Staff at both Queen’s and Ulster University will begin 10 days of industrial action this morning, escalating a dispute over pension cuts and deteriorating pay and work conditions.
hey are among 44 institutions across the UK taking strike action, including The Open University in Northern Ireland, and will be joined by 24 further university campuses next week, with over a million students likely to be affected.
The University and College Union (UCU) said employees were left with no option after university leaders “failed staff and students” by providing no resolution to grievances.
The union said university employers have refused to withdraw cuts to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) or accept UCU’s compromise proposals which would have seen staff and employers pay slightly more to protect benefits and resolve the pension dispute.
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