More than 70,000 staff at 150 UK universities will walk out in a dispute over pay, working conditions and pensions, the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) has announced. The strikes, due to take place on November 24, 25 and 30, could affect up to 2.5 million students in what the union described as the biggest industrial action ever to hit the sector. Disruption can be avoided, the union said, if employers make improved offers, but warned that action would escalate in the new year. They are also threatening a grading and assessment boycott if the dispute is not resolved. Union members will also begin non-strike industrial action from November 23, which includes working to rule, refusing to make up work lost as a result of the strike and refusing to cover for absent colleagues. The strikes come after UCU members voted overwhelmingly in favor of industrial action last month in two national referendums on pay and working conditions as well as pensions. UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “University campuses across the UK are set to face strike action on an unprecedented scale. “This isn’t a dispute about affordability – it’s about choices. The vice-chancellors are choosing to pay out hundreds of thousands of pounds while forcing our members into low-paid and precarious contracts that leave some using food banks. They’re choosing to keep billions in surpluses by cutting at the same time the staff pensions. “UCU members do not want to strike, but they are doing it to save the industry and win dignity at work. This dispute has the massive support of students because they know that their learning conditions are the working conditions of our members. “If university vice-chancellors don’t get serious, our message is simple – this strike will only be the beginning.” The UCU is calling for a “substantial” pay rise to tackle the cost of living crisis and an end to the use of “insecure” contracts. The union said employers imposed a 3% pay rise this year after more than a decade of pay below inflation. As for the pensions dispute, the UCU is demanding employers roll back a “package of cuts” made earlier this year, which it claims will see the average union member lose 35% of their guaranteed future pension income.
