In this open letter, university workers from across the country argue that we cannot accept the deal as it stands, and must fight for a No vote

We are extremely concerned by the decision by the majority of UCU’s Higher Education Committee to ballot UCU members on a flawed and ambiguous proposal which has come directly from UUK, which a majority of UCU branches meeting on 26 and 27 March wanted to “revise and resubmit”, and many took a clear position of #NoDetriment.

We believe that accepting the proposal as it stands will demobilise our highly-successful campaign of strike action at a point when we are making serious gains, and hand the initiative back to the employers. This is happening when the hundreds of redundancies announced at Liverpool University and the Open University are a stark warning of what is at stake. We need to maintain maximum momentum – to defend Defined Benefit pensions, pay and jobs.

We therefore urge UCU members to vote No and to organise to reject the UUK proposal in the ballot, and to call on their branches to back an emergency Higher Education Sector Conference.

Note: HE Sector Conferences can be arranged to debate particular issues and shape union policy. They can hold the HEC to account. In this instance, a special meeting of branch delegates to democratically debate strategy around the USS dispute should be called.

There is a ‘No vote’ activist meeting happening at SOAS University on Wednesday 4th April from 1pm till 3pm. Please share the leaflet around.

Signatories include:
Anne Alexander (University of Cambridge)
Sean Wallis (UCL)
Josh Hollands (UCL)
Carlo Morelli (Dundee)
João Florêncio (University of Exeter)
Jana Bacevic (University of Cambridge)
Clement Mouhot (University of Cambridge)
Josh Miller (University of Cambridge)
James Eastwood (Queen Mary University of London)
Felicity Callard (Birkbeck)
Anindya Raychaudhuri (University of St Andrews)
Leon Rocha (University of Liverpool)
Gavin Daker-White (University of Manchester)
Laleh Khalili (SOAS)
Elio Di Muccio (University of Birmingham)
Des Freedman (Goldsmiths)
Grietje Baars (City, University of London)
Xanthe Whittaker (University of Leeds)
Johnny  Darlington (SOAS)
Feyzi Ismail (SOAS)
Mario Novelli (University of Sussex)
Shereen Benjamin (Edinburgh)
Malcolm Povey (University of Leeds)
Des McDermott (Ruskin College)
Peter Hall (University of Bath)

Full list 

Share this statement on social media: #RejectUUKdeal show your support here

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