 30.31% voting no to industrial action. You can find the full break down for Northern Ireland here and for the rest of UK here. 

I want to pay tribute to every UCU member who engaged with the ballot. Ballots are a huge undertaking, and I know many of you worked extremely hard during this period to drive up participation. I especially want to recognise the efforts of those of you who are also involved in local disputes to save jobs and departments.

Our immediate next steps must be to understand why more members did not engage with the ballot. While it is true that the 50% turnout is a legal threshold imposed upon us, we must aim for significantly higher in ballots if we want to create the leverage required to win. I had many conversations with members throughout the ballot campaign, and each one demonstrated dedication to the union and building a better future. But there was not agreement on how we should confront the important issues we face. We must find a way to ensure these conversations continue and that they are properly supported.

It is clear the union needs a period of reflection to engage with you fully outside of the pressure of a ballot campaign, and to develop a supportive environment for these conversations. A loud and clear message from the meetings I attended was that members want a strategy. They want us unified and with a shared understanding and plan of how we will work together to achieve a better higher education sector. I share a commitment to delivering that, as does the chair of the higher education committee (HEC) and we are discussing how best to bring people together in the new year. We also want to foster a culture of branch and departmental level conversations that take this much further than a few formal union meetings.

For now, I want to send solidarity to those of you engaged in local disputes, and offer a final thank you for the efforts involved in the ballot campaign.

In solidarity

Jo Grady
UCU general secretary