A lot has happened since members voted to accept the creation of a Joint Expert Panel (JEP) that would examine the valuation of our pension scheme. Members may well have been confused by the letter from USS in early September 2018 that pre-empted the findings of the JEP. Indeed, the language of this letter was so opaque that some members have suggested it should be forwarded to the financial regulator for investigation! Nevertheless, the JEP has now published its first report and it is widely considered a full vindication of our industrial action. Even the Financial Times has claimed that the JEP report challenges the march towards defined contribution pension schemes that had ‘for the past decade appeared unstoppable’!
Over the next month, the Branch committee will be hosting resources (or links to resources) on this website. We would encourage all members to highlight resources that they have found useful and would welcome any comments or updates. These should be sent to ucu.office@uea.ac.uk or tweeted to @UEA_UCU.
UCU Sheffield Youtube Channel
UCU Sheffield Branch President Sam Marsh, alongside a number of well-informed comrades within the branch, have produced a series of lectures on USS that explain the dispute and what has happened since our industrial action last year.
You may be particular interested in Sam Marsh’s latest summary – “USS: Enough Already!”
USS Briefs
Established during the previous industrial action on USS, this website contains a series of articles that have been written by members from a variety of different institutions and academic backgrounds. They are easy to understand, but provide robust and academically sound arguments on a range of topics to do with the current disputes within HE. We particularly recommend the following articles:
“Why it’s essential we take a stand now over USS”
UCU National Disputes Committee
The National Disputes Committee (NDC) has a great deal of expertise and insight into the current dispute. Many of the members also hold other titles within UCU and have access to a great deal of information about how UCU, USS trustess, and UUK are operating. Members may be particularly interested in the summation of the dispute one year on.
UCU USS News
The Union has issued a number of informative messages about the dispute, but these can often get lost in email inboxes. You can access many of these messages on the UCU website via the USS News feature.