Hampshire UNISON’s Rory Elliott gave a presentation to this year’s UNISON Higher Education seminar as the national dispute over pay gathered momentum.

The presentation focused on how branches can boost participation in strike ballots and on the lessons learnt from the campaign so far.

The strike ballot at the University of Winchester where Rory represents UNISON members, together with Emma Howden & Tom Dowthwaite, had the highest turnout out of any university in the country. Members at the University took two days of action in September, with a further two days scheduled for 24th & 25th November.

UCU members will be joining us on the picket lines in November and around 50 UNISON branches who narrowly missed the turnout threshold earlier in the year will be re-balloting.

This escalation in our campaign shows that university staff are determined win fair deal, and we understand that the UCEA are expected to come back with a new pay offer.