Process and timelines

The ballot for strike action opens on the 21st January and is open until 4th March 2025.

Whilst consultations are by an email vote, strike ballots have to be conducted by postal ballot.

Your ballot should be arriving to your home address.
A freepost envelope is provided for you to post back your vote.

For anyone who has not received their ballot by 30^th January a ballot hotline opens that day to request a replacement ballot paper. We will be in touch with details about this after the 30th January.

New members who join before 13^th February may still vote in the strike ballot, so please do encourage colleagues not already a member to join Unison and take part.

If we successfully ballot to strike, the strike mandate for potential strike days will be between early April and early September 2025.

The ballot is disaggregated, which means each branch votes to decide whether to go on strike separately rather than as a whole higher education service group (HESG).
In order to have a strike mandate we need:
1. over 50% of those who vote need to vote ‘Yes’ to strike
And 2. voter turnout to be at least 50% of members within our own branch for the result to count.

Context and details of the national pay offer

The pay offer is national. Over the past decade, university bosses have imposed repeated pay freezes and real-terms pay cuts. As a result, HE workers have had up to 30% of the value of their pay taken away over the past ten years.

Our Claim

• To begin to reverse this enormous pay cut, HE workers demanded a rise in 2024/5 of either RPI + 2% or £2,500, whichever is greater.
• RPI average in 2024 was 3.6%, so our pay claim was for ~5.6% or £2,500, whichever is greater. 

Employers’ ‘Offer’

• Between 2.5% to 5.7% depending on what spine point staff are on.
• Spine point 5-22 = £1,200 (5.7-4.1%).
• Spine point 23-37 = £1,150 (3.8-2.52%).
• Spine point 38+ = 2.5%.
• An imposed delay in implementing the offer, with part in Aug 2024, part in March 2025.
• For a full breakdown of the spine points please see: 2024-New-JNCHES-Employers-Offer-Model-84.pdf

Upshot

The offer is poor for everyone, particularly when you consider that RPI inflation in 2023 averaged 9.8%. For some it barely touches a decade of pay cuts, for most it continues a decade of pay cuts and rising costs of living. It falls well short of our negotiators very reasonable pay claim.

Recommendation – vote yes for strike action

As many of you will recall from the consultation about the pay offer in the autumn of 2024, our branch voted 15% to accept the employers offer and 85% to reject. This was reflected similarly nationally amongst other branches, with 20.4% voting to accept and 79.6% voting to reject.

Unison nationally is recommending you vote YES for strike action.
Our branch executive also voted as to what recommendation to give branch members. We voted unanimously to recommend members to vote YES for strike action.  

You have power in your vote – please do exercise your democratic rights by voting by posting back your ballot.

It is really important that as many members as possible vote in the ballot so we can give a clear message to the University. 64 other higher education branches are also balloting, so we are hopeful as many branches as possible can meet the turnout and vote threshold so we all strengthen our hands nationally by striking together.

If the branch does vote in favour of strike action, striking members will receive at least £50 per day of strike action from UNISON.

Publicising the vote

Leaflets, posters and stickers

We have received a large number of posters, leaflets and stickers about the pay ballot, as displayed at the Unison shop.

If you would like some of these for your office and workplace please do get in touch at unison-office@bristol.ac.uk and we can have some delivered to your workplace.

We can also arrange for members of the branch executive to assist you in desk drops for leaflets if you have to cover many desks in your building. The leaflets and posters both helps raise awareness of the pay campaign to non-members and helps reminds people to vote.

Phonebanking

If you would like to help mobilise members to vote or take part in the phonebanking of members please contact unison-office@bristol.ac.uk. Our phonebanking system is straight forward to call up other members and can be a very effective way in mobilising the vote.

It is a good opportunity to speak to fellow members across the branch. We will start phonebanking members from 30^th January onwards.

