The University and College Union (UCU) has indicated that university staff will go on strike from 25th November. The strike action is due to inaction by universities to address workers’ pension schemes and salaries.
UCU has indicated that they will be holding a national strike, which will be participated by their staff in over 60 UK universities across the country. Librarians, office workers, seminar room organizers, and lecture theatre workers will all take part in this strike action.
The UCU also indicated that the strike would be at least eight days. The strike, which will begin on November 25, will look to address ongoing disputes that the workers are having with the university.
Frustrations of university staff
The first issue will be about payment compensation, job security, workload and equality in places of work. This will involve taking steps in addressing the plight of these workers who have indicated that their treatment in these institutions had taken a turn for the worse. Declines in payments, working conditions and pensions had put them on the edge of going broke once they retire.
The second issue to be addressed during the strike action will involve making changes to universities’ Superannuation Scheme (USS) pensions. This stems from changes made in 2011, which according to experts, the university staff under these schemes will lose, on average, $306,000.
74 percent of members voted for changes
The pensions have also gone up from eight percent last year to almost 9.5 percent this year. There are also plans to increase these payments by the year 2021. This has forced a lot of workers out of pension schemes, terming them expensive.
Nationally, 79 percent of UCU members voted for the strike action to change the pension scheme payments. In a second poll, 74 percent of members voted for changes in payment compensation and equality.
Voting strike actions by UCU have sent the clearest message to these administrations that things are not all good. They have made these institutions know what they are going through and they are demanding actions. UCU also indicated that it would continue fighting for these workers until a just system is implemented.
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