BREAKING: Strikes at Warwick confirmed for last month of term

A month of strike action is set to take place at the University of Warwick by members of the University and College Union (UCU).

Warwick UCU members will strike for 14 days between Thursday 20 February and Friday 13 March, during weeks 7-10 of Term 2.

The dates affected are:

• Week 7: Thursday 20 & Friday 21 February
• Week 8: Monday 24, Tuesday 25 & Wednesday 26 February
• Week 9: Monday 2, Tuesday 3, Wednesday 4 & Thursday 5 March
• Week 10: Monday 9, Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11, Thursday 12 & Friday 13 March

Warwick is one of 74 UK universities which will be hit with the 14 days of strike action in February and March.

The strike centres around the sustainability of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and rising costs for members, as well as on universities’ failure to make significant improvements on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads.

In November and December, UCU members at 60 universities walked out for eight days,reportedly affecting a million students.

The UCU stated that more branches this time crossed a 50% turnout threshold required by law for them to take industrial action, affecting an additional 200,000 students.

Union members will also be undertaking “action short of a strike”, involving “things like working strictly to contract, not covering for absent colleagues and refusing to reschedule lectures lost to strike action”.

UCU General Secretary Jo Grady stated: “We have seen more members back strikes since the winter walkouts and this next wave of action will affect even more universities and students.

“If universities want to avoid further disruption they need to deal with rising pension costs, and address the problems over pay and conditions.

“We have been clear from the outset that we would take serious and sustained industrial action if that was what was needed.

“As well as the strikes next month, we are going to ballot members to ensure that we have a fresh mandate for further action to cover the rest of the academic year if these disputes are not resolved.”

Following enquiries from The Boar, the University of Warwick directed students to advice from last term on strike action which will be “regularly updated” and a blog from the vice-chancellor, Professor Stuart Croft.

They said: “UK universities have had strikes before at this point in the academic year and  as before our focus will be on working hard to reduce the impact our students.”