You may have read in the media that the UCU General Secretary has unilaterally called off the strikes planned to take place in Higher Education during the coming week. She has done this without the agreement of the union’s Higher Education Committee, which is the body responsible under rule for conducting industrial disputes.
As officers of the London Retired Members Branch, we deplore this for two reasons.
- This is a breach of the democratic structure of the union.
- Our colleagues on strike are defending our pensions as well as their own.
The whole concept of the retirement pension is “Intergenerational Solidarity”. Those who came before us fought to establish the pension scheme, we fought to maintain it and now we rely upon those who follow us to defend it.
Therefore:
- There is an open letter condemning the actions of the General Secretary which we have signed and invite you to consider doing likewise
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/ 1FAIpQLSfamkYIlTeaX0AFMILBwfSK _CtMs4QbEKONIHKhMyuGSOiL1w/ viewform - There is to be a lobby of the Carlow Street Head Office on Monday at 5pm. The branch banner will be there, we invite you to join us.
- There will be a lobby of the Higher Education Committee on Friday at 10am, also at the Carlow Street offices. The banner will be there as well.
- Recognising that our currently employed comrades are defending our pension as well as their own, we invite you to contribute to the strike fund.
https://www.ucu.org.uk/fightingfund
