Protesters marched through Liverpool this afternoon in a stand against what they describe as "unjust" pensions cuts.
The protest gathered at University Square on Brownlow Hill at midday before marching with placards down to Derby Square, culminating outside the Liver Building, headquarters of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the country's largest private pension scheme. The action, organised by the University of Liverpool branch of the University and College Union, is part of a long-running, national dispute over proposed cuts to university and college staff's USS pensions.
Changes to the pension scheme, proposed by the university employer body Universities UK (UUK), could see a "typical lecturer" lose more than a third of their guaranteed retirement income, according to the UCU. A UUK spokesperson described the proposed pension changes as "the only viable plans under current regulations", but the union calls them as "unjust" and "unnecessary".
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The UCU's general secretary Jo Grady said: "University staff have known all along that these pension cuts are unjust, unnecessary and premised on a deeply flawed valuation conducted in the middle of the pandemic. Today they have been vindicated.
"The strong performance of the pension scheme has seen its assets reach unprecedented levels with growth now outstripping liabilities. Vice-chancellors must now seize the moment, revoke these cuts and end the industrial strife which has so far seen universities hit by up to 18 days of strike action. A failure to do so will put rocket boosters onto our campaign to get the vote during the final week of industrial ballots.
"By accepting the latest financial report from the trustee, accepting UCU's compromise proposals and agreeing to a new valuation, employers can not only protect the benefits of staff but ensure they don't waste money closing a deficit that no longer exists.
"If vice-chancellors instead choose to rely on a flawed valuation, conducted in March 2020 whilst markets crashed due to covid, and use it to slash employee benefits then questions must be asked about why they are ideologically committed to harming their staff, even when doing so harms the university's own finances."
Among the speakers at the protest in Liverpool on Friday, April 1, were Jane Loftus, national president of the Communication Workers Union, Nina Doran, a teacher recently sacked by City of Liverpool College after 30 years, and final year sociology and social policy student Kathryn Manley, who was elected this week as a Liverpool Guild of Students vice-president.
The 21-year-old University of Liverpool student told the ECHO: "As a student it is vital that we support staff. Staff are the ones who teach us, support us and guide us through our university experience. Their teaching conditions are our learning conditions. They are fighting for the future of higher education and to get the pensions and pay they deserve."
