UCU staff hold ‘last resort’ strike ballot over union cuts

The University and College Union (UCU) is facing strike action from its own staff over the “deeply disappointing” decision to cut back a campaigning role.

Unite – the union that represents UCU employees – is balloting its members over concerns that two staff members who work on the postgraduate researchers (PGRs) rights campaign are at risk of redundancy.

This campaign argues that those pursuing a doctorate should be given the same rights as university staff in the UK. Unite said the initiative has enjoyed “huge success”, and UCU members overwhelmingly voted at the last congress to expand it.

“It is therefore deeply disappointing that UCU senior management is attempting to slash the staffing resource for this work by 40 per cent and proposing a 40 per cent pay cut for the very UCU staff tasked with tackling precarity in higher education,” a Unite UCU spokesperson told Times Higher Education.

“As a staff union, we are acting to protect the jobs of our members. Our decision to speak publicly about this, and to ballot for industrial action, is one we do not take lightly. It is a last resort.”

The dispute comes as the UCU prepares to ballot members for a third time over issues including pay and precarity in the university sector, while it has just concluded its disruptive marking boycott.

The “PGRs as Staff” policy was adopted in 2020, and two staff members were hired the following year as campaign leads on 22-month fixed-term contracts, two months shy of the 24 months needed for employees to gain more employment rights such as not being able to be dismissed without a fair reason.

The employees were contracted on one full-time equivalent job share, but the UCU recently reduced this to a 0.6 full-time equivalent role.

The Unite spokesperson said that among the project’s successes was lobbying UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to increase PhD stipends by 20 per cent over two years.

“We have received significant support from UCU members who recognise the importance of the PGRs as Staff campaign and the work of the campaign leads,” they added.

“Many members have noted that the union should model the employment practices we want to see in our sector. We hope management listens to us and listens to UCU members and changes tack before we’re forced to take strike action.”

A UCU spokesperson said the project was established in 2021 and always had an end date of summer 2023.

“Given the success of the project, UCU looked at ways of building on it to continue organising work amongst PGRs,” they added.

“To that end, we are pleased to have been able to resource a new 0.6 full-time equivalent post to take this organising work forward. This is at the limit of what UCU can currently afford given the competing demands on our resources.

“UCU hopes to resolve this dispute amicably so the union can continue to focus on supporting its members.”

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com