2018-03-07T15:30:31+00:00

Pension strike latest – victory is close as divisions among employers widen

March 7, 2018/iwgb/Leave a comment

oxford — Oxford academics voting 442 to 2 against pension changes. Who were the two!!?

The pension strike is nearing the end of its 3^rd week – the last day is tomorrow (Thursday 8 March), with the whole of next week designated for strike action.

On a national level it has been a massive success – every day more Vice-Chancellors have come out to call for a resolution to the strike which meets staff demands, and talks are continuing at ACAS with an offer from the employers expected later today. Here’s a report from the BBC on how Oxford have just changed their position – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43316336

All we need to do is keep up the pressure! Many of us have been on strike the whole time, many more have taken some part in the action.

Now more than ever we need your help – remember we are fighting for everyone’s pensions. To ensure the strike stays strong enough to get a firm commitment to keep defined benefit pensions we need others to share the burden.

If you have not yet been on strike please join us – tomorrow is the national Women’s Strike and it would be great if we could have a strong presence on the picket line before the rally in Russell Square at 1pm.

See below for some tips from UCU as to what you can do to support the strike in other ways.

Please send an email to our senior leaders to express your concern, and that it is in the University of London’s best interest to do whatever they can to help resolve this issue as quickly as possible. Please remind them that this organisation depends on all our good will, and tell them that you, as a colleague, are appalled that these changes to our pension are even being considered.
2. Please consider wearing displays of support like the popular ‘There Is No USS Deficit’ badge. It would be hugely helpful to show that you do not believe the narrative that these cuts are necessary – the Financial Times and many other established commentators have seriously questioned the USS valuation they are based on, and it is rapidly losing any kind of credibility.

3. Use the super simple tool provided by UCU to contact your MP and ask them to help protect our pensions: https://www.ucu.org.uk/USS-emailyourMP– It takes less than a minute!

4. Please be aware that the USS employee consultation phase begins on 19th March. All USS pension holders should voice concern and use this to put as much pressure on USS in this way, too, not to go ahead with reforms as currently planned.

5. Last but not least: as stated before it is never too late to start striking yourself. We have already been tremendously successful – the renewed talks between UUK and UCU this week would not have taken place without the strikes. It is now more important than ever to keep up the pressure and realise the enormous power we, the 190,000 pension holders, have collectively. And remember: if we win this dispute, we will all benefit!

Update re health and safety during pensions strike

March 5, 2018/iwgb/Leave a comment

The IWGB can confirm that having chased our original email re health and safety during the pension strikes (iwgb-universityoflondon.org/2018/02/25/health-and-safety-during-the-current-industrial-action/) we have received a reply from the University which solely states that our ‘points have been noted’.

This can presumably be interpreted as meaning that no measures have been taken to ensure that the University is safe, despite the absence through industrial action of fire marshals etc.

Please bear this in mind when working in the building or inviting visitors…

Message from UoL VC re pensions

March 5, 2018March 5, 2018/iwgb/Leave a comment

This is from the intranet today – obviously ANY statement is welcome, but this does kind of define ‘sitting on the fence’….

“You will all be aware of the current strike action by the members of the University and College Union (UCU) in relation to proposed changes to the USS pension scheme.

I was pleased to learn that further talks have been agreed between UCU and Universities UK on the future of the scheme following a meeting last week. I welcome this development as a positive step towards reaching a mutually agreeable settlement and look forward to the outcome of fresh discussions beginning today.”

Health and Safety during the current industrial action

February 25, 2018March 2, 2018/iwgb/1 Comment

See below for a letter from our branch secretary to Chris Cobb raising concerns over health and safety during the strikes:

Dear Chris

I am writing to ask that the University confirm that during UCUs strike action that the campus remain safe for staff and students to remain working on?

