The HWU UCU Branch picket being led from the front by Daisy
UCU President Vicky Blake and UCU Scotland President Lena Wangren joined us on the picket line this morning.
Continental breakfast courtesy of @josstified .
Day 6 of strike action and we are joined by the Student Progressive Society
Today is the first day of the joint strike for both the USS Pension Dispute and the 4-Fights over Pay, Workload, Equality, and Casualisation.
We were delighted to be joined by so many students once again.
Students are in poverty, staff are in crisis, our fights to fix the education system is connected in more ways than we understand. Staff and Student power together is the only solution to the growing crisis. Divided we can not win, only together with solidarity can we stand to win. Students should support the UCU strikes, the UCU should support the NUS strikes. Until we do, the Universities will continue their snowball of cuts to pay, benefits, learning conditions all while raising prices on students. Cameron Fields, President of the Society of Progressive Students at Heriot-Watt
Industrial action will continue tomorrow at the main entrance we will have two more presidents visiting our picket line: Vicky Blake, UCU President and Lena Wanggren, UCU Scotland President. Please turn up and give them a big welcome.
There will then be a joint UCU/NUS Rally for Education outside the Scottish Parliament. Assemble at 12.30pm for the rally at 1.00pm.
Some of our hardy Heriot-Watt UCU branch pickets brave the cold as James Watt looks on.
End of week 1 and despite it being half term with many staff away on leave observation of strike action has been very good so far. Please keep it up. We need to send a strong message to our employers if we want to stop these irresponsible cuts to our pension benefits. Pensions which we have earned and which we deserve.
Please continue to observe the industrial action next week on the 4 Fights. Visit the picket line if you can. Picketing is the face of the strike, where we congregate at an agreed location to protest visibly and try to persuade our colleagues to join the strike. You can be on strike without picketing and the law on industrial action protects striking staff from victimisation for not doing work when on strike.
If you are unsure about what taking action involves and what it might mean for you please contact a member of the branch committee, or just pop down and ask. We will be outside the main entrance from around 8am until 10.30am each morning.
HWUCU branch picket on first day of strike
There was a great turn out of staff and students on the first day of strike action even though it is reading week and the half-term holidays.
We will all be back again tomorrow and every day for the rest of this week, fighting to save all of our pensions. Please come along and join us if you can. We may even manage a celebrity visitor one of these mornings.
From the beginning of next week there will be further strike action to defend against deteriorating pay and working conditions.
If you can’t join a physical picket line you can drop into one of our online pickets. The first one is Tuesday 15 February at 9.30. Please check you inbox for details.
Strike action over pension cuts, pay and working conditions will begin on Monday.
Those who take part do not take this decision lightly, a day’s pay is sacrificed for each day of participation. However, if we don’t fight we stand to lose more. Up to a third of our pension on retirement; a continuing real value reduction of take home pay in face of soaring inflation; an increase in pressure and stress caused by unrealistic and unmanageable workloads, jobs and job security as more and more staff and services are casualised and outsourced; and the shameful failure to close gender and ethnic pay gaps across the sector.
Previous strikes have saved the defined benefit portion of the USS pension scheme, and more recently saved jobs when compulsory redundancies were threatened locally in 2020.
You do not have to be a member of a union to take part in industrial action and had have your voice heard, but it is advisable. Being part of a recognised collective bargaining group comes with benefits and protections. If you would like to join the UCU you can do so at https://heriotwatt.web.ucu.org.uk/how-to-join/ . It only takes a few minutes, it doesn’t cost much, and your subscription will be eligible for tax relief.
Dear Professor Williams,
You will have seen that the University and College Union (UCU) issued a set of new proposals for the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) on 26 January 2022 which are aimed at averting widespread industrial action across UK campuses in February and beyond.
These new proposals would see retirement benefits protected in return for a small increase in contributions for both members and employers ahead of a new evidence-based valuation of the scheme.
A USS consultation of scheme members concluded on 17 January 2022, and UCU understands that a significant majority preferred increasing contributions of members and employers in order to protect benefits over the alternatives, including benefit cuts.
Retaining members’ benefits until April 2023 would result in a saving of £240,000 for HWU over the current and coming financial year compared to the increases that were scheduled for Oct’ 21 that employers committed to as part of the 2018 valuation. In addition, staff would be protected from having their pensions eroded by high inflation.
