Demand Your Money Back
The current UCU ballot is not just another ballot. This is a defining ballot. A defining moment in industrial relations. A defining moment in Higher Education.
One specific issue of this ballot is to demand the return of the pension contributions literally taken away from us earlier this year. Not potentially taken away, or subject to threat. The money has been taken. Whatever pension fund you had accrued, a large portion of it is no longer there. Your account has been raided.
This is itself is surely reason to be angry. But why must we now shout Enough is Enough? We must take this defining stand now because we now have independent proof that the pension pot valuation was wrong (as UCU consistently argued) and indeed that terrible deficit that Vice Chancellors told us they simply couldn’t do anything about – it never existed!
So if the deficit used to justify the raid on our pensions never existed, where has your money gone? To be clear, it is NOT in your pension pot. It was taken out without your consent. But it hasn’t disappeared? It must have gone somewhere? So where? And why?
The point is, your money still exists – it just has someone else’s name on it. So if the reason for taking the money no longer exists, but the money still does exist, is it really unreasonable to ask to have it back?
This isn’t even a demand, it is just a very sensible request.
So now to the broader issue about higher education: why are our Vice Chancellors not supporting this perfectly reasonable and sensible request?
They promised us they understood the figures. They promised us the pension raid was necessary and unavoidable. Only a tiny number dissented from the herd (and sadly the Lancaster VC was not one of them) when the evidence became overwhelming that the pension raid needn’t, and shouldn’t go ahead – but they let it happen.
Well, they were wrong. Turns out you don’t need to be in senior management to understand a spread sheet or some basic good accounting.
So the broader issue now is, will our Vice Chancellors behave with honour? Will they accept a mistake was made and now put their power behind supporting their staff asking for the rightful return of their own money. YOUR money.
This is the money that will support you through a retirement in an economic system likely to be scarred by the current inflationary crisis. And a society where we cannot assume free health or social care. If you cannot get a GP appointment today – what do you think life will be like for the elderly in 10, 20 or 30 years?
Your pension is not a luxury or a gift. It is an earned asset. It belongs to you. You have a right to have the portion that was taken returned to your account.
You have a right to a Vice Chancellor who will support you in asking for the return of your pension.
Higher education relies on trust. Management must be able to trust staff and staff management. Trust also involves forgiveness – sometimes people get things wrong. Our VC got the pension issue wrong and/or was wrong to listen to his peers who told him to stand firm against staff and the unions.
Our Vice Chancellor now has a chance to put this right – as do all the other VCs in the sector. We can forgive the mistake. We cannot forgive standing by it once irrefutable evidence has emerged to prove it was mistaken.
Vote YES now. Make a stand for the return of the pension you earned. Few issues in employment relations are this clear. So if you do not fight now, please think of the future you inevitably create for yourself, your family, your colleagues and your students.
VOTE YES – VOTE NOW.
Encourage your colleagues to VOTE YES NOW.
And colleagues not in the union? Join NOW – you also have a right to the pension you earned.
Finally, a moment to think of others in desperate need.
At Lancaster UCU we are well aware of the struggles many of us and many in our community already face and how much worse it will get this winter. Before we embark on our fourth year of strikes, we want to show our solidarity beyond campus and recognise how much we all have to gain if we stand together in solidarity. We aim for our fight to be not only about a better higher education system for all, but about a fairer UK in which we all are able to afford a warm home and a full fridge.
Lancaster UCU 