Bath UCU: What is going on? What does this mean?

nb. Recall there are actually two disputes currently ongoing: pay and conditions, and USS. We’ll look at pay and conditions first, but USS is treated towards the end

As all members should be aware by now, the seven days of UCU strike action called for this week and next week have been suspended.

The dispute, however, has not been called off, action-short-of-a-strike remains in place, and the five days of action called for March remain active. Furthermore, the vital ballot to extend our mandate for strike action opens this week.

What is going on? What does this mean?

Communications out of UCU Head Office are often unclear, leading people to scrabble around on social media to find answers.

To give members the opportunity to discuss the current pause, next steps, ask any questions and let off any steam, we’re calling an online branch meeting this Wednesday the 22nd at 12:15-13:05. Invitations will go into Outlook folders shortly.

In the meantime, my aim is to outline this as simply as possible below:

Two weeks ago the joint unions and the employers’ representatives (UCEA) agreed to enter talks with ACAS. These talks are continuing and have not secured a “deal” on anything yet.

What has been accepted by joint unions and UCEA, however, is that talks within ACAS will not be able to secure further progress on one area – the pay claim. Employers simply won’t budge; this is the max they say they will move.

Therefore, rather than continue using ACAS as a forum to argue about pay deals, this issue is being parked to focus talks on areas where there is agreement these ACAS talks can make progress – specifically on conditions – anti-casualisation, workload, pay gaps (and some progressive changes to the pay spine).

This does not mean UCU have accepted the pay offer, it is simply recognised that any improvement will not be achieved through ACAS negotiations (It will need further industrial action, essentially).

The unions believe there are real tangible benefits on the table in these talks on conditions. So, to facilitate them, the union negotiating teams agreed to suspend the next two weeks of planned strike action (by UCU, Unite and Unison). Once these time-limited talks conclude, in two weeks’ time, we will then have an offer that can be put to members.

All of the above is laid out in a joint statement from the joint unions and UCEA.

Members will then have to decide if that overall offer (of which we essentially know the pay element) is ‘good enough’, or if we want to reject it and continue industrial action with the aim of securing something better. If we do vote to reject a deal, we have five further strike dates already agreed in March, which remain active, with space to call more before our mandate closes.

But importantly, for the continuation of industrial action to have any real opportunity of success, it is entirely dependent on returning a YES vote in the new ballot on extending the strike period. Essentially, this will go down to a Marking and Assessment Boycott and focused disruption of graduation. It is the major threat employers will fear.

Alongside these UCEA talks, it is also worth noting re. the USS dispute that a positive joint statement has been produced by UUK/UCU. There is no actual decisions here yet, which depends on whether USS do what the formal UUK group says (but the Russell group haven’t agreed to). There seems signs of real progress here – and if we reach a deal on USS it will put pressure to secure one on pay and conditions to end strikes.

Amongst all this there are debates and arguments about who has the legitimate right to suspend action, etc. and questions about whether what is on the table was enough to agree to suspend days of action, as well as whether continuing striking would achieve anything on these days. These are conversations worth having especially as we head towards Congress – and as a branch we will need to have a discussion about the position we hold on some key issues that are certain to arise.

But right now, this is the perfect reminder of how important it is to vote in the HEC elections. The deadline is March 1st. Details are HERE. You can find a familiar overview of who the different factions running are and what their lists are HERE. Now VOTE!

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