Members of the University and College Union (UCU) are currently voting on the latest proposals put forward by Universities UK (UUK) to end the nationwide industrial action against cuts to university staff pension benefits.
Ahead of the 13 April voting deadline, UCU has called an emergency general meeting for members wishing to discuss the e-ballot and the proposals. This will take place in Senate House, 10 April, room G4, 12–1pm. In the meantime, see here for a range of useful analysis of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pensions dispute written by academics in response to UUK’s 23 March proposal.
The vote
If members say YES to the proposal, UCU will suspend its immediate plans for industrial action, but keep the legal strike mandate live until the proposal is formally noted at the board of the USS.
If there is a NO vote, the next strike action scheduled for 23–27 April, which coincides with IWGB’s outsourced worker strikes on 25 and 26 April, will go ahead.
A further 14 days of industrial action is on the cards for May and June in almost all institutions, and there are plans for a fresh ballot of UCU members to escalate the action further in the autumn. Employers will be asked to improve their proposal so that it contains a ‘no detriment’ clause.
An overwhelming show of hands at the recent IWGB branch meeting confirmed its members’ commitment to continue their support for any UCU action should the current UUK offer be rejected.
We will be holding an organising meeting for all security officers working for CIS on Saturday 28 April at 1pm at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (17 Russell Square – see map here).
This will be:
a chance to meet the IWGB General Secretary Jason Moyer-Lee and President Henry Chango Lopez and find out more about the union
a chance to raise any issues and ask any questions
a chance to elect reps for the CIS section of the branch, and plan how to recruit and organise your colleagues
The meeting will take place just before our branch AGM, in the same place, where you will get a chance to meet other members from across the University of London and hear all about what the branch has been doing for the last year!
If you are serious about wanting to improve conditions at UCL, you need to come to this meeting!
La rama de la Universidad de Londres de IWGB celebrará su asamblea general anual el sábado 28 de abril a las 2:00 de la tarde en el Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. ¡Habrá comida y bebida!
Ha sido un año increíble, con la que pronto será la victoriosa campaña In-house en Senate House, las huelgas masivas por las pensiones y ¡mucho mucho más!
Todos vosotros sabéis que nuestros sindicato es pequeño y depende del trabajo duro y la participación de sus miembros, así que es muy importante que acudáis para que:
sepáis todo lo que la rama ha estado hacienda durante el último año
elijáis a los oficiales para el próximo año
selecciones a los delegados para la reunión general anual nacional
conozcáis a otros miembros de otros sitios de trabajo diferente
expreséis vuestras opiniones, hagáis preguntas, en general conozcáis como funciona el sindicato
Todo lo que tienes que hacer es presentarte ese mismo día. Si hay más de un candidato/a, pediremos que hagáis un pequeño discurso a ambos/as y luego se hará una votación a mano alzada. Si hay más de un candidato/a para secretario/a de la rama o presidente/a, tenemos que tener una votación postal, ya que son posiciones nacionales.
The University of London branch of the IWGB will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Saturday 28 April at 2pm in the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Food and drink will be provided!
It’s been an unbelievable year, with the (soon to be) victorious in-house campaign at Senate House, the massive pensions strike and much much more!
All of you know our union is a small one which relies on the hard work and participation of members – so it’s really important to attend, so you can:
find out everything the branch has been doing for the last year
elect officers for the next year
select delegates for the national AGM
meet other members from different workplaces
give feedback, ask questions, generally find out how the union works
All you need to do is to put yourself forward on the day. If there’s more than one candidate, we’ll ask for a short statement from both and then have a show of hands. If there’s more than one candidate for branch secretary or chair, we need to have a postal ballot, as they are national positions.
Nearest stations on the London Underground are Russell Square on Piccadilly line, Holborn on Central line and Euston on the Northern and Victoria line.
The Universities UK (UUK) board has put forward a proposal aimed at resolving the pension dispute. This has been sent to University and College Union (UCU) members, along with a message from Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary. Continue reading →
The 22 March all-staff meeting held by the University and College Union (UCU) at Senate House attracted nearly 40 people keen to receive an update on the current UK-wide universities pensions dispute.
It was led by Tim Hall, UCU’s Senate House branch chair, who provided a summary of events to date including a day-by-day picket report. He also recognised the ongoing support from the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), and confirmed there will be a further 14 days of strike action starting in late May or early June. Continue reading →
Please do come along if you can – it’s a good chance to get a full update on where we are now AND to ask any questions about what happens next!
I am also including his response (below) to the absurd USS email earlier this week – feel free to get back to me with any queries!
Cheers
Danny
Dear Members,
You’ve no doubt seen the email from USS which can only be taken as an attempt to undermine the valid reasons why we’ve been striking and ignores why we’ve had to reject the agreement proposed earlier last week. In short, they’ve cherry-picked three of a mountain of issues and claimed fake news because of technicalities.
I will be contacting you later in the week but I just wanted to let you know that this message changes absolutely nothing. I don’t think I can put it better than the Governing Body of The Queen’s College, Oxford:
“The proposed agreement appears to have been negotiated within the constraints imposed by the recent valuation of the scheme’s deficit. To that extent, many will view it as akin to a rearrangement of deck-chairs on the Titanic. We welcome UUK’s efforts to establish an independent group to examine the valuation, and we also note the CEO of USS Ltd’s very recent comments on the funding position. He is undoubtedly correct to suggest that some aspects of the trustee’s position have been misunderstood; however, we nevertheless think there are legitimate concerns about the logic of the trustee’s ‘test 1’. These concerns are contributing to a widespread loss of confidence in the valuation, and there is a growing suspicion that the legislation in this area may be broken. We are certainly not convinced that a triennial valuation cycle, leading to what are now perceived as depressingly regular benefit reforms, is in anyone’s interests.
