The UCU trade union, representing academic and related staff, is campaigning for fairer pay in UK universities:

1. A 5% pay increase, to begin making up for the 14.5% cut in real terms since 2009
2. Close the sexist gender pay gap by 2020
3. Roll back the casualisation of work in our universities, and make sure that casual staff – like hourly-paid teaching assistants – get paid equally and in full for every hour they work

We support our university staff – they deserve better, especially when Vice-Chancellors have enjoyed an average 3% pay rise! And we know that low pay, overstretched and stressed staff, sexism and casualization affect students too and damage education.

Staff are taking industrial action, including strikes, because university managers are refusing their demands. But we know that short-term disruption to education as a result of industrial action is worth it to prevent the long-term damage threatened and to push back against the injustices in our universities. We call on the university managers who make up the Universities & Colleges Employers’ Association to agree to the UCU’s demands, and then the action can be called off.

More info and more on what you can do to help the campaign: Support education workers on strike for #FairPayInHE

This petition has been organised by the National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts, a network of students and workers campaigning for free, democratic education accessible to everyone and funded by taxing the rich. Find out more at anticuts.com.