Members of UNISON on the picket line holding placards

Support UNISON staff on strike

Thursday 24th and Friday 25th November 2022UNISON members directly employed by King's College London UNISON branch are on strike in for two days in November.These days of action coincide with the first two days of nationwide UCU action, including at KCL.KCL employed UNISON members voted to take this action over:
• the 2022-23 pay offer of 3% for a majority of staff, which does not meet the UNISON claim of 14.3% to account for inflation (currently 12.3% as the latest RPI) plus 2%.
• meaningful action on career development, workloads, pay gaps and stress in the workplace.See below for way colleagues and students can support us.

Members of UNISON on the picket line holding placards

Join UNISON

If you haven't already, join UNISON today! All members are entitled to strike pay.UNISON is a recognised Trade Union at King's. We are workers across lots of different areas of Professional Services staff at King's, including: Administration, Catering, Cleaning, Estates, Finance, HR, King's Sport, Libraries, Residences, Student casual staff, Student Services, Security and many more who come together to improve pay & working conditions.We represent staff employed by Bouygues and KCLSU. You can also join the union if you are employed by an agency such as King's Talent Bank, Prospectus, Signature or CIS.UNISON is also active in lots of other universities across the UK and UNISON is one of the UK's biggest trade unions.We work closely with the other campus unions & stand in full solidarity with UCU in their ongoing industrial action. Follow @kcl_ucu and see https://www.kcl.ac.uk/unions/ucu.Please note that the current industrial action dispute covers staff employed by King's College London, but we are running a number of other campaigns so please join us regardless of your employer!

Email Shitij Kapur

Tell the Principal of King's College London that you support the strike! Click on the button to go to an email that Liberate KCL have written and send it to King's senior management.

Why are we on strike?

KCL members:
For Fair Pay
This strike is to demand a meaningful increase to our basic pay rate .With RPI inflation at 12.3% , the employers have increased pay by only 3% for the majority of staff. With increases in everything from bills, housing, food, travel and childcare - this is a pay cut.With the cost of fuel, food and energy jumping up, we can’t afford less than an inflation-busting pay rise of at least RPI+2% and an end to poverty pay in higher education. That’s exactly what UNISON has been calling for throughout negotiations.Vice Chancellors are full of praise for the staff that supported students to keep learning throughout the pandemic and kept universities clean and safe. But when it comes to setting budgets, the hard work of essential staff quickly counts for little and fair pay simply doesn’t make the priority list.After 12 years of below inflation pay rises followed by a pay freeze in 2020, our pay has fallen, in real terms, by 20%. This means year on year the cost of living increases and our pay doesn't stretch as far.The small increase we have received this year doesn't make a dent with rising inflation, soaring energy costs and increased national insurance contributions.King's brought in £1 billion of income last year and ended the year with a large operating surplus so has the money to cover our demands.King's Financial Statement 2021Closing Pay Gaps
Pay gaps indicate structural inequality, where more women, people of colour and disabled people are in lower-paid roles than men, white, and non-disabled people. We want to see pay injustice ended.The figures below are the difference in mean hourly pay at King's in 2021, e.g. the mean hourly pay for men at King's was 14.8% more than the mean hourly pay for women.Ethnicity pay gap: 19.1%
Gender pay gap: 14.8%
Disability pay gap: 9%Pay equality at King's reportsReducing Stress and Workloads
Staff in different jobs across the university are tired and stressed, with morale and goodwill at an all time low.Improving Career Development
Staff want opportunities to stay, develop and progress at King's, but instead we have huge staff turnover, which also creates further pressure on those who stay.For more information see the KCL UNISON Pay Campaign homepage.

Join us on the picket

Thursday 24 November and Friday 25 November

We welcome support from staff and students, please come by and say hi!All staff have the right to strike. Even if you aren't a UNISON member you can choose to support your colleagues by refusing to cross the picket line.

Members of UNISON on the picket line holding placards

Picket Locations

Resources

Click on the images below to be taken to the different resources.
Leaflets: share the PDF, or print out to give to colleagues and display in staff areas.
QR code: links directly to this webpage. You can right-click or press and hold to download it.
Profile pictures: four different images for you to use for your profile pictures in Outlook, Teams and social media
Out of Office: set this as your Out of Office reply before the strike days