Knowledge is Power

Last day of current wave of strike action. A big thank-you to everyone who has turned out on the picket, everyone who has visited, everyone who has honked, everyone who has said hello, and everyone who has downed tools in support. Your solidarity really matters to the branch and rest assured that our employer has noticed.

The fight is far from over and this is what it is going to take to preserve our pensions and force our employers to tackle pay erosion, casualisation, workload, and the gender, ethnic and disability pay gaps.

We are waiting to be informed of details of further action on both USS and 4 fights. As members will be aware, UUK pushed through extremely detrimental changes to our pensions and we continue to be in dispute on this issue. Legal action against USS has also commenced. UCEA, have so far been refusing to negotiate, so we need to maintain the pressure on them until they do.

Action Short of Strike (ASOS)

When we return to work we are once again on ASOS. Take your lunch hour, down tools at 5 (or the end of your contracted hours) and have your tea. Claim back your time. You should also not undertake voluntary duties e.g. open days, attending extra meetings and you should not reschedule classes, meetings etc. lost during strike action – you will already have lost your wages for this. Do not work for free.

There are now several other branches whose employers are trying to compel them to work for free. Some are being told they may lose as much as 1 months pay for refusing to reschedule 3 hours of lost teaching. This is an outrage and an attack on our right to withdraw our labour. For that reason we passed a motion in solidarity with QMUL (one of the most affected branches) at our recent branch meeting this included committing to try to raise funds to support them. Therefore, if you can, please consider donating to the whip round fund and any monies will be passed on to branches facing punitive and discriminatory deductions. You can donate into the branch account using the reference ‘solidarity fund’. Note: this is separate to donating to our local hardship fund.

Strike Deductions

On the topic of not being paid, we have put together some information about declaring action, strike deductions and hardship funds etc. If you have any further questions about strike deductions, ASOS, hardship funds, then please get in touch with ucu@hw.ac.uk.

The sun was out for St David’s Day and we were delighted to welcome our British Sign Language using visitors and interpreter, Kitty. It makes all the difference to know that we are not in this alone. A big thank-you. Solidarity!

Dr Joanne Porter and the impressive Monty picket in Stromness, Orkney.

The Starfish of Solidarity extends its five arms of respect, inspire, belonging, celebrate and collaborate to all staff and students who are supporting the UCU strike over USS Pensions and the Four Fights.

A big turnout on the picket this morning for Joanna Cherry QC MP and Joss’s famous fry-up.

We were delighted to welcome another visitor to the picket this morning. Joanna Cherry QC, Member of Parliament for Edinburgh South West.

A pleasure to visit @UCU_HWUBranch at their picket line outside @HeriotWattUni today to hear about their legitimate concerns about pensions, pay, conditions & workload Joanna Cherry QC, Member of Parliament for Edinburgh South West

Don’t forget that there will be a BSL interpreter on the picket tomorrow from 09.00-10.00am and that there will be an online members’ meeting via Zoom at 12.00.

First off, a big thank-you to all those who have already taken part in industrial action.

Earlier this week our employers made perhaps the meanest decision towards staff in the history of UK higher education, i.e. rejecting UCU’s very modest and affordable way to take USS forward, deciding instead to side with a valuation of our pension when the most of the world’s economy was shut down or heavily impaired at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

For our younger colleagues, or those relatively new to working in higher education, our pay has now been degraded for over a decade – and anyone who thinks the sector will magically award a substantial pay increase this year to compensate at the least for the highest inflation for more than 3 decades is quite simply living in cloud cuckoo land. Plus, don’t forget, for every year our pay deteriorates in relation to inflation, our pensions go down without the actions described above.

We are facing an unprecedented attack on our pensions. It has got to end and the only way to end it is to strike and take action short of strike (ASOS).

The prospect of going on strike can be quite daunting so we have laid out some facts about going on strike and losing pay, how much you can be deducted (it’s often less than people think), where you can get help and how to check your payslip.

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.