We thus take the view that both UUK and USS are vulnerable to the criticism of approaching the current challenge the wrong way round: that is, it seems odd to contemplate such substantial benefit reform now when the calculation of the scheme’s deficit is the subject of legitimate enquiry and controversy. While we appreciate that the statutory deadline associated with the valuation is very near, we would hope that the Pensions Regulator might be pragmatic in its approach to the difficulties that have been encountered. Otherwise we face a potentially very damaging outcome that will be quite contrary to the interests of all parties, and manifestly at odds with the public policy considerations that underpin the relevant legislation.”
All we’re saying is that UUK and USS had an opportunity to properly address the scheme this time around and they chose to squander it with frankly unscrupulous practices around surveying universities for questionable intentions to manufacture a result that would enforce this draconian measure on the quality of our retirement.
Please forgive me for my angry tone (angry for me, anyway) but there have been an good number of your colleagues who’ve sacrificed a lot to get the truth out.
Some IWGB members a little demob happy on the last day…
This is just a quick summary of the position following the end of the first wave of strikes.
What did the strikes achieve?
It’s important to remember that before the strike action began, we were told that not only were these massive cuts to our pensions inevitable, but that no further negotiations would take place. Defined benefit was dead.
That position has been completely overturned – the employers (via Universities UK) have been forced to return to talks, and to make an offer which retained a defined benefit component.
Furthermore, rather than turning against staff, students have been totally supportive, taking part in demos, pickets, marches and occupations which have hugely helpful in the the campaign.
Friday was also bring your dad to the picket day…
Role of IWGB members
Your contribution at Senate House has been absolutely crucial – many IWGB members refused to cross the picket line for 14 days and instead stood along their UCU colleagues. Many more took action on some of these days. This included members who are not in USS, acting in solidarity with their colleagues and in recognition that SAUL will be next! Everyone has done what they can – it’s been a really heartwarming experience to be part of the strike and we want to thank everyone who has taken part.
It’s also been a pleasure to support the revitalised Senate House UCU branch – check out their blog here for some really insightful write-ups.
Why was the offer rejected?
This offer would still have left us far worse off – contributions would have risen, the protection against inflation would have been reduced, accruals would be 1/85 rather than 1/75, the ceiling for DB would have fallen to £42K and the direction of travel would have been towards getting rid of DB next time around.
The fact that the deal also seemed to commit staff to rescheduling lectures didn’t go down well either…
However, in addition to this during the strikes something important had happened – staff had started researching the overall pension position, and it had become clear that it was not a question of negotiating over how to plug the deficit, but rather demonstrating that the very idea of a deficit was down to the extremely flawed November 2017 valuation of USS.
It was therefore pointless to start from these false premises – instead, we needed to return to the September 2017 valuation, which showed the scheme to be perfectly healthy, and would save both employers and employees money!
The strike has also thrown up a whole host of questions as too how our universities are run, the excessive role of marketisation, the absurd administrative burdens placed on frontline staff by unaccountable senior management and a general feeling that an entire change of ethos is required.
What will happen next?
UCU have called for 14 more days of strike action in April and May, to be chosen at a local level. As soon as we have those dates we will let you know more – again, your participation will be crucial!
In the meantime, talks between UCU and UUK are likely to resume, and in addition discussions are going on over a new ‘independent’ valuation of USS – we’ll try and keep you posted!
Oh – and thanks to pressure from Senate House UCU strike deductions will now be made over 4 months! If you have any questions about this OR have any issues with HR or management please email dannymillum@iwgb.org.uk!
Letter from IWGB branch secretary Danny Millum, to Ghazwa Alwani-Starr, director of property and facilities management at the University of London
Dear Ghaz,
I note with regret that the university has announced the postponement of the decision on bringing its outsourced workers in-house until May.
This will be extremely frustrating for the hundreds of workers who not only have to endure the current discriminatory two-tier employment situation, but were promised a decision in March.
Furthermore, it is likely to add to the already massive reputational damage the university has suffered as a consequence of failing to resolve this issue – particularly embarrassing in a year when the university is celebrating 150 years of women in higher education (#LeadingWomen) and yet continues to treat its predominantly female and Latino cleaning workforce so poorly (#HypocrisyandDiscrimination).
As I am sure you have seen, the university now faces the biggest outsourced worker strike in HE (higher education) history, which is scheduled for 25 and 26 April, and which is already attracting national press attention (Outsourced University of London workers to strike over pay and conditions).
The in-house campaign, led by the workers themselves, continues to have three simple and fair demands:
End outsourcing and bring in-house all outsourced workers on the same terms and conditions as other directly employed staff immediately
End zero-hours contracts
Implement pay rises that it has promised but failed to deliver
The campaign will continue to escalate until these demands are met.
La rama de la Universidad de Londres de IWGB celebrará su asamblea general anual el sábado 28 de abril a las 2:00 de la tarde en el Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. ¡Habrá comida y bebida!
The University of London branch of the IWGB will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Saturday 28 April at 2pm in the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Food and drink will be provided!
Independent Workers Union of Great Britain - Universities of London Branch 