Unions suspend action for already rejected deal. posted by Richard Seymour

Lecturers unions have suspended industrial action:

Tuesday night's deal involves a rise worth just over 13% over three years, with a promise to review the money universities have available for pay in 2008.

In return, UCU agreed to suspend the national boycott of assessment from midnight and put the latest offer to a ballot of members.

Socialist Worker saw this coming:

As Socialist Worker went to press there were signs that university employers were about to offer lecturers a “new” pay deal of 13.12 percent over three years.

This would mean that the pay offer is virtually unchanged from an offer of 13.11 percent already rejected on 30 May.

It falls far short of the 23 percent that lecturers’ unions say they need to catch up with those in similar professions. The recent Natfhe lecturers’ union conference voted that offers under 15 percent should not even be considered for acceptance.

According to a draft seen by Socialist Worker, the only change from the previous offer is a clause allowing negotiations to be reopened over the rates of pay in the third year.

However, even this clause stipulates that there has to be proof that the money is there to fund an increase and it relies on lecturers retrospectively negotiating this the following year.

The new offer would not compel any employer to return money lost through pay docked during the dispute. This is a fundamental problem as university managers are increasingly using pay docking as a way to try to break the action.

If the offer were put to members, it would be on the condition of an immediate halt of all action.

As a previous guest post by lecturer John Brissenden pointed out, lecturers have experienced "a 40 per cent decline in relative salaries since 1992", while Vice Chancellors award themselves stupendous, inflation-busting increases. Mark Fisher of K-Punk fame wrote of how this was part of a drive to push neoliberalism through the higher education sector, a grotesque experiment with devastating consequences for both students and staff. Indeed, this was the theme of many comments from lecturers who pointed to serious flaws in the campaign strategy by the unions, and particularly the need to build a more militant rank and file whose appeal resonates beyond the immediate pay dispute.

Tom Hickey of the national executive of the new UCU (a union formed from the amalgamation of Natfhe and the AUT) tells Socialist Worker:

“If this deal is put to the membership it will be quite staggering.

“Both parts of UCU, the former AUT and Natfhe unions have clear policy from their conferences and consultations not to put an offer to the membership unless it comes close to the 23 percent we are fighting for.

“UCU Left members are calling for associations and branches to hold meetings to condemn the offer and to demand that such a shoddy deal be rejected and not put out to ballot.”

One hopes that this is under way.

PS: Got to plug the UCU Left's website and the conference coming up on Saturday 24th June. UCU Left is organised around opposition to neoliberalism and the marketisation of education. The conference will be crucial in forming a longer terms response to the onslaught by the government.