It was marvellous to see such well attended pickets on all days of the strike actions so far. Of course, those who are able to attend pickets are only a fraction of those taking action. It is the withdrawal of labour that counts. I hope the strike days also afforded members the opportunity for some rest.

Reporting your participation in strike action

The union has complied with all the cumbersome bureaucracy of properly notifying employers in advance of our intention to take action collectively and in which areas.

For this round of strikes, you will be asked to enter the information in ERP after the 6 December. You should fill in ERP accurately as this signals to the employer that our members did indeed take action in high numbers.

You do not need to supply any further information. The union has complied already with its duty to provide information.

Should UCEA and UUK require any further data on strike actio n- this was supplied to them in person by a *very large* data set flowing past both their offices and the negotiations giving both quantitative and qualitative feedback on the strength of feeling.

We look forwards to employers representatives redoubling their efforts to reach a settlement.

Deductions and hardship funds

Deductions will come out of wages in January and you can make applications to the national fighting fund and local hardship fund as soon as you have a payslip showing deductions. Further information can be found at the cost of striking and strike pay page on our website and we will continue to send out reminders.

If you are hourly paid and have already lost pay due to action please apply to the fighting fund now and contact ucu@hw.ac.uk if you require further assistance on what information to provide.

Power in a union, the workers united!

Each and every one of you taking action has an impact on the employer, the Branch and the union. All the action we have taken in the past has had an effect:

• saving our pension from closure
• preventing even greater pay erosion
• winning local disputes and local statements.

It has also brought us to where we are today when we have pulled the whole sector out and sent a loud and clear message to UCEA and UUK.

We need to continue to show how vital our work is and how overworked we are by maintaining strong Action Short of a Strike- take back your evenings and your weekends, do not volunteer for extra tasks, do not make up for lectures missed on strike days and do not cover for absent colleagues.

This sector has for too long been reliant on more work for less pay. Enough is enough. Things cannot go on as they are, together we are fighting for change.