1. Message to students Planned Industrial Action: USS pension dispute

2. The strike
- Longest strike in the history of Higher Education has just been announced Universities will see strike action - Dates: 22nd and 23rd of Feb; 26-28th Feb, 5th-8th March; 12th-16th March (unless employers come back to the negotiations) - 88% of UCU members who voted backed strike action - 93% backed action short of a strike - Turnout was an exceptionally high at 58%

3. Why do we invest in pensions?
It’s impossible to predict whether I’ll die the day I retire or forty years later. So I don’t know whether I have to make my savings last for a day or for decades.
But if you take a group of 10,000 people, you can predict pretty well how many will live to 68, how many to 88, and how many to 108.
A big fund also allows you to smooth out ups and downs in stock market performance
So we all agree to put an equal share of our pay into a shared fund, to ensure a stable income for ourselves in retirement.
Our employers also contribute money for each employee, to attract staff.

4. Why are our lecturers and tutors going on strike?

5. Why take action?
Universities want to cut our pensions by 40%, staff will lose around £200,000 over the course of retirement
Staff do not want to strike – we have been left no option through employers’ refusal to reasonably negotiate
Staff are not paid when they strike
We chose teaching as a profession because we love teaching and we want to carry on teaching

6. The wider context
Pensions are deferred wages. We pay into them every month.
Universities rely on recruiting excellent staff with good morale to deliver high quality education
Management of universities increasingly focus on profit rather than quality of education 
Salaries for those at the very top (management) have grown disproportionately to other staff
There is a £1.1 billion surplus in Higher Education nationally
Employers have £10 billion in reserves – they can afford contributions

7. What can you expect?
All activities during the strike action are potentially at risk. 
Teaching will be cancelled on strike days 
Other activities such as ing and marking will also be delayed
We want to teach, so look out for teach-outs where we’ll be offering education for free

8. Pensions are a quality education issue

9. Staff and students: united for education
Lecturing staff have resisted increases in tuition fees, individually and collectively as a union, alongside students
Fees have increased, but staff pay has gone down in real terms
£10 billion in reserves is students’ fees which are not being paid to retain high quality staff
Many VCs have already left the USS scheme and will not be affected by these changes
Staff conditions and students’ experiences intimately linked

10. Staff and students: united for education
NUS has expressed support for the action and has issued guidance to students concerned about the issue:
See: on-USS-action
In the event of disruption you are entitled to complain and potentially to claim financial compensation - useful article: 30/university_lecturers_are_going_on_strike_and_students_should_get_ a_refund.html

11. What can you do?

12. What you can do Write to the Vice Chancellor of the University
Tell him that you support your teaching and support staff and that you want a refund for missed teaching
Ask him to follow the example of other VCs across the country who have contested the grounds of this pension reform
suggest you copy
Do not cross a picket line
During a strike workers temporarily stop work, to make visible the hard work they do every day
Picket line is a symbolic act, show support by not crossing it

13. What else can you do
Write to your lecturers, tell them that they have your support
Tell other students to support the strike
Join the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC)
Lobby your student union (LUU) to support the teachers
UCU has prepared a video on the dispute – please share it

14. With enough pressure from staff and students, the University management will come back to negotiate and we can carry on teaching and learning