Newsletter – September 2019
Four Fights One Voice ballot UCU members are being balloted now on whether to take industrial action on inequality, casualisation, workload and pay. In our sector there are significant disability, gender and ethnicity pay gaps, over 170 000 colleagues on casualised contracts, and increasing workloads, despite the value of university salaries having fallen against inflation by over 20% since 2009. A successful vote for action would further strengthen UCU’s mandate to negotiate nationally with our employers and demand they commit to tackle these issues. See: ucu.org.uk/he2019 As Jo Grady, our new UCU General Secretary, said: “By standing up for pensions, pay, equality and job security, we are defending not just ourselves but our profession. The sector’s income has increased by a third since the beginning of the financial crisis, and that is thanks to our hard work in an incredibly difficult environment. How have employers rewarded us? With intensifying casualisation, wage suppression, and pension cuts. Some of us may not feel the effects of cuts and inequalities directly, but we can all appreciate what they do to our colleagues. Securing national agreements on these things is the most efficient way to make the sector fairer, more inclusive, and more appealing … continue reading