University strikes continue across the East of England
Uni staff are among the latest to walk out as a number of industrial disputes continue
Last updated 13th Feb 2023
It's the second day of strike action this week for university staff in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Staff at the UEA, NUA and the University of Suffolk are taking action after rejecting what they're calling a 'low ball pay offer' from their employers.
Staff are picketing at 150 universities across the UK - while students up and down the country are having classes cancelled.
There are 15 more days of walkouts planned for February and March.
The UCU expects 2.5 million students to be affected by its strike action over the next two months but the National Union of Students (NUS) has backed staff taking part in walkouts.
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), representing 144 employers, said it has made a "full and final pay offer" of between 5% and 8%.
This offer has been described as the highest uplift in nearly 20 years.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady has described the 5% pay offer for many university staff as a "huge real-terms pay cut" that would leave members "worse off".
She said: "We are striking for 48 hours this week and will take escalating action until we get a fair deal.
"University bosses hold over £40bn in reserves, but they would rather hoard that money than use just a fraction of it to settle our dispute and bring an end to the unprecedented strike action that is hitting universities.
"Whilst they earn up to £714k a year, tens of thousands of our members are on insecure contracts, some as short as six weeks, and have seen their pay held down for over a decade.
"We have repeatedly asked bosses to explain why they refuse to deal with the issues that blight higher education. Yet they refuse to publicly justify their position. We know the bosses are in hiding because their position is indefensible."
NUS vice-president for higher education Chloe Field said: "The vice-chancellors in charge of our universities would rather see students face disruption on a scale we have never seen before than pay staff what they are worth.
"Every day of teaching we lose is completely the fault of vice-chancellors who refuse to pay their staff properly."