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A Sunday afternoon thread š§µon the history of USS and the disputes, for those that are interested. #USSMess; How we got here.
The USS pension scheme was established in 1975. It was a āfinal salaryā defined benefit scheme, and remained so, and was stable in that, until 2011. The pension was based on (not identical to) the salary at retirement. So far so good.
Until 1997, employers paid a small surplus to fulfil pension promises that USS had inherited from the previous scheme, the FSSU. From 1997 until 2009, they paid 14% of salary (we paid 6.35%) for that FS DB scheme.
I want to emphasise the scale of the cuts to the USS pension (broadly the pension scheme for the āpre-92ā University sector) and why this is key to the current dispute with employers. This is going to take a couple of threads. This first thread is on the cuts. #USSmess #UCURising
The recent disputed cuts were implemented on 1 April 2022 as a consequence of the 31 March 2020 valuation. It is quite usual to take two years between the date that the valuation is based on, and the implementation of any changes.
These cuts affected all pensions accrued after 1 April 2022. Pensions accrued before that are unaffected. So the cuts affect younger staff proportionally more than older. The longer you have been contributing to a USS pension, the more you have 'banked' on the pre-2022 basis.
āDid you knowāEarlier this year, @USSpensions proposed a new investment strategy to employers that would ramp up their leveraged liability driven investments (LDI). Yes, that's the very strategy that's in the news for having caused major problems for pension schemes... 1/
The claim from USS in a message from @Barker4Kate to employers is that they've weathered the storm (so far). This is believable, because their cashflows are much easier to manage than in closed schemes, and they may not have got far ramping up the leverage when the crisis hit. 2/ 
But this has all the hallmarks of a bullet dodged. You wouldn't know it from outgoing (š) CEO Bill Galvin's message to employers at the end of last month, which seemed to paint their new strategy as their saviour rather than the potential pitfall. 3/
It's final day of #USSmess. In the last strike I prepared a teach out on climate change - my take in 10 slides. Here's the twitter version. I wanted listeners to reflect on their knowledge of CC and whose voices get amplified eg Gates & tech-utopians vs me as a geomorphologist.
1. I started with a Quaternary Science perspective & a global temperature compilation that shows warming temps now are more rapid than warming events at the end of the last ice age.
2. I focused on recent warming trends by looking at the heat energy going in to the oceans - it's less variable than surface temps so you see the relentless rise, especially since the 1990s.
A thread on the UCU industrial action.
(I've mostly been just retweeting things from people more eloquent than me, but here are my thoughts ...)
1/n
(I've mostly been just retweeting things from people more eloquent than me, but here are my thoughts ...)
1/n
I don't like striking. I don't like disruption. I'm an idealist: I want people to do the right thing, think of others, and do their best. Striking is a last resort. Right-wingers will rant about how striking is ideological and union members love chaos: they don't.
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2/n
I'm in the job I'm in because I enjoy teaching, I love the research that my team and I do, and I actually mostly like my job. I actually find it very hard to just... stop.
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Since universitiesā refusal to maintain staff pensions at USS universities, Iāve seen a lot of angry posts from academics saying that their good will is all used up. This is bad news for everyone: hereās why. #UCUstrikes #OneOfUsAllOfUs #USSmess #FourFights (1/9)
The intended and obvious victims are university managers, who rely on āgood willā aka āgoing above and beyondā aka āvocationā to have the workforce, from PhD student teaching a single seminar group to esteemed professor, working evenings and weekends, year in, year out. (2/9)
Iāve known professors working on books on Christmas Day. Senior staff who only get to emails at weekends. Staff on 1-year contracts spending every Saturday reading books they need to teach next week. Teaching-only staff on sick leave writing lectures for their return. (3/9)
A few facts about USS (Universities Superannuation Scheme) one of the pensions for UK HEIs - mostly Pre 92.
#ussMess
It is NOT a final salary scheme.