This request for a new valuation is bolstered by the announcement that USS assets have jumped to over £92bn, more than £25bn higher than the previous valuation.
Given this and the above consultation, which we assume was undertaken in good faith, then we would expect HWU to consider the UCU proposal very seriously.
UCU’s proposals are as follows:
We are writing to ask you to support UCU’s proposals instead of UUK’s plan. Under UUK’s plan university staff would see an approximate 35% cut to their guaranteed retirement income based on a flawed USS valuation conducted in March 2020.
We would appreciate a response from you before Friday 11 February.
We believe this represents the best and fairest means to avoid disruptive strikes, as well as ongoing action short of strike action, by staff determined to defend their pensions for the third time in just four years.
Yours sincerely
The undersigned
This letter has been signed by 119 members of staff at Heriot-Watt University. The names have been omitted for brevity in this news article but a full copy can be supplied on request.
We are holding an online local members meeting on Monday 17 January at 2:00pm via Zoom to establish a branch position on further industrial action. This will then be taken to the Branch Delegates Meeting on 18 January, which will in turn inform the HEC meeting on 19 January.
To join the meeting please use the Zoom link which has been sent to all HWUCU members by email. If you require a reminder, please contact the local branch office or a member of the branch committee.
During the meeting will create polls around the following questions that UCU asked us to discuss:
We are a strong Branch with well-attended AGMs/EGMs and an active membership and Committee but we can always use more help. To find out more about the work of our local HWUCU branch please check out the rest of this website and our Twitter feed at @UCU_HWUBranch.
If you have a few spare moments and you would like to get more involved please get in touch with one of our school or service reps, or the Membership Officer. Contacts can be found at https://heriotwatt.web.ucu.org.uk/branchcommittee/
If you are not already a member here are 5 Reasons to Join UCU. It only takes 10 minutes and subscriptions start from just £2 per month, so why not join today?
Joanna Cherry QC and MP for Edinburgh South West visits the picket line #OneOfUsAllOfUs
While many of us were still in bed Joanna Cherry QC our local MP for the Edinburgh South West constituency was up and about meeting the early birds on the picket line. The university is one of the biggest local employers and we want to see it commit to the community that serves it by undertaking to tackle insecure contracts, pay erosion, work-induced stress, gender pay gaps, and poverty in retirement. You know it makes sense.
A big thank-you Joanna. It means so much that you stand with us. Solidarity.
…and not to be upstaged, Daisy the dog still means business too #hwucupickets
When you return to work you should declare truthfully if you have taken part in strike action. It can be entered in ERP as unpaid leave. From Monday members will be working to contract on Action Short of Strike. This means that we work to the hours stipulated in our contracts. You do not have to declare to anyone that you are working ASOS, or enter it in ERP. Just don’t do all those extra hours that you have been doing for free. Our employers may have grown to expect it, and even more so during the current covid crisis, but think about whether they are demonstrating that they value your efforts.
So, if you haven’t already, join the good fight.
A frosty start to day 2
Thank-you all those hardy souls who visited the picket line this morning despite the freezing weather, and thank-you too to all of you on strike at home who zoomed in from the virtual picket.
If you didn’t catch it live, you can still watch the Scotland-wide national rally at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buT2_l6PI1o. Outstanding speeches, in particular from Matt Crilly, NUS Scotland President (approx. at 26:00) and Steve Reicher (approx. at 31:00) – they are a must watch!
Tomorrow is the last strike day in 2021. Time to show our bosses that they need to agree to address deteriorating pay, inequalities, excessive workloads, and creeping casualisation
Join us at the main entrance from 8.30 – 10.30am and lets make it a big one.
Come and show your support
Around 50 staff and students joined the picket line this morning, and other branches has similarly lively picket lines. We are striking to improve pay and working conditions for all members of staff, and also to preserve pension benefits for all members of the USS scheme.
We will be at the main entrance from 8.30 am to 10.30 on Thursday and Friday too. Please drop by and show your support.
Due to concerns over the spread new Omicron variant the strike rally planned for tomorrow outside the Scottish Parliament has been moved online. You can still show your support and solidarity by joining us for the live stream on YouTube or Facebook.
Speakers include NUS Scotland president Matt Crilly, UCU Scotland president Lena Wånggren, Independent SAGE expert and UCU member Prof Steve Reicher, plus politicians and activists straight from the picket lines.