Car horns beeped support all along the Crescent this morning as staff at the University of Salford went on a one day strike today in support of a national higher education dispute against a 1% pay offer which would effectively mean a 13% drop in pay over the past five years.
The staff, ranging from cleaners to lecturers and members of UNISON, UCU, Unite and EIS unions, were also protesting against Salford University bosses deducting a full day's pay from previous two hour stoppages.
"We're here as part of the national dispute on pay for all universities, it's a national one day strike, but in particular Salford is one of the only universities in the country that, for our two hour stoppages, is deducting a day's pay" explained University of Salford UCU President Bernie Maguire "It's a deliberate attempt to intimidate people into not taking industrial action.
"The dispute is building momentum now – because of the bullying there's more people on the picket, more support from students and less people going into work" he added "The national union now needs to escalate it, we need more action and for longer. The next thing we're going to do if the University doesn't negotiate for a cost of living rise is a marking boycott in the summer."
For UNISON member, Connor Hartnet, the 1% offer would mean just 8p an hour in his pay packet… "It's an insult" he said "And this is a University that is spending hundreds of millions of pounds on new buildings and rent at the MediaCityUK campus, while sacking people left right and centre. I just think it's unacceptable."
Down at the MediaCityUK campus, staff were equally annoyed…
"The 1% rise which has been offered nationally by all universities is miserly" said Glyn Heath, treasurer of University of Salford UCU "The strike is well supported here, most are on strike or not coming into work. We've got another two hour strike on Monday and then we will escalate it if the University doesn't give us a decent pay rise."
Commenting on the national strike, UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, said: "The cost of paying a living wage to 4,000 low paid workers is about £5m, which is a tiny fraction of the two billion pound reserves that university employers are sitting on and the £123m they have spent on agency staff.
"Higher Education workers have every right to be angry that wealthy universities can afford to give the highest salaried staff a generous pay rise, while the lowest paid are being forced to accept peanuts" he added "Hard working staff have dealt with significant changes that increased their workloads dramatically, yet their incomes have been squeezed to breaking point."
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(3).jpeg)
.png)
(1).JPG)
