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On strikes.
Mar. 4th, 2018 10:46 pmLong time no see.
I'm a million miles behind keeping abreast with what's going on in my life. I have photos of the Lake District in July, and of the London Eye in February, and all sorts in between, which haven't made it to Facebook yet. I've kinda given up on Blipfoto, and Instagram is doing my head in, and I've been pretty much silent here since the summer, so there's lots I could catch you up on. But right now my brain is almost entirely occupied by the USS pensions dispute. I'd love to produce a really well written blog post about it, why we strike, what's in dispute, my picket experiences, the shocking lack of unionisation in my department and how demoralising that can be, etc etc, but right now here's a thing I wrote off the top of my head on the subject "Why are you striking?". It's neither eloquent nor probably even terribly accurate, but it's what I've got.
There are many reasons I support the strike. Firstly: I am a union member, and my union calls on me to strike, so I do. However I voted in favour of strike action myself, because I was involved in the debate and action during the last round of Pensions cuts. Nothing I saw then convinced me that the deficit was anything but an accounting artefact largely artificially created through the need to use gilts and bonds in order to meet the needs of the Pensions Regulator, and I was disappointed that despite our work to protest this the Final Salary scheme was closed. To have the Career Average being closed only 3 years later, despite good investments returns, is ludicrous. We need to move away from "excessive prudence" and the fear that the sky is going to fall in. We need to get full independent review of the state of the scheme, agreed by both UCU and UUK, and until that is done we need to ensure that no extreme and unnecessary changes are made - and certainly not ones which have such catastrophic outcomes particularly for the most junior and precarious of staff. And finally I am extremely angry that Cambridge University sent in a response to UUK's consultation in September which was so boldly in favour of removing all risk in the scheme from the University at great cost to its members, and without having had chance to even properly consult its own Pensions Working Group. For UUK to make such sweeping changes on the back of this mockery of a consultation is inexcusable. It's not just about my pension (I have 25 years til retirement, so it could still make a big difference to me) but about those who come after me, and whether they can afford to continue to work in this sector.
I'm a million miles behind keeping abreast with what's going on in my life. I have photos of the Lake District in July, and of the London Eye in February, and all sorts in between, which haven't made it to Facebook yet. I've kinda given up on Blipfoto, and Instagram is doing my head in, and I've been pretty much silent here since the summer, so there's lots I could catch you up on. But right now my brain is almost entirely occupied by the USS pensions dispute. I'd love to produce a really well written blog post about it, why we strike, what's in dispute, my picket experiences, the shocking lack of unionisation in my department and how demoralising that can be, etc etc, but right now here's a thing I wrote off the top of my head on the subject "Why are you striking?". It's neither eloquent nor probably even terribly accurate, but it's what I've got.
There are many reasons I support the strike. Firstly: I am a union member, and my union calls on me to strike, so I do. However I voted in favour of strike action myself, because I was involved in the debate and action during the last round of Pensions cuts. Nothing I saw then convinced me that the deficit was anything but an accounting artefact largely artificially created through the need to use gilts and bonds in order to meet the needs of the Pensions Regulator, and I was disappointed that despite our work to protest this the Final Salary scheme was closed. To have the Career Average being closed only 3 years later, despite good investments returns, is ludicrous. We need to move away from "excessive prudence" and the fear that the sky is going to fall in. We need to get full independent review of the state of the scheme, agreed by both UCU and UUK, and until that is done we need to ensure that no extreme and unnecessary changes are made - and certainly not ones which have such catastrophic outcomes particularly for the most junior and precarious of staff. And finally I am extremely angry that Cambridge University sent in a response to UUK's consultation in September which was so boldly in favour of removing all risk in the scheme from the University at great cost to its members, and without having had chance to even properly consult its own Pensions Working Group. For UUK to make such sweeping changes on the back of this mockery of a consultation is inexcusable. It's not just about my pension (I have 25 years til retirement, so it could still make a big difference to me) but about those who come after me, and whether they can afford to continue to work in this sector.
