皇家华人

Determined picketing continued across the central UCL campus all morning, before pickets joined a rally outside the offices of the employers鈥� organisations, UCEA and UUK, in Tavistock Square Gardens.

The rally and demonstration that followed saw delegations from Cambridge and Brighton join with union branches from all over London. We heard speakers from university strikes in France and the Chicago Teachers Union. Labour MP Angela Rayner and the Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, Kevin Courtney, spoke alongside strikers from across London.

The strike march to the City of London brought pre-92 and post-92 universities together in a March for Education. The 鈥榦ld鈥� pre-92 universities are in the USS pension scheme, but the post-92 universities are in the Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS), a public pension scheme. The slogan of the demonstration that united both sections was 鈥渢he money is there - where鈥檚 our share?!鈥� TPS members are very worried that the government wants to follow USS鈥檚 lead in attempting to scrap a defined benefit pension. USS is one of the last private sector pensions that retains defined benefits.

We were able to march past USS鈥� offices in Threadneedle Street at the very moment our union representatives were meeting with UUK and USS to try to resolve the pension dispute. While we have picketed meetings at USS before, this was a bigger lobby of USS than in any of the previous strikes.

We ended the march with a mass gathering on the steps of the Corn Exchange at Bank.

A group of strikers convened after the march at Rich Mix, representing UCL UCU and the University of the Arts, Imperial, City, King鈥檚 College and others. Reps discussed their local experience and it was agreed to adopt some themes for forthcoming strike days and to coordinate them across branches. Another meeting will take place next Thursday.

Reps also heard from the solidarity strike rally the night before at Imperial Hotel with representatives from NEU, PCS, CWU, UNISON, UNITE. All unions have pledged to support the national UCU fighting fund. The RMT presented a bag of notes and coins of more than 拢600 collected from RMT members. Camden parking attendants who we had supported two years ago sent a donation. Remarkably, a group of unemployed workers organized by UNISON sent a donation too.

Lastly we are pleased to report that we have received two solidarity donations directly to our local strike hardship fund: 拢100 from the London Fire and Civil Defence Authority UNISON branch and 拢200 from Equity. Colleagues in UNITE have also forwarded us a solidarity statement - see Appendix 1 below.

Themed strike days next week:

• 2 March 鈥� UCL & Race in the spotlight - following聽Friday鈥檚 Eugenics Town Hall Meeting, what can we do to decolonise the curriculum and challenge racism in society?
• 3 March 鈥� Academic Freedom & free speech day - why is Academic Freedom under attack?
• 4 March 鈥� Day of action for PGTAs - shockingly low pay, insecure contracts and UCL-branded 鈥楿nitemps鈥� - is casualisation the future for our universities?
• 5 March 鈥� International solidarity day - especially with colleagues in France

As usual we will be picketing from 8 to 12, with a planned gathering at different locations around campus at 12 noon. Strike committee meetings will take place from 12.15 to 1.15 in the聽, followed by centrally-organised Teach-Outs in the warm...

UCL UCU Executive Committee

@ucl_ucu

UCL UCU

Appendix 1 - a message of solidarity from colleagues in UNITE

鈥淯nite London and Eastern Education Regional Industrial Sector Committee (RISC) fully supports the industrial action that UCU is taking in relation to the 聽2019-2020 JNCHES pay claim, and USS pensions.

The Education RISC fully supports UCU in continuing to pursue a fair pay rise for staff in Higher Education and we regret that Unite members working in the sector, despite voting overwhelmingly in favour of strike action, have been frustrated in taking action by the monstrous and horrendous anti-trade union laws imposed by the Tory government. Otherwise, we will be 聽standing shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters in UCU in their actions. Education RISC believes that we can be much more effective in having our demands met by 聽university bosses through joint union action.

In relation to the USS pensions dispute the RISC believes that the initial proposals from the employers and USS to effectively convert the USS scheme from a defined benefit to a defined contribution scheme was an outrageous attack on staff pensions and we are pleased to see UCU action is causing Universities UK and USS to change these proposals. We understand that talks are ongoing at the national level to resolve this dispute and we wish our UCU colleagues鈥� success in their action commencing on Thursday 20th February 2020.鈥