Edge Hill braced for eight days of strikes
EDGE Hill University will be hit by eight days of strikes starting this month.
The University and College Union (UCU) announced that members will walk out from Monday, November 24 until Wednesday, December 4 over disputes about pay and working conditions and rising pension costs.
The announcement comes after UCU members backed strike action in ballots over both pensions, and pay and working conditions.
The results mean that UCU members at 60 UK universities can take strike action later this month.
The union said universities had to respond positively and quickly if they wanted to avoid disruption before Christmas.
It said the dispute was over changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and universities’ failure to make improvements on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads.
As well as eight strike days from 25 November, union members will begin “action short of a strike” when they return to work. This involves things such as working strictly to contract, not covering for absent colleagues and not rescheduling lectures lost to strike action.
Universities affected by the action include Edge Hill, Lancaster University, University of Liverpool, the Liverpool Institute of
Performing Arts and Liverpool Hope University. At Edge Hill, 75% of members polled backed strikes.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Strike action is a last resort, but staff have made it quite clear that enough is enough and universities can be in no doubt about the strength of feeling. The first wave of strikes will hit institutions later this month unless universities start talking to us seriously about how they are going to deal with rising pension costs and declining pay and conditions.”
A spokesman for Edge Hill said: “The University and Colleges Union is in dispute with employers over a pay award that is negotiated nationally.
“While we respect and support the rights of staff to withdraw their labour, Edge Hill University hopes that the dispute can be resolved nationally without recourse to industrial action at the end of the month.”