UNIVERSITIES including Edge Hill, Liverpool and Hope will be hit by eight days of strikes by staff.
Members of the University and College Union from 60 institutions across the country will walk out in a dispute over working conditions and rising pension costs.
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In the region, the University of Liverpool, the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, Liverpool Hope University and Edge Hill University will be hit with eight days of strike action from Monday, November 25 through to Wednesday, December 4.
Last week UCU members backed strike action in ballots over both pensions, and pay and working conditions. The results mean that UCU members at 60 UK universities can take strike action later this month.
The union said universities had to respond positively and quickly if they wanted to avoid disruption before Christmas. The union says disputes centre on "changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme" and universities’ "failure to make improvements on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads".
As well as eight strike days, union members will begin “action short of a strike” when they return to work. This involves things such as working strictly to contract, not covering for absent colleagues and refusing to reschedule lectures lost to strike action.
At the University of Liverpool, members were polled over striking in defence of USS pensions and in the dispute about pay and conditions. Nearly three-quarters of members (74 per cent) polled backed strikes over pay and conditions and 82 per cent backed strikes over pensions.
UCU members at the other three institutions in the region are in a different pension scheme and were only balloted for strikes over pay and conditions. At Liverpool Hope University, 91 per cent of members polled backed strikes over pay and conditions.
At Edge Hill University 75 per cent of members polled backed strikes and at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, 71% of those who voted, voted for strikes.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: "Strike action is a last resort, but staff have made it quite clear that enough is enough and universities can be in no doubt about the strength of feeling.
"The first wave of strikes will hit institutions later this month unless universities start talking to us seriously about how they are going to deal with rising pension costs and declining pay and conditions."
All UK universities affected by strike action from Monday, November 25:
1. Aston University
2. Bangor University
3. Cardiff University
4. University of Durham
5. Heriot-Watt University
6. Loughborough University
7. Newcastle University
8. The Open University
9. The University of Aberdeen
10. The University of Bath
11. The University of Dundee
12. The University of Leeds
13. The University of Manchester
14. The University of Sheffield
15. University of Nottingham
16. The University of Stirling
17. University College London
18. The University of Birmingham
19. The University of Bradford
20. The University of Bristol
21. The University of Cambridge
22. The University of Edinburgh
23. The University of Exeter
24. The University of Essex
25. The University of Glasgow
26. The University of Lancaster
27. The University of Leicester
28. City University
29. Goldsmiths College
30. Queen Mary University of London
31. Royal Holloway
32. The University of Reading
33. The University of Southampton
34. The University of St Andrews
35. Courtauld Institute of Art
36. The University of Strathclyde
37. The University of Wales
38. The University of Warwick
39. The University of York
40. The University of Liverpool
41. The University of Sussex
42. The University of Ulster
43. Queen’s University Belfast
44. Bishop Grosseteste University
45. Bournemouth University
46. Edge Hill University
47. Glasgow Caledonian University
48. Glasgow School of Art
49. Liverpool Hope University
50. Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts
51. Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
52. St Mary’s University College, Belfast
53. Roehampton University
54. Sheffield Hallam University
55. The University of Brighton
56. The University of Kent
57. The University of Oxford
58. Scottish Association of Marine Science
59. The University of East Anglia
60. Institute for Development Studies
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