Northern Ireland universities to face further strike action

CDB_77 5/02/2020

Northern Ireland universities to face further strike action

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/1013D/production/_100135856_unistrike.jpg

Queen’s University and Ulster University face further strike action from many lecturers and support staff.
University and College Union (UCU) members at both universities previously walked out for eight days in November and December 2019.
The union has now said its members will strike for a further 14 days from Thursday, 20 February.
The action is due to ongoing disputes over pay, workloads and pensions.
As well as Queen’s and Ulster, more than 70 universities across the UK are likely to be affected.
The UCU has 583 members at Ulster University (UU) and 933 members at Queen’s University (QUB).
Turnout in the strike ballot at both Northern Ireland universities was lower than the UK-wide turnout of 53% in the pensions ballot and 49% in the pay and conditions ballot.
Not all UCU members at UU and QUB went on strike in late 2019 but a significant number did, causing some classes and lectures to be cancelled.
The UCU has said its members will take strike action on:
Thursday 20 and Friday 21 February;
from Monday 24 February to Wednesday 26 February;
and from Monday 2 March to Thursday 5 March.
They will then walk out for the entire week beginning Monday, 9 March.
The disputes centre on changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), with the union also claiming there has been a failure to improve pay, equality, rates of casual employment and workloads.
The UCU general secretary Jo Grady also warned that it will carry out a further ballot if the dispute is not resolved to allow its members to take further strike action throughout 2020.
“If universities want to avoid further disruption they need to deal with rising pension costs, and address the problems over pay and conditions,” she said.
’We have been clear from the outset that we would take serious and sustained industrial action if that was what was needed."
Academics at QUB and UU also took part in a previous strike over pension changes in 2018.

▻https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-51364871
#Irlande_du_Nord #université #grève #universités #résistance

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CDB_77 5/02/2020

Teachers’ strike: ‘We have to work part-time jobs to get by’

Thousands of teachers are set to strike on Tuesday to protest over two-tier payscales
Tara Ní Mhóráin (29), a secondary school teacher, works a part-time job in order to make ends meet. So, too, do the two other teachers she shares a house with in Co Louth.
All are on lower pay scales which were introduced in 2011 to cut public spending.
“It’s something which is completely foreign for older teachers,” Ní Mhóráin says. “I do some part-time lecturing work in Dublin City University. My other teaching friends work in shops, babysitting or administration during the evenings or weekends. And we all work during the summer. We have to,” she says.
By her calculation, she has lost out on about €37,500 as a result of being on a lower pay scale since she started teaching in 2014. For those hired closer to 2011, she says, the figure is about €50,000.
“At my school, most teachers are on the lower scale. You see some older colleagues who might be able to buy a new car or go somewhere nice on holidays . . . that feels so out of reach for many of us, even though we’re in the classroom next door doing the same job. It’s a bitter pill to swallow,” she says.
Even though she’s classified as a “new entrant teacher”, many have been teaching close to a decade now.
“We have waited long enough for it to end . . . many of us have had to put life decisions off, such as having children, getting married. Ending two-tier pay has been a waiting game and it’s driving people from teaching,” she says.
Ní Mhóráin says she loves her job and does not want to be on strike on Tuesday. But, she says, it is vitally important that the next government ends pay inequality swiftly. Otherwise, teachers may consider leaving the profession.
“It makes you wonder do you want to teach for the rest of your life. I used to work as a translator with the European Commission. It wasn’t work I enjoyed as much, but it has more financial benefits.”
While the political parties have all pledged to end pay inequality, Ní Mhóráin says many of the promises are “wishy washy”.
“We want an end date. We want to know when can we get on with the rest of our lives,” she says.

▻https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/teachers-strike-we-have-to-work-part-time-jobs-to-get-by-1.4159458

#Irlande

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