Skip to main content

annahindmarsh2
16th March 2023

“Let the pride pulse through you”: Jo Grady announces success for UCU pension proposals

University employers have confirmed that they will restore the 35% cut to pensions that was made last April
Categories:
TLDR
“Let the pride pulse through you”:  Jo Grady announces success for UCU pension proposals

This morning Jo Grady proudly announced on Twitter, “we have won our pensions back”, as university employers have confirmed that they will restore the 35% cut to pensions that was made last April. 

In contrast, there has been widespread anger from academics on Twitter, and condemnation of the action from the University of Manchester UCU, as the members do not believe that the deal is acceptable.

Grady applauded UCU strike action and voting for ensuring that what was thought to be impossible has now been achieved, and championed it as one of the “biggest wins in UK trade union history”.

The agreement was reached last night and it includes an “end to zero-hour contracts, a pay award and pay spine review, and progress in every single area of our pay and working conditions dispute”.  

The offer ensures that these proposals, including the restoration of pensions, will be completed in the time frame of a year provided that they successfully pass through the union’s democratic process. 

Votes for this will close on Friday which is when the Union’s Higher Education Committee will meet to discuss the next steps.

This has not been met well by academics, including the University of Manchester’s branch. One academic described the UCU as ‘a union machine that treats its own members with […] contempt for their intelligence’. 

The University of Manchester branch of the UCU has agreed, at a ‘hybrid branch meeting’ today, to ‘not call off strikes regardless of the e-ballot result’, and to make a formal complaint about the ‘problematic and manipulative e-ballot’.

Reportedly, the meeting was both ‘well-attended’ and angry. One member is reported to have claimed that the union was impacting their wellbeing, claiming they were ‘a ball of stress’, and another claimed that they were being treated ‘like children’.


More Coverage

A rundown of LeadMCR election results night

The eight new SU Exec Officers were revealed on March 7 after two weeks of campaigning, as well as the seven NUS Representatives and the winners of the Union’s LeadMCR Alternative Awards

College Roundup: US edition

Enjoying this year’s University Round-ups? Here you can have a look across the pond at some of the drama from American Colleges

Manchester researchers find majority of women experience abuse while running

Over two-thirds of women in the study had been abused while running, with 58% reporting verbal abuse

Your new Exec team: LeadMCR 2024 results

Eight Exec Officers and seven NUS reps have been elected for LeadMCR 2024/25