Thousands of UK university staff have gone on strike in a new wave of industrial action over pensions, pay and working conditions, claiming they have overwhelming support from students.
The University and College Union, which represents university workers, said huge numbers of UCU members had joined picket lines on Monday, where they were supported with musical accompaniment, DIY banners and chants.
By contrast, university employers said there were low levels of industrial action by what it called a minority of UCU members that apparently had little impact on students, in the latest stage of a long-running and increasingly acrimonious dispute.
The strike is the first of 10 days of action spread over three weeks. This week it involves 44 universities, including Cambridge, Leeds and Edinburgh, and focuses on pension cuts. Next week strike action will involve 68 universities when 50,000 staff are expected to walk out over pensions, pay and working conditions, affecting about a million students.
The UCU general secretary, Jo Grady, who joined the picket line at the University of Strathclyde, said staff were taking action to prevent a 35% cut to their guaranteed retirement income. “The response from students has been overwhelming and I want to thank every single one of them for standing with us,” she said.
“These strikes over pension cuts were totally avoidable, but university employers have so far failed to accept compromise proposals put forward by UCU, which would have protected pensions and avoided disruptive industrial action.
“Vice-chancellors should not doubt the resolve of our members who are determined to stick this out and win what they deserve.”
The pensions dispute is focused on the management and financing of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the UK’s biggest private pension scheme, which provides pensions to the UK’s older universities as well as for research institutes and academic thinktanks.
The two sides are also battling over issues such as the insecure fixed-term contracts used to employ an increasing number of teaching staff. On pay, the union is demanding a £2,500 pay increase for all staff, as well as action to tackle unmanageable workloads and equality pay gaps.
There was anger among university staff last week when it emerged that the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) recommended that universities should dock 100% of pay for staff who work to rule as part of the forthcoming industrial action.
Raj Jethwa, the UCEA chief executive, said: “We are disappointed that UCU is encouraging its members to target students who have endured so many recent disruptions.
“While these early reports are of low levels of industrial action and disruption to teaching it does, of course, take time for these large organisations to find out exactly how many scheduled classes have not taken place on a given day.”
The strike is the latest in a long-running dispute. In late 2019, UCU staff at 60 universities initially went on strike, which grew to 74 institutions in a second wave of strikes that began in February 2020, when the dispute was overtaken by the Covid-19 outbreak, until it resumed with three days of strikes last December.
