Lecturers plan first UK-wide strike in five years
9:00 am - March 22nd 2011
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Today, lecturers in 47 universities in England will walk out, following similar actions in Scotland and Wales last week, and Northern Ireland yesterday. This will be followed on Thursday March 24th by UK-wide strike action, the first taken by academics in five years. Thousands of staff from 63 universities are expected to join the picket lines unless successful negotiations take place in the next 48 hours.
The dispute centres on planned changes to the USS, the main pension scheme used in the Higher Education sector. These include increasing employee contributions while freezing those of employers, and moving new entrants from a final salary scheme to a version based on career average earnings. The University and College Union says that the propsals are motivated not by financial pressure on the scheme, but by a straightforward unwillingness to pay, which the universities deny, citing the cost implications of people living longer.
At the core of the row, however, are a number of questions not about the scheme itself but about the behaviour of the universities. A series of terse letters between UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt and Professor Brian Cantor of the Employers’ Pension Forum,reproduced in full on the UCU website, shows that the universities have resolutely refused the union’s invitation to meet with the intervention of arbitrators ACAS. They prefer to use the formal negotiation arrangements already attached to the scheme, in which an independent chair has a casting vote.
Given that the independent chair in question is Sir Andrew Cubie, whose views on university funding have undergone a remarkable turnaround since he led the enquiry that abolished tuition fees in Scotland, their confidence in the wisdom of this process is perhaps unsurprising.
The employers also appealed on behalf of students, observing that the scheduled strike action will be detrimental to their education. The NUS has indeed written to both sides urging them to meet for talks, but in doing so explicitly endorsed the ACAS route suggested by the union, which the employers continue to reject.
Academics on strike traditionally struggle to attract much sympathy either from the left or the public in general, given their relatively generous typical earnings and the perception that they live at a comfortable remove from the lives of ordinary people. But in reality, many are active in moves against cuts in education; the UCU itself has played a leading role demonstrating alongside the NUS against rising tuition fees.
If, as now appears almost inevitable, it is their turn to risk widespread condemnation by standing up against the employers whom they believe are treating them unfairly and dishonestly, there are good reasons why progressives should support them.
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Ellie Cumbo is an occasional contributor, a policy campaigner, feminist activist and Labour party member. She tweets from here.
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Reader comments
Can’t lecturers leave their universities and work somewhere else if they don’t like the conditions?
If they don’t like the conditions, sure. But not if they don’t like the pension scheme, which is used in pretty much all universities.
equally it’s pretty hard to ‘go and work elsehere’ when pretty much all universities will have a de facto hiring freeze from next year onwards.
i’m ambivalent about this strike mind you.
i want to see my pension protected, but the chancellors have rightly realized that going on strike over something so relatively trivial is pretty bad PR at the moment. Which is why they refused to go to ACAS.
@3
“the chancellors have rightly realized that going on strike over something so relatively trivial is pretty bad PR at the moment. Which is why they refused to go to ACAS.”
I take the PR point but that’s a pretty awful reason not to go to ACAS , isn’t it?Essentially giving the union enough rope to hang itself is a pretty lousy approach to industrial relations – and what of thei much-vaunted concern for the students?
Lecturers plan first UK-wide strike in five years
Please give this all the publicity you can because otherwise there has to be a very real worry that nobody will notice.
Oh yes, and why do we need university lecturers at all?
What’s wrong with google?
“A series of terse letters between UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt and Professor Brian Cantor of the Employers’ Pension Forum,reproduced in full on the UCU website, shows that the universities have resolutely refused the union’s invitation to meet with the intervention of arbitrators ACAS. They prefer to use the formal negotiation arrangements already attached to the scheme, in which an independent chair has a casting vote.”
So they’re going on strike to avoid the arbitration system which is already in their contract and they’ve already agreed to?
Mmmm, yes, I can smell the righteousness of their cause from here……
Strike at the University of East London tomorrow, where the School of Humanities and Social Sciences is facing the axe.
@6
“Mmmm, yes, I can smell the righteousness of their cause from here……”
Said the self-righteous smug projector.
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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Liberal Conspiracy
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Liam Shields
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Ayesha
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John Symons
@libcon Lecturers should be careful to explain why they deserve better treatment than others in a similar position http://bit.ly/hAeYDl
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Pucci Dellanno
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