Author Archives: cardiff

Vote for action on pay, casualization & equality

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If we hadn’t gone on strike we’d have lost our DB pensions by now. The JEP report shows that when we stand together, we’re strong and we can win.

The strike also reminded us that pensions are only part of what’s wrong with our Universities. As we stood on the pickets, debated in meetings, and came together in teach-outs we also realised that we share a common opposition to the scourges of casualization, inequality, over-work and unpaid overtime. As you know, UCU members are currently being balloted on strike and non-strike action on all of these issues in the pay and equality campaign. Continue reading →

Vindication from the Joint Expert Panel on USS

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On 13 September the USS Joint Expert Panel (JEP) published its first report on the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), dealing with controversial 2017 valuation. The formation of the JEP was one of the main wins from 2018’s strike action. Its first report supports almost all of UCU’s claims around the existence and size of the “phantom deficit” in our pension scheme, our employers’ attitudes to risk, and the fact there’s no need to slash our future pensions. Importantly, it says that only a very small increase in contributions is needed to keep our benefits at the same level. Continue reading →

Strike Bulletin #14

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Picket - Hadyn Ellis - 16th March

Picket – Hadyn Ellis – 16th March

Well done, everyone! We’ve completed fourteen days of striking over four weeks, and we have reached the end in a much stronger position than when we started. Clearly, we’re not out of the woods yet, but UUK has learned that we are not to be coaxed back to work by a modest improvement on the position they gave us back in January. Continue reading →

Strike Bulletin #13

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Ides of March

Beware the Ides of March! It’s a fateful day for our employers. Faced with such unity from UCU members here in Cardiff and across the country, as well as a substantial list of student occupations on campuses from Aberdeen to Exeter, we’re hearing VCs climb back on the removal of Defined Benefits and the undermining of strike activity, as with Cambridge. Others, such as Glasgow, say their position is ‘essentially the same as that of UCU’. Others still, such as Queen’s Belfast, state a commitment to independent valuation of the USS. Here in Cardiff, we received the welcome news through Twitter that Cardiff University will spread deductions over three months. Furthermore, they ‘do not envisage circumstances where colleagues [that’s us] will have pay withheld for action short of a strike.’ This is the effect our collective action has taken – the commitment to 14 days of strikes and the courage to say no to a bad deal offered this week. Continue reading →

Strike Bulletin #12

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Pickets outside Law

Pickets outside Law & Politics

Referring to Wednesday as “hump day” is a fairly modern tradition in American English. The term represents the idea that a week can be visualized as a mound or hill that a person climbs, with Wednesday typically being the middle or peak of the week. more… [external link]

Wednesday in the US and Canada1 is traditionally known in 9-5 office parlance as ‘hump day’. This is our only full week of striking in this set of actions, and now we’re over the hump. We felt what was, for many, confusion and despair on Monday night, followed by the collective resolve of Tuesday morning and the sunny, buoyant high of our political lobby. Continue reading →

Strike bulletin #11

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Today was an important day – probably the most crucial day of our strike action so far. As probably all of you know, UCU and UUK reached a proposed agreement that went out yesterday evening. Response on Twitter was strong and consistent, but many of us were worried and confused. Was this really the deal we took such unprecedented action over? And what were the implications for us, our students, our employers, and the public by rejecting such a deal? Continue reading →