cloud scape

WFH. The ballots for industrial action over our pension cuts and the four fights (pay - we have had below inflation salary increases for at least the last 10 year; workload - we are expected to do ever more; equality - close the various pay gaps; casualisation - too many people are employed on temporary contracts for far too long) have closed today. The ballots were open for only two weeks and each institution has to get a participation of at least 50% of members for the vote to count. The results came back tonight - Edinburgh voted 81.2% in favour of taking industrial action with a turnout of 59%. This is huge. We did have some help from the vice principal pointing out that the university saving a lot of money due to a smaller pension bill was good news. You might remember that we have been here before. The issues are still exactly the same as before and what the universities are proposing is still not ok. I hope the result shows enough strength for the employers to reconsider their proposals and avoid industrial action.