|
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 55 Number 25, October 25, 2025 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
UCU strike at Goldsmiths, November 2019
On October 20, the University and College Union (UCU) began balloting over 65,000 members at universities across Britain for strike action. The ballot, which will run until November 28, will if successful pave the way for strike action at all 137 higher education campuses in the new year. UCU and its sister unions are demanding a national agreement to counter redundancies, protect existing agreements, improve pay, and demand the government implement a new higher education funding settlement.
According to the UCU, the ballot comes after the union, along with GMB, Unite, Unison and EIS, rejected a derisory 1.4% pay offer from employer body the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). University employers have also attempted to remove over 15,000 jobs, claims the UCU. These sister unions will also ballot their members, coordinating their action.
"Over 15,000 jobs up for the chop. Meanwhile, staff who remain are being told to accept a huge real terms pay cut as they see their teaching and student learning conditions degraded. Our members have no choice but to vote yes for strike action and fight to protect higher education," said UCU general secretary Jo Grady. "Vice-chancellors need to understand how angry their workers are, stop harming the sector and return to the negotiating table. Failing to do so will only lay the ground for disruption across UK universities."
Staff at 47 higher education institutions are also to be balloted by Unite for strike action following the 1.4% pay offer for 2025/26 from UCEA. The Unite ballot opened on October 20 and runs until December 1. Unite members work primarily in non-academic roles within the HE institutions including maintenance, libraries, facilities management and administrative roles.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Our members deserve far better than a real terms pay cut after over a decade of below-inflation pay rises and when they are faced with a cost of living crisis that is seeing everything but wages going up in price. The employers should be ashamed of treating hard working staff in this way." Andy Murray, Unite national officer for education, added: "The employers' offer fails to value our members and makes them bear the cost for the broken funding model in higher education. Unite's members have been left with no option to ballot for industrial action. Strike action will cripple the sector."
Cardiff University Cuts protest
Support staff in Unison at more than 100 universities across Britain also began voting on October 20 on potential strike action. This national industrial action ballot closes on November 28. More than 90% of members who took part in a Unison consultation in the summer rejected the 1.4% pay offer for 2025/26 from the UCEA.
A week earlier, on October 13, the UCU and its sister unions began balloting 10,000 staff at 65 further education colleges across England. UCU is calling for a New Deal for Further Education (FE), including a 10%/£3,000 pay rise, pay parity with schoolteachers' pay, national workload agreements, and a new binding national bargaining framework. The union will meet to decide next steps and warns college leaders across England to make a serious offer or face potential industrial action later this year.
This ballot, which closes on November 17, followed the employer body, the Association of Colleges (AoC), recommending a pay award of just 4%.
Jo Grady said: "It is unacceptable that following years of pay degradation, college staff are expected to stomach further real-terms pay cuts, while at the same time dealing with ever-higher workloads. The Prime Minister said this week that Labour wants to put further education on an equal footing with higher education, but this will be impossible unless the government tackles the issues causing half of college teachers to leave the sector within three years.
"Further education staff are the beating heart of our communities and transform the life chances of hundreds of thousands of students every year. They shouldn't be forced to ballot for industrial action just to get decent pay and conditions. Staff, students, and local communities deserve better. Colleges must pay our members fairly and ensure manageable workloads. These changes must be underpinned by a new national collective bargaining structure for the sector. Our demands are reasonable. If they are not met, the sector will face serious disruption in the coming months."
Meanwhile, a number of local disputes exemplify the general issues being taken up in the dispute at the national level.
The University of Derby is set to make half of its senior academics redundant, putting experienced researchers, teachers, and experts at risk. This comes after a voluntary redundancy scheme, which has already seen several senior staff leave. The university's plans could see around 265 staff lose their jobs, more than 5% of its workforce, according to the UCU. At the same time, Lancaster UCU members have voted to strike.
The union also reports that Cardiff UCU members have in favour of potential strike action in a consultative electronic ballot, while UCU members across Scotland are preparing for an autumn of strikes and industrial action as the funding and job cuts crisis in Scottish universities deepens.
The Educational Institute of Scotland-University Lecturers' Association (EIS ULA) also on October 20 began a statutory ballot of its members for strike action. The EIS ULA ballot will also remain open for almost six weeks, closing on November 28. A recent consultative ballot saw members overwhelmingly reject the full and final pay offer made by UCEA.
Garry Ross, EIS National Officer for Higher Education, said: "1.4% is a pitiful pay offer and fails to reflect the expertise and dedication of staff who, without them, universities could not operate. Employers have taken their staff for granted for too long, evidenced by years of eroded salaries whilst some institutions continue to make multi-million pound surpluses and hold significant reserves."
He added: "Our members continue to deliver high quality education and research opportunities to students from Scotland and around the world, working harder than ever under an increasing workload and constrained resources. Yet, they are expected to accept another real-terms pay cut. Staff throughout higher education have had enough. They feel undervalued and underappreciated by their university senior management, which has resulted in the EIS ULA moving forward with a statutory ballot for strike action."
As Garry Ross makes clear, staff work with expertise and dedication, but are expected to suffer the burden of pay cuts while constrained to work harder than ever. Enough Is Enought! It is important to emphasise the sentiment of the staff that in fighting for their rights, pay and conditions, university and college employees are at the same time fighting for the future of higher and further education.
(Source: UCU, Unite, Unison, EIS)