BREAKING: UCU Joins the ‘Budget Day Strike’ on March 15

On 28 February, the University and College Union (UCU) declared March 15 an additional strike day as talks around pay continue.

This is a supplementary date preceding the previously announced strike action on March 16, 17, 20, 21, and 22. March 15 is a widespread day of strike action affecting a multitude of public services across the UK, termed in the media as ‘Budget Day’.

Today, our union has called a further day of strike action in universities on 15 March

This comes after employers decided to impose the first element of their pay offer

As talks continue, we must get ready to deliver big strike action and vote YES in the reballot#ucuRISING pic.twitter.com/PCZ8LO1XzG

— UCU (@ucu) February 28, 2023

Dr. Jo Grady, General Secretary of the UCU, announced the extra day of strike action as a response to a new pay dispute. UCU negotiations hosted with employers had agreed against a pay offer, however employers had begun implementing the initial step of the process without the agreement of the UCU.

UCU is currently undergoing a reballoting process, to extend the mandate for industrial action into the coming months. Dr. Jo Grady cites this action as being “in the right balance” due to the initial pause announced on February 17 in response to significant improvements in work conditions.

“The reason we’ve added this additional date is to focus the employers mind as talks come to a conclusion… they need to have on them the maximum amount of pressure. We believe adding this additional day, which replaces one of the five that was moved aside for the pause, is in the right balance.” – Dr. Jo Grady 

Termed the ‘Budget Day Strike’, the UCU will be joining regional sectors of Amazon and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Civil Servants in Whitehall, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the National Health Service (NHS), Ofsted, Transport for London – London Underground, and secondary school teachers in the action planned for March 15.

March 15 marks the beginning of 6 back-to-back affected working days in March.

Read Roar’s coverage of the 2023 UCU strikes here.

Stay up to date with King’s College London’s UCU branch here.