Given the number of staff taking strike action or refusing to cross picket lines, are all necessary health and safety requirements (both outlined in the University’s own policy and that of the relevant legislation) being met? Continue reading →

Latest – Universities UK agree to talks, but strike continues

February 25, 2018/iwgb/Leave a comment

strikeday2

Another well-supported if extremely cold day of strike action on Friday culminated in the news that talks would resume with Universities UK next Tuesday, as more VCs broke ranks to call for a negotiated solution (the list was 18 at the last count, including Cambridge!).

However, as UUK are still ludicrously claiming that the decision to close the DC scheme cannot be part of negotiations, the strikes will continue!

It is clear that the action is working – and it’s more important than ever that we step it up now that the momentum is and the employers are wavering! We are almost there – please join us in supporting the picket at the front of Senate House on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week and help seal a historic victory and save our pensions!

Any questions – give Danny a shout on 07783719479.

What the papers say about lecturers’ strike action over pension changes

February 25, 2018March 2, 2018/iwgb/Leave a comment

strikebanner Tens of thousands of lecturers and other staff braved freezing temperatures to take part in the first day of protests against changes to their pensions. And, to show solidarity, many IWGB members turned out to support the picket line at Senate House.

They stood alongside the students who were supporting their teachers while journalists captured, in images and words, the biggest industrial action even seen in UK universities. Stories featured in many local, national and international media outlets – too numerous to list.

Here are some from The Guardian: University lecturers begin strike action over pensions; The Guardian view on the lecturers’ strike: a deficit in thinking; The solution to university pensions? Better fund managers; ‘The whole university system is broken’: your best comments today; I’m striking with university colleagues as our pensions are being destroyed. Most of the Guardian’s coverage of the strike can be found on its Higher Education page. Continue reading →

Great turnout and support for day one of the pensions strike

February 22, 2018February 22, 2018/iwgb/Leave a comment

There was a unprecedented turnout for an HE strike at Senate House today, as IWGB members refused to cross picket lines and demonstrated in support of UCU colleagues as part of the national strike against the planned cuts to USS pensions.

Great to see solidarity among the unions and great to see SAUL members refusing to cross the picket line in support of their colleagues. This meant ICS, IHR, Warburg and Senate House libraries all affected or closed!

Also interesting to note the heavy handed attempts by UoL management to try and dissuade staff from participating in the action – a clear sign that the level of opposition to these changes has extremely worried them. Hopefully they will realise the next logical step is to publicly come out against the changes!

The strike continues tomorrow – please join us at the front of Senate House from 8am or call Danny on 07783719479 if you get lost or have questions!

USS Pensions – packed out all-staff meeting AND strike details

February 14, 2018February 14, 2018/iwgb/Leave a comment

At a packed out all-staff meeting on pensions a UCU national negotiator outlined the seriousness of the planned changes to USS, the fact that they were completely unnecessary, and the need for strike actionto bring the employers back to the table.

Lots of questions came up after the meeting from non-UCU members, and so hereare some very brief FAQS about the strike!

Why is everyone talking about pensions?

Our pensions are about to be drastically cut – USS first, with SAUL to follow.

That sounds bad. But what can I do about it?

Join the national strike across 61 universities starting on Thursday 22 February.

I’m not in a union so I can’t strike, right?

Not true. Everyone can take part – you do not have to be in any union.

Won’t I get in trouble if I strike?

It is illegal to penalise anyone for refusing to cross a picket line. The University has also assured staff there will be no negative consequences.

But I can’t afford it right now.

The planned changes could cost us £200,000 from our pensions – we need to take a short term hit to avoid a massive long term loss.

OK – I can strike! How do I do it?

Just turn up at the front of Senate House at 8am on Thursday 22 February – the longer the picket line, the shorter the strike!

Press coverage of our Royal College of Music cleaners

February 14, 2018/iwgb/Leave a comment

This article originally appeared in Red Pepper (https://www.redpepper.org.uk/there-is-something-dirty-about-the-way-we-clean/)

Every evening at 11pm, Wilson Ayala Romero leaves the 12sqm room he shares with his cousin in Brixton to go clean the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London’s richest borough, Kensington and Chelsea.

