University Staff (UCU) Strike Calendar

Staff at the University of Sheffield will strike for ten days beginning on Monday 18 September in a dispute over 100% pay deductions following the marking boycott, the University and College Union (UCU) confirmed today

The strikes will hit the first teaching weeks of the new academic year. Staff will be on picket lines across the campuses including Firth Court from 8am on all ten days.

At 136 of the 140 universities, UCU members will strike for five consecutive days from Monday 25 to Friday 29 September. Strikes will hit four Scottish universities on slightly different dates to coincide with local action by other unions.

The dispute centres on low pay and working conditions. Employer body, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has imposed a pay award for 23/24 worth just 5% for most UCU members, even though they overwhelmingly voted to reject it. UCU is also demanding action on gig-economy employment practices and high workloads.

UCU has now withdrawn its marking and assessment boycott. This has been ongoing since Thursday 20 April. It will also begin reballoting universities shortly. This will allow it to escalate the dispute by taking further action this year and into 2024. Staff are continuing other forms of industrial action, including working to rule, not undertaking any voluntary activities, and not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action.

• UCU (Unions representing academic staff at universities and colleges in the United Kingdom) has called for a boycott of marking and assessment across all university campuses until UCEA (the employer body representing UK universities and colleges) agrees to an improved offer in the ongoing pay and working conditions dispute.
• The boycott covers all marking and assessment, including in writing, online, or verbally at 145 UK universities. It will continue until UCEA makes an improved offer.
• Queen's University Belfast and the University of Cambridge have called on UCEA to re-enter negotiations so the dispute can be resolved and students can graduate.

Over 100 staff at Tyne Coast College will down tools next week in a fight over fair pay.

The strike comes after 94% of those who voted backed strike action. Turnout was 54%. It is over the 2022/3 pay claim, which comes on top of multiple real-term wage cuts and a recent pay freeze (2019/20).

The University and College Union has today [Wednesday 19 April] confirmed that a marking and assessment boycott will commence tomorrow [Thursday 20 April] at 145 UK universities after employers failed to produce an improved offer in the pay & conditions dispute.

The boycott will continue until employers make an improved offer, at which point UCU will decide whether to continue the action or call it off.

The University and College Union (UCU) has today (5 April) announced that its members at universities across the UK will take part in a marking boycott from Thursday 20 April.

The boycott will be carried out as part of both the pay and conditions and USS pensions dispute and will see staff cease all summative marking and associated assessment activities and duties (such as exam invigilation) until further notice.

The marking and assessment boycott will continue until the disputes are settled, or UCU calls off the boycott, or at the end of the industrial action ballot mandate.

UCU has won back-to-back national ballots, twice beating the Tories' anti-union laws -Staff voted yes overwhelmingly for action short of strike in both ballots -UCU will now begin preparations to serve notice for a marking and assessment boycott

• UCU is in negotiations with employers through conciliation service Acas.
• The union has called this date in addition to those set to take place on Thursday 16, Friday 17, Monday 20, Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22
• March.
• The employer chose to put out its pay offer and make it clear that it is final.
• The reasons UCU has added this additional date is to focus the employers mind as talks come to a conclusion this week and especially early next week.

• UCU reached a point in negotiations with their employers where they have made significant progress across a range of issues, pausing action across pay and working conditions and USS pensions disputes for two weeks to create a period of calm; this means the strikes on Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 February next week and Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 February and Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 March will not go ahead. All the action scheduled after these dates remains in place.
• Progress made in negotiations with UCEA on USS pensions and UUK on pay
• Re-ballot underway
• UCU will only get the position across the line if members continue to deliver support

The University and College Union (UCU) plans to take strike action against employers across 150 UK universities this week in disputes over pay, pensions and working conditions.

The UCU is seeking a pay increase of 5% to 8%, as well as better job security and pensions, and has rejected employer offers of between 5% and 8%.

The PCS union plans to take strike action against employers across 150 UK universities this week in disputes over pay, pensions and working conditions.

• Members of UCU reject latest pay offer from UCEA by 80.4%.
• Offer from UCEA was 5% and would equate to another real-terms pay cut.
• Staff pay has fallen 25% behind inflation due to a decade of low pay awards from employers.
• Strike action will resume next week and continue through February and March unless a much-improved offer is made.
• UCU general secretary Jo Grady criticizes UCEA's claims of poverty and calls for a "proper offer."

• 150 UK universities will be hit by unprecedented strike action in February and March, unless university employers make improved offers in disputes over pay, working conditions, and pension cuts.
• This will be the biggest series of strikes ever to hit UK university campuses.
• UCU (University and College Union) is demanding a substantial pay increase to deal with the cost-of-living crisis and an end to the use of insecure contracts.
• In the pension dispute, UCU is demanding that employers revoke cuts and restore benefits. The package of cuts made last year will see the average member lose 35% from their guaranteed future retirement income.
• UCU will re-ballot its 70,000 members at the 150 universities in dispute to extend the union's mandate and allow staff to take further action through the rest of the academic year.
• UCU general secretary Jo Grady said that university sector in the UK has over £40bn sitting in reserves, but instead of using that wealth to deliver a cost-of-living pay rise and reverse devastating pension cuts, university vice-chancellors would rather force staff to take strike action and see campuses shut down.

• Tens of thousands of university staff will join other sectors in strikes on 1 February.
• In an ongoing dispute over pay, working conditions and pensions, 70,000 members of the University and College Union (UCU) have voted to strike after talks with employers broke down on Monday.
• They will join other industries, including train drivers, civil servants and teachers, on a coordinated day of strikes on 1 February organised by the Trades Union Congress, which represents most unions.
• UCU members have threatened 17 more strike days in February and March if no agreement is made.
• UCU general secretary Jo Grady said "Whilst the cost of living crisis rages, university vice-chancellors are dragging their feet and refusing to use the vast wealth in the sector to address over a decade of falling pay, rampant casualisation and massive pension cuts."
• UCU is striking over two separate issues, calling for a meaningful pay rise to help staff with the cost of living crisis, an agreed framework to "eliminate insecure employment practices" such as temporary and zero-hour contracts, and to address "dangerously high workloads".
• In addition to this, the union is also in a pension dispute with 67 institutions as members demand employers withdraw cuts to their pension scheme and restore benefits to 2021 levels.

• Over 70,000 staff at 150 universities across the UK begin three days of strike action over attacks on pay, working conditions and pensions.
• The strike is the biggest in the history of higher education and UCU is predicting historic turnout on its picket lines.
• Staff will be picketing the entrances of every university each day of the action.
• The full strike dates are: Thursday 24 November, Friday 25 November, Wednesday 30 November
• The strikes come after UCU members overwhelmingly voted 'yes' to industrial action last month in two historic national ballots over attacks on pay and working conditions as well as pension cuts.
• The National Union of Students has backed the strike action, which could see over 2.5m students impacted.
• UCU is demanding employers revoke the cuts and restore benefits.
• UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: 'University staff are taking the biggest strike action in the history of higher education. They have had enough of falling pay, pension cuts and gig-economy working conditions - all whilst vice-chancellors enjoy lottery win salaries and live it up in their grace and favour mansions.'
• National Union of Students Vice President Higher Education Chloe Field said: 'Students stand in solidarity with university staff going on strike. We have always been clear that staff working conditions are students' learning conditions, and for more than a decade both have come under attack from a sector that puts profits above education.'