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As colleagues will be aware, tomorrow sees the launch of two new ballots for industrial action - over USS, and over the national claim on pay, casualisation, workload and inequality. 

Ballot papers will come to your registered postal address over the next week. Please look out for a white ballot envelope in the post with ‘CES’ on the cover, which will contain two ballot papers. We would urge colleagues to vote in both ballots (you do not need to be a member of USS to vote in that ballot, because you could be in the scheme in the future).

This is a postal ballot, so you need to complete it and post it back. If you are unsure which way to vote, please discuss it with your colleagues.

Tomorrow (Tues 6 Sept) Union reps and colleagues are gathering in the UCL Quad from 1-2pm to mark the occasion, and distribute stickers, posters and other material. If you are in College, please join us, we’d like to get some good photos of members supporting the ‘Yes!’ vote.

Why vote Yes in this ballot?

• The USS dispute would be settled if the employers chose to side with UCU and agree to act on the improved position of USS to reverse the pension cuts imposed on 1 April. This would likely not cost them anything, but it does mean abandoning their attempt to push members into the DC scheme. 
• On pay, we are calling for an increase of RPI+2% or 12%, whichever is higher. With living costs rocketing out of control, we are facing a real-terms pay cut of more than 10% in one year. Our dispute is with the university employers, but of course we will unite with workers across both public and private sectors fighting back over pay.
• We can win! As our , 31 UCU branches have won significant concessions from employers using assessment boycotts backed-up by strike action.

Finally - some good news - this weekend the UKRI agreed to increase funded PhD stipends by 10%, far more than the 3% currently offered to staff. We will be calling on UCL to at least match this level of support for other PhD students.

UCL UCU Executive Cttee

@ucl_ucu