Like many other Latin American immigrants in London, Wilson, 55, from Ecuador, works several cleaning jobs. As is common for most cleaners, he isn’t employed directly by the place where he works seven days a week, six hours each day, striving to make sure that every surface looks pristine. Instead, he’s employed by Tenon FM, a facilities management company contracted out by RCM. Just after Christmas, the company gave the workers an ultimatum. Accept a drastic cut in your hours, or be out of a job.

Outsourcing has been in the headlines recently due to the collapse of government contractor Carillion and the growing fears that other companies the public sector depends on could follow suit. But very little has been said of the way these outsourcing contracts impact on workers. Through outsourcing, workers such as cleaners, receptionists or security officers, tend to be employed on far worse terms and conditions than direct employees. This means worse pensions, holiday pay, sick pay and parental leave than their colleagues. In many cases, the cleaners are working class migrant workers, caught at the crux of discrimination, low pay and precarity. “They think that by hiring immigrants they can get away with exploiting us and paying us whatever they want, but thanks to the union we have managed massive victories, like the London Living Wage,” Wilson says.

Employers like Royal College of Music or the University of London a few miles down the road – where the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is campaigning to end outsourcing – treat workers with a casual disregard, revealing the true cruelty and discriminatory nature of this system. They feel they can wipe their hands of these workers as they do not employ them directly – and they are quite explicit in saying that.

When the University of London was asked by journalists last week about a strike and protest called by the IWGB over pay and outsourcing, a spokesperson said that “It would not be appropriate for the University to comment on the employment arrangements of another organisation.”

The IWGB’s legal department has found that these workers are more likely to suffer from bullying, discrimination and from unlawful deduction of wages than their colleagues directly employed by these universities. Despite this, the outsourcing institutions rarely, if ever, intervene in these issues.

But clearly, the outsourcers have more sway than they claim – after all, they control the purse strings. Just over a year ago, the IWGB was forced to take Kingdom, the former cleaning contractor for RCM, the Royal College of Arts and Heythrop College, to tribunal over thousands of pounds in unpaid wages. A few days before the hearing, the company settled, agreeing to pay back what it owed, plus damages. This only happened after the union threatened to add RCM to the claim.

Then, last autumn, RCM brought in cleaning contractor Tenon FM with the explicit order to cut costs, in other words, to cut the cleaners’ hours. After a brief negotiation period, Wilson and his colleagues were given an option: take contracts that would see their hours cut in half with a small compensation payment, or lose their jobs. The majority of the night cleaners stood united and rejected these new contracts that would result in half the hours and twice the stress. They were immediately given notice of dismissal.

“There are three buildings, one three stories tall and the others five stories tall. There are eight of us cleaning them now and they want us to do it in half the time. This is exploitation… this is shameless,” he says.Wilson has gone twice to his doctor in the last few months for stress and depression, but he and the other cleaners haven’t lost their resolve. Over the last few weeks they have been on strike, on protests and have handed out flyers outside the college. Meanwhile, all demands for RCM’s directors to intervene, in a situation that was directly caused by its decision for a cheaper contract, were ignored. Emails weren’t even answered.

It is hard to imagine that the college would ever treat its white professors in the way that it is treating its migrant, mainly Latin American, cleaner workforce. According to IWGB calculations the savings made by cutting these cleaners’ hours are just over £ 50,000 per year. This is in a college that booked at £6.3m surplus in 2016 and that between 2011 and 2016 increased the pay of its director Colin Lawson by £63,144 to £228,144.

The IWGB is now preparing tribunal claims both against cleaning contractor Tenon FM for unfair dismissal and breach of TUPE (the rules surrounding the transfer of workers from one contract to another), and against the college for discrimination.

But while college continues to bury its head in the sand, Wilson wants to make sure he is heard. “If we win here it could set a massive precedent for other workers such as us,” he says “This is a renowned public institutions that trains people to be musicians, but they should also train them to be decent human beings… and look at the example they are setting.”

Independent Workers Union of Great Britain – Universities of London Branch

Author: iwgb