Over 1 million students will be affected by university pensions strikes
20 February 2018
A month of strikes due to hit 65 universities* will begin on Thursday (22 February) after the universities' representatives refused to return to negotiations with the University and College Union (UCU).
The union says the action will affect over 1 million students and see 575,000 teaching hours lost. The strike days are:
Week one - Thursday 22 and Friday 23 February (two days)
Week two - Monday 26, Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 February (three days)
Week three - Monday 5, Tuesday 6, Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 March (four days)
Week four - Monday 12, Tuesday 13, Wednesday 14, Thursday 15 and Friday 16 March (five days)
The union said it will meet on Friday 2 March to consider universities' response to the first wave of strikes and what further action might be necessary. UCU said it hoped no universities would want a prolonged dispute that drags out towards exam season, but that members were determined to fight for fair pensions.
As well as picket lines outside entrances to universities affected by the action from 8am on Thursday, there will be a series of events over the next four weeks including rallies on Thursday in Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Oxford. Sally Hunt will be speaking at a rally outside Goldsmiths Library on Dixon Road in London at 11am.
UCU members are walking out over plans to end the defined benefit element of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension scheme. UCU says this would leave a typical lecturer almost £10,000 a year worse off in retirement than under the current set-up.
The universities' representatives - Universities UK - are seeking to push through the changes and have refused to negotiate with UCU. The union says this has left it with no alternative but to strike. In the recent strike ballot UCU members overwhelmingly backed industrial action. Overall, 88% of members who voted backed strike action. The turnout was 58%.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: 'We deliberately announced these strike dates to give universities time to come back round the table with us and get this mess sorted out. They have refused to do so and want to impose their reforms on staff. Unsurprisingly staff are angry and significant disruption on campuses across the UK now looks inevitable.
'The key is how universities react to the action this week. We will be meeting on 2 March to consider what wave two of the action may need to involve and nothing is off the table. We doubt any universities want a prolonged dispute that carries on towards exam season and would urge vice-chancellors to put pressure on Universities UK to get back round the table with us.'
* Universities affected by strike action from Thursday 22 February (week one): |
Aberdeen, University of |
Aberystwyth University |
Aston University |
Bangor University |
Bath, University of |
Birkbeck College, University of London |
Bristol, University of |
Brunel University |
Cambridge, University of |
Cardiff University |
City, University of London |
Courtauld Institute of Art |
Cranfield University |
Dundee, University of |
Durham University |
East Anglia, University of |
Essex, University of |
Exeter, University of |
Glasgow, University of |
Goldsmiths, University of London |
Heriot-Watt University |
Hull, University of |
Imperial College London |
Institute of Education |
Keele University |
Kent, University of |
Lancaster, University of |
Leeds, University of |
Leicester, University of |
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine |
Liverpool, University of |
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine |
Loughborough University |
Manchester, University of |
Newcastle University |
Nottingham, University of |
Open University |
Oxford, University of |
Queen's University Belfast |
Reading, University of |
Royal Holloway, University of London |
Royal Veterinary College, University of London |
Salford, University of |
Senate House, University of London |
Sheffield, University of |
SOAS, University of London |
Southampton, University of |
St Andrews, University of |
Strathclyde, University of |
Surrey, University of |
Sussex, University of |
University College London |
Scottish Association for Marine Science at the University of the Highlands and Islands |
Ulster University |
University of Wales |
University of Warwick |
University of York |
Universities that will join in week two:
King's College London
Queen Mary University of London
University of Edinburgh
University of Stirling
Universities that will join in week three:
Ruskin College
University of Bradford
St George's, University of London
Institute of Development Studies
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