Staff members at the UK higher education sector’s largest union have announced they will take continuous strike action from 2 September unless it resolves racism disputes and tackles “broken” industrial relations.
Unite members at the University and College Union (UCU) first announced strike action in May, following a long-running dispute over racism allegations, with staff telling Times Higher Education that managers had cultivated a “culture of fear” in the workplace, amid claims that black staff members had been victimised and discriminated against.
However, union members are now escalating action following months of increasingly bitter relations, after it said issues in the dispute are “worsening”. It said UCU has “downplayed” concerns of black staff around proposals for an independent review of workplace relations, and claimed UCU had refused to withdraw dismissal-related procedures against black staff.
A Unite spokesperson said industrial action on this scale was a “last resort” but its members have been “pushed to breaking point by our employer’s failure to meaningfully negotiate on the serious issues in dispute”.
Union members claimed that relations have been further undermined by an “effective pay freeze after” UCU told staff that it was suspending long-delayed talks over this year’s pay uplift. Concerns over “toxic” working environments have also gone unaddressed, with Unite claiming that work-related stress absences have risen in the past year.
Strike action over the allegations first occurred on 30 May, which forced the cancellation of part of the UCU annual congress, but a walkout planned for 26 June was suspended following “constructive discussions”, including a pledge to launch an independent review of the union’s organisational culture.
Unite members have since taken strike action throughout July, and are currently operating an overtime ban. On 12 July, Unite gave UCU management a deadline of 1 September to make an offer to allow action to be suspended, but union members claim that UCU management only offered further talks this week, due to take place on 12 August.
The spokesperson said it was “shameful” that the UCU was “overseeing a culture of racism in its own workplace and is breaching collective agreements leaving many staff unsafe”.
“UCU’s actions as an employer betray the core values of trade unionism that we and the rest of the labour movement work for every single day,” they said.
“The notice of sustained strike action is a call for real change within UCU. The employer needs to get round the table and commit to finding a fair settlement to our dispute and to creating the safe, professional and anti-racist workplace that we need. If they do not, then like all committed trade unionists, we will have no choice but to bring about a settlement from the picket line.”
In Unite UCU’s industrial action ballot in May, 72.2 per cent voted to take strike action and 78.5 per cent backed action short of a strike, on a turnout of 79.1 per cent.
The announcement comes as UCU holds a series of dispute meetings in its long-standing conflict with the Universities and Colleges Employers Association over pay, after UCU rejected its final pay offer of a minimum 2.5 per cent.
A UCU spokesperson said that the union had been “stunned” to learn of the planned strike via social media, describing the dispute as “completely unjustified” and based on “unfair and untrue” accusations”.
Announcing the walkout ahead of a meeting planned at the Acas mediation service on 12 August “demonstrates a lack of integrity and sincerity”, the spokeswoman continued.
“Regardless of this, UCU will continue to table fair proposals covering an independent assessment and review of UCU’s organisational culture, starting negotiations for a draft gender identity policy, and for a hybrid working policy,” she said.
“We are increasingly concerned about an unwillingness from Unite UCU to reach an entirely reasonable phased agreement for staff to return to hybrid working – something most unions and most workers have been doing for years now following the pandemic.
“Despite this, we cannot and will not give up on trying to achieve a positive outcome because we know our staff need and deserve a speedy resolution.”
