-
· Two
London and two Scottish universities join walkouts over pension
changes
-
· Universities
minister calls again for talks without preconditions
-
· Universities
UK has said it would refuse to discuss current pension cuts at
Tuesday’s talks
-
· Central
London rally on Wednesday
Staff at four more universities are walking out from today
(Monday) as strikes over pensions enter their second week.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at King’s
College London and Queen Mary University of London, as well as
Edinburgh and Stirling universities, are all starting their
action from today. Staff at 61 institutions will be striking on Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday this week, with further strikes planned in
March if the dispute is not resolved.
On Friday, Universities UK (UUK) said it would return to talks
tomorrow (Tuesday) – a move welcomed by
UCU which said it had been calling for talks for weeks.
However, it explicitly ruled out discussion of the current
proposal to move to a fully defined contribution pension scheme.
The union said it was disappointed that UUK had ignored the wishes of
universities minister , who told staff and students in
Manchester on Friday that the only way to resolve the dispute was
with both sides engaging in talks without conditions.
Striking staff will attend a rally in central London on
Wednesday. Starting at 2pm in Westminster Central
Hall, speakers include:
- · Shadow
chancellor
- · Shadow
education secretary
-
· National
Union of Students president Shakira Martin
- · UCU
general secretary Sally Hunt.
University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said:
‘As strikes enter their second week and disruption spreads to
four more universities, we are calling on Universities UK to
listen to the minister and come to tomorrow’s talks willing to
work with us to resolve this dispute.
‘Universities UK owe it to staff and students to engage
constructively with us and to discuss the issues at the heart of
this dispute.’
