Glasgow staff will vote alongside thousands of other academics across the UK on the possibility for strikes before the end of the year.
Ballots opened on 18 October for staff at the University of Glasgow and universities across the UK to vote on the possibility of strike action.
The strike ballot will remain open from 18 October until 4 November. The University College Union’s (UCU) higher education committee (HEC) will meet on 8 November to discuss the outcome and next steps, providing concessions are not made by the employers before then, with industrial action before the end of the year likely.
Academic staff from 152 UK institutions will participate in the ballot. The proposed strikes are in response to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension reform, under which the average lecturer will lose 35% in guaranteed pension benefits over the rest of their career in academia, in addition to “untenable workloads”, “below-inflation pay offers” and the casualisation of contracts.
In a video posted on Twitter encouraging participants to vote yes to strikes, Dr Jo Grady, UCU General Secretary, called the ballot “one of the biggest fights this union has ever faced”. Grady said the employers are “attacking our pensions” and “have refused to do anything to tackle the disgusting race, gender, and disability pay gaps, or give us the pay rise we deserve after a decade of cuts”.
