This week you should have received your electronic ballot over pay (email sent on 21st July) More than ever, we need a coordinated fight to save the HE sector.
Some members have asked why we should focus on the UK-wide pay ballot when branches are facing compulsory redundancies and job losses?
The two issues are connected, the same employers who are cutting jobs are also holding down pay, increasing workloads and relying on insecure employment. Every redundancy means fewer staff doing more work. That leads to heavier workloads without extra pay and damages the quality of education we provide to students.
But also, see the two graphs, which clearly show that pay has continued to fall. In Figure 2, it shows the spine points, with most UCU members being in 26 – 51 category. In terms of 2021 money, we are now working nearly 2 months for free and yet there are unprecedented job losses. Therefore, it is simply not the case that we can save jobs by not fighting over pay. When we don’t fight for better pay, they still come for our jobs. Our employers feel emboldened and attack our conditions and jobs more, and we feel weakened.
That is why we need colleagues to vote to reject the pay offer and vote YES for industrial action.
This ballot campaign is the most straightforward legal route to taking UK-wide industrial action that could put the higher education funding crisis firmly on the national political agenda.
Why should we reject the offer?
The pay offer is yet another real term pay cut compared to inflation, and is worth around 1% less in real terms.
All five higher education trade unions (UCU, EIS, UNISON, UNITE and GMB) are consulting members about a dispute over pay, creating the potential for coordinated action across the sector.
Campaigning nationally over pay is entirely compatible with taking local action to defend jobs. This is not a zero-sum game as national and local campaigns strengthen one another.
We also need to take the fight to the Government. Universities cannot continue to absorb a funding crisis by cutting jobs, depressing pay and increasing workloads. The Government must take responsibility for a crisis that requires a UK-wide solution.
If this consultative vote returns a strong YES for industrial action, together with a high turnout, it will give the union the momentum and confidence to move to a full statutory ballot.
A strong UK-wide pay ballot is about showing employers and government that staff across the sector are organised, united and prepared to stand together. That strengthens every branch fighting redundancies.
No branch should be left to fight alone; we need UK-wide solidarity and leverage.
By voting in the pay ballot, you are helping to build the collective strength we need to defend fair pay, secure jobs, reasonable workloads, and the future of higher education.
Please vote, encourage your colleagues to vote, and help us build the strongest possible mandate. Every vote strengthens our collective voice.