Photo at the postbox

If you are comfortable doing so, please do have a photo taken or selfie of you with ballot envelope at your postbox. We can then share on social media that members are voting. Please send any photos to unison-office@bristol.ac.uk or post in our branch whatsapp conversation.

Other communications

As part of the communications of the campaign, you should also receive emails nationally from the Unison Education mail and texts from Unison, so look out for these.

FAQ

• What is a strike/industrial action ballot?
• Why are UNISON members being balloted on strike action?
• What are we asking for?
• When will the next strike ballot and strike action occur?
• How do I vote for strike action?
• What happens during a strike?
• Will striking staff lose money on days they strike?
• Why should we strike?
• Is striking effective?

What is a strike/industrial action ballot?

When your trade union and your employer disagree on an issue (usually pay), then your union can announce a formal dispute and ask their members to vote on whether to strike. 

There are laws governing what must happen for a strike to be able to take place. Our ballot is disaggregated, meaning that in order to have a strike mandate, 50% of UoB Unison members must take part in the vote, and a majority of those who vote must vote in favour of strike action. Once a strike mandate has been achieved, the branch may strike any dates within that 6 month strike window. If the branch is still in dispute, they will need to go through another strike ballot. 

Why are UNISON members being balloted on strike action?

Pay rises in higher education have been below inflation for the last 13 years, effectively amounting to a year on year pay cut.

Most recently, despite the Higher Education Service Group Executive (HESGE) not agreeing to the pay offer made by Universities and Colleges Employers (UCEA), universities (including UoB) will still impose it. UoB have framed this as a positive uplift, where in reality, in the context of RPI inflation being at 13.8% in 2022, and 11.6% in 2023, and from previous UCEA imposing pay uplifts of 3% in 22/23 and between 5%-8% in 23/24, this is nothing like a true ‘pay increase’. We have suffered 15 years of real terms pay cuts – UNISON has a tool to calculate how much earnings you have lost per year.

What are we asking for?

Our main demand is an increase on all pay points of at least RPI + 2% or a flat rate of at least £2,500
(whichever is greater) and a commitment to restore lost pay.

You can read UNISON’s Higher Education Service Group Executive (HESGE) list of full demands here.

When will the next strike ballot and strike action occur?

The ballot for national strike action will open on 21 January 2025 and last until 4^th March 2025.

The ballot is disaggregated, meaning that in order to have a strike mandate, we need voter turnout to be at least 50% of members within our own branch, and a majority of those who vote must vote in favour of strike action.

If we successfully ballot to strike, the strike mandate will then run between 3 April – 8 September 2025.

How do I vote for strike action?

Your ballot will be physically sent to you in the mail, so it is really important to have an up-to-date address on your UNISON records (you can update them here: My UNISON | UNISON National). You will send back your ballot paper via the freepost envelope provided. 

What happens during a strike?

If you go on strike, you can simply stay at home. However, we encourage you to attend a range of organised pickets outside various locations around the University, where you can meet with colleagues who are also on strike and promote our cause to the general public and other staff and students. You are free to do whatever you are comfortable with, and there is no pressure to take part in a picket if you don’t want to. 

Will striking staff lose money on days they strike?

You do not receive your usual pay when on strike, however, the current Unison National Executive Committee (NEC) provides members £50/day for striking. You can collect this payment from our branch after the strike.

Why should we strike?

Taking strike action when our employer fails to offer acceptable terms is really the only way that we can collectively demonstrate the essential role we play in the running of the University. By withdrawing our labour, we show management that the University cannot function without us, and that we deserve fair pay that rises in relation to the cost of living. 

Is striking effective?

YES! Our last round of strike action in summer 2023 is to thank for the new pay scale with extra spine points, and the extra 2 days holiday for all staff. Although this is less than we were asking for, we wouldn’t have achieved this without striking. The strike also secured us regular meetings with university SMT to discuss pay. Taking action over an open day was especially effective – university buildings like the library were completely closed! ✊📢