Strike for USS Day 1 report - and a response to the UUK leaflet

A rush of new members have joined over the last few days. Some people picketing today joined the union yesterday.

There are pickets at more buildings and entrances than ever before.

Colleagues can still join the union and join the strike. UCL has said that no member of staff who strikes will suffer any detriment except loss of pay at 1/365 for every day (or pro rata per hour) on strike.

At a well attended strike meeting today we decided that we will extend picketing to 12:15. Colleagues can join our picketing from 07:30 at the Quad entrance on Gower Street.

After the strike meeting staff from the Bartlett facilitated a teach-out. We are updating our Facebook page with details of future teach-outs.

Yesterday we received reports that leaflets that at first glance appear to be from USS (actually published by Universities UK) are being circulated by Management.

We have dealt with the arguments in this document at length previously: the deficit is not "real" but an artefact of accounting, exaggerated by assuming a need to "de-risk" the scheme by a fire-sale of assets (which increases the chance of default); Defined Contribution is not a pension in a reliable sense but a long-term stocks-and-shares investment portfolio; staff will be worse off to the tune of 20-40% etc.

The leaflet does not mention the latest scandal to engulf Universities UK. Thanks to the perseverance of FT journalist Josephine Cumbo, UUK's much-boasted "42% of employers" adopting a hard-line position has been exposed. This figure includes counting Oxbridge colleges as if they were independent employers (1/3 of respondents) - even though according to UUK's own documents they are ineligible to join in their own right! So "42%" turns out to be closer to 30%, and fewer than 50% of the 350 employers responded to the UUK consultation.

If UUK can't count their own membership accurately, why should we trust them with our pensions?

(And if this were a ballot conducted under the anti-union laws, the result would be invalidated due to low turn-out and not commanding a majority vote.)

Now is the time for the Provost and UCL's Senior Management Team to see sense. Stop defending the indefensible and follow VCs from Warwick to Essex. Stop trying to wreck our pensions on false premises.