You may be aware that UCU and UUK reached an agreement under the auspices of ACAS yesterday. This was emailed to members and announced on Twitter at around 7.30pm.

UCU’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) are meeting throughout Tuesday to consider this proposal. Meanwhile, all UCU branches were asked to send a delegate to a meeting (between 11am and 2pm) at UCU’s headquarters in Camden.

Senate House branch sent Vice Chair and Treasurer Angela Ireland to represent our views. Based on discussions on Senate House picket lines this morning and emails from members overnight, we advised Angela to reject the proposed agreement (if an opportunity arose). The motion to reject is consistent with how neighbouring UoL UCU branches have responded. We understand that HEC used this branch meeting as a sounding board to gauge what branches think and that members of the HEC will be asked to vote on the proposed agreement later in the day.

We understand members will have questions and opinions. Please email us. We will convene an all-members meeting shortly after we return to work so that you can have your say.

4.30pm update: the HEC of UCU have voted to reject the ACAS-arbitrated agreement.

 

With universities across the country increasingly breaking with UUK’s original position that there’s no place for defined benefit pensions in today’s workplace, UCU members on all four Senate House picket lines have remained steadfast in their commitment to raising awareness about what this significant change to USS would mean.

BBC Two dropped by for a chat

Media interest continues to gain pace, as our very own Professor Greg Woolf and an international student from SOAS found out during an interview with BBC Two’s Daily Politics. Watch Greg’s interview here.

Greg did an excellent job in representing the views of Senate House UCU members, and we thank him for taking the time to speak to the BBC today.

Warburg Institute and their immovable picket line

Meanwhile, one very vibrant arm of Senate House UCU is the Warburg Institute, a global research hub in cultural history and the role of images in culture.

Six UCU members from Warburg have been picketing every day during the strike. It is the first time that the Warburg have picketed during a strike in recent memory. We have been following the rest of our UCU colleagues around the country by coming out in all weather conditions: snow, rain and sun.

Picketers have had a lot of support from colleagues, students, library readers and photographic collection researchers, many of whom stopped to talk and discuss the issues on the steps. Regular researchers have decided to show their support by refusing to cross the picket and going to other research libraries. Some brought us very welcome tea and biscuits, have joined UCU, contributed to the strike fund, or taken action short of a strike. We very much appreciate the support we’ve received.

Senate House UCU look forward to showing solidarity at today’s Women’s Strike.

Link: Facebook event page

The very fact that the strike has reached day 8 is surprising to some, but the largest bout of industrial action that the higher education sector in the UK has seen is doing what it needs to:

• UCU have brought UUK back to the negotiating table.
  While UUK earlier this week claimed it needed more time after Monday’s opening gambit they did finally respond to student and University staff pressure by announcing, on Twitter (a move inspired by who do we think?), that talks could resume yesterday.  Talks are scheduled to continue from 3.30pm today.
• Universities are backing down from the UUK stance.
  Today, Oxford University’s Vice-Chancellor announced the University would seek to reverse its response to the UUK survey where it declared it wanted to take less risk in USS. Oxford now join Cambridge, Warwick, SOAS, Birkbeck and others who are seeking a compromise position. We thank University of London Vice Chancellor Prof. Sir Adrian Smith for his lukewarm but welcome statement on the matter.
• We have the broad backing of students
  YouGov’s 20 February poll shows that 61% of a representative sample of students support our strikes. Most of the students we’ve spoken to on picket lines understand why we are on strike – if there are feelings of frustration or upset, they are generally directed at the universities and ‘the system’ rather than the individuals on strike.

Here are some (mostly new) things you can do to support the strike.

1. Petition for UUK to be made a public body (new!)
   A lack of transparency has been one of the main frustration many of us have felt throughout this process. One of the reasons it’s been difficult to find out, for example, how certain universities voted in that infamous UUK survey, is that UUK are not required to comply with freedom of information requests – this is because they are not a public body. If you don’t think this is right, put your name to this petition (4,800 signatories at the time of writing)
2. Go on strike and join a picket line (not new)
   Now that the weather is perking up, there’s never been a better time to take your first day of strike action. There are 190,000 members of the USS scheme – if every member was to take one day of strike action, imagine what kind of signal that would send to UUK. Many of us have already taken eight days of action. A good outcome to the current negotiations will benefit all 190,000 of us.
3. Even better, join us on the picket line (also not new)
   Our picket line on International Women’s Day promises to be a lively affair, as we warm up to participate in the Women’s Strike rally in Russell Square from 1pm. Our colleagues at Leeds UCU present evidence on the effect of USS cuts on women.
4. Sign the ‘no deficit’ letter to the Guardian (new!)
   If you’ve read up on the evidence on do not believe that the USS is in deficit, then put your name to this letter.
   

 

A note from Professor Sir Adrian Smith, the Vice Chancellor, posted on the staff intranet on 5 March 2018

“You will all be aware of the current strike action by the members of the University and College Union (UCU) in relation to proposed changes to the USS pension scheme.

I was pleased to learn that further talks have been agreed between UCU and Universities UK on the future of the scheme following a meeting last week. I welcome this development as a positive step towards reaching a mutually agreeable settlement and look forward to the outcome of fresh discussions beginning today.”

 

Today, UCU Senate House branch committee sent the following email to the Vice Chancellor of the University of London

Email copied to: Pro-Vice Chancellor (Operations), Pro-Vice Chancellor (International), Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research), Director of Operations (International) and the University Secretary

“Dear Vice Chancellor and esteemed colleagues,

I am writing this open letter on behalf of the UCU branch committee at Senate House, University of London to seek a public expression of the University’s position on the current USS dispute prior to the start of UCU’s talks with Universities UK (UUK) next Monday. We stand together with 64 universities across the UK to demand a fairer deal.

20 Vice Chancellors across affected institutions have declared support for more talks between UUK and UCU about the future of the pension scheme. As of yesterday, this also included Professor Michael Arthur, President and Provost of University College London (UCL), who released a statement that acknowledges the significance of the pensions dispute, expresses empathy with members of staff who chose to take industrial action, and declares a commitment to finding a solution that works for all. Goldsmiths, Birkbeck and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) are among the other Member Institutions of the University of London to have called for further negotiations.

At the All Staff Meeting of 17 January 2018, the University Secretary indicated that the University of London had responded to the September 2017 consultation on the USS technical provisions by indicating it would be willing to take more risk. This put the University in a 4% minority of employers who responded to this consultation in this way and suggests that the University of London is broadly satisfied with the risk profile of the USS pension scheme.

We request that the University circulates a message to all staff declaring support for the following points:

1. That future talks take place in a constructive environment.
2. That September 2017’s valuation is revisited and that independent and external opinion is sought, including from the academic community. This is to ensure that UCU and UUK can negotiate on the basis of an agreed foundation of evidence, including financial assumptions.
3. That the planned USS member consultation (due to commence 19 March 2018) is suspended while a valuation on which both parties agree is established.
4. That the outcome to this dispute retains defined benefit as the predominant model for USS pensions.

As we enter a further nine days of strike action commencing on Monday 5 March 2018, we are conscious of forthcoming activity to support the University of London Worldwide graduation ceremony on Tuesday 6 March, and as you can imagine many of our members would still love to take part if this dispute can be resolved.

I request an urgent response to a matter which deeply concerns UCU members committed to delivering outstanding levels of service to students and other University stakeholders.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Hall
Branch Chair, UCU Senate House
https://ucu.london.ac.uk/”