You will have seen the news direct from UCU that Queen Mary members voted in favour of both strike action and action short of a strike. As always, key links at the bottom of the page.
Our vote in favour of action was high, with more than 90% voting to strike and almost 95% voting for action short of a strike. This was very high by national standards.
Until then, we urge you to read this post by Sam Marsh, highlighting the employers’ mendaciousness.
Sam’s article is a timely reminder that the pensions deficit nothing but a crude attempt to cut your pay dramatically.
Not only do they plan to cut the security of your retirement, but a future revaluation that reduces the deficit will mean that employers can reduce their contributions to your pension by up to a third. This is the engineered crissis’ real objective.
Finally, to anybody who tries to guilt you with the “think of the students” argument.
- Senior management wasn’t thinking of the students when they took their fees to fund surpluses and executive salaries.
- The students were not on senior management’s mind when they stuffed campus to the rafters, leaving classes to be scheduled to 8PM on Fridays, students complaining about lack of space in the library, etc.
- Students were not the focus of their attention as our workloads increased and real pay went down.
Our fight to save our pension should be an example for all to reverse this race to the bottom and stop the shift of risk to the individual. Our fight to save our pension should encourage others to fight to restore security in their retirement, and we should stand with them. Our fight to save our pension should be an example to our students of what they should demand in their own lives.
There will be meetings this weekend of UCU London Region, some of which will be preparations for industrial action. We will update you next week.
qmucu.org 