Today, lecturers in 47 universities in England will walk out, following similar actions in Scotland and Wales last week, and Northern Ireland yesterday. This will be followed on Thursday March 24th by UK-wide strike action, the first taken by academics in five years. Thousands of staff from 63 universities are expected to join the picket lines unless successful negotiations take place in the next 48 hours.

The dispute centres on planned changes to the USS, the main pension scheme used in the Higher Education sector. These include increasing employee contributions while freezing those of employers, and moving new entrants from a final salary scheme to a version based on career average earnings. The University and College Union says that the propsals are motivated not by financial pressure on the scheme, but by a straightforward unwillingness to pay, which the universities deny, citing the cost implications of people living longer.

At the core of the row, however, are a number of questions not about the scheme itself but about the behaviour of the universities. A series of terse letters between UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt and Professor Brian Cantor of the Employers’ Pension Forum,reproduced in full on the UCU website, shows that the universities have resolutely refused the union’s invitation to meet with the intervention of arbitrators ACAS. They prefer to use the formal negotiation arrangements already attached to the scheme, in which an independent chair has a casting vote.

Given that the independent chair in question is Sir Andrew Cubie, whose views on university funding have undergone a remarkable turnaround since he led the enquiry that abolished tuition fees in Scotland, their confidence in the wisdom of this process is perhaps unsurprising.

The employers also appealed on behalf of students, observing that the scheduled strike action will be detrimental to their education. The NUS has indeed written to both sides urging them to meet for talks, but in doing so explicitly endorsed the ACAS route suggested by the union, which the employers continue to reject.

Academics on strike traditionally struggle to attract much sympathy either from the left or the public in general, given their relatively generous typical earnings and the perception that they live at a comfortable remove from the lives of ordinary people. But in reality, many are active in moves against cuts in education; the UCU itself has played a leading role demonstrating alongside the NUS against rising tuition fees.

If, as now appears almost inevitable, it is their turn to risk widespread condemnation by standing up against the employers whom they believe are treating them unfairly and dishonestly, there are good reasons why progressives should support them.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

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15. John Symons

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