It used to be but it is now Career Averaged or CARE defined benefit on salary below 60k and Defined Contribution above.
Cont.
#ussMess
It is NOT a final salary scheme.
It used to be but it is now Career Averaged or CARE defined benefit on salary below 60k and Defined Contribution above.
Cont.
USS facts 2
It is NOT paid for by the taxpayer.
Unlike the TPS or other local government schemes government backed schemes*, it is paid for by members who pay almost 10% of salary and employers who defer another 21% of salary into the scheme.
(*The issue of OfS is complicated)
It is NOT paid for by the taxpayer.
Unlike the TPS or other local government schemes government backed schemes*, it is paid for by members who pay almost 10% of salary and employers who defer another 21% of salary into the scheme.
(*The issue of OfS is complicated)
USS facts 3
In addition to being cashflow positive: current payments into the scheme exceed outgoings to current pensioners, the scheme holds substantial assets. These have increased recently.
The USS estimate the deficit has dropped by about Ā£12bn to around 3bn
In addition to being cashflow positive: current payments into the scheme exceed outgoings to current pensioners, the scheme holds substantial assets. These have increased recently.
The USS estimate the deficit has dropped by about Ā£12bn to around 3bn
šŖ§ #UCUstrike Thread šŖ§
Wondering why staff across 68 universities are on strike?
@ucu #OneOfUsAllOfUs #FourFights #DigitalPicketLine #DigitalPicket
/1
Wondering why staff across 68 universities are on strike?
@ucu #OneOfUsAllOfUs #FourFights #DigitalPicketLine #DigitalPicket
/1
1. Fair Pay (including fair pensions):
Staff pay has dropped by over 17% in real-terms since 2009
ucu.org.uk/article/10342/ā¦
/3
Staff pay has dropped by over 17% in real-terms since 2009
ucu.org.uk/article/10342/ā¦
/3
Suppose you run a pension scheme, and conducted a valuation in the middle of a pandemic which showed the need for savage cuts. How do you hide the fact that since then the scheme has strengthened dramatically? Here's how. #USSmess #USSstrike 1/ (Graph courtesy of @USSpensions)
1. Stop publishing data
@USSpensions were publishing monthly data, but stopped with their Aug 21 figures. Why? They say they were working on a new system.
We forced them to publish updates this week they planned on keeping to themselves until June. 2/ uss.co.uk/about-us/valuaā¦
@USSpensions were publishing monthly data, but stopped with their Aug 21 figures. Why? They say they were working on a new system.
We forced them to publish updates this week they planned on keeping to themselves until June. 2/ uss.co.uk/about-us/valuaā¦
2. Explain away improvements with broad-brush arguments
"Assets have increased, but so have liabilities".
"Deficits are down, but future service costs are up".
"Higher asset prices mean lower expected returns".
Enough! Just show us the numbers! 3/ (Below @Barker4Kate in THE)
"Assets have increased, but so have liabilities".
"Deficits are down, but future service costs are up".
"Higher asset prices mean lower expected returns".
Enough! Just show us the numbers! 3/ (Below @Barker4Kate in THE)
Here's the @FT's @bethanstaton reporting a snap summary by @USSemployers of their constultation, saying responses indicate a "clear rejection of the @UCU proposals". It appears @UniversitiesUK's popaganda campaign to kill an attempt at a resolution succeeded. Great job! #USSmess
@FT @bethanstaton @USSEmployers @ucu @UniversitiesUK The #USS dispute is now well and truly on fire, as eyes turn towards the formal JNC meeting(s) next week. Higher Education disputes also ramp up, with more universities brought into the action over the fundmantal Four Fights dispute.
As for the behaviour of @AlistairJarvis's @UniversitiesUK, and their marshalling of opinion against the @UCU proposals, have they made employers aware of the precariousness of their position at the JNC? Smooth passage for the cuts should not be taken for granted. #USSmess
Quick reminder of how @UniversitiesUK have tried to scupper our proposals:
- 26 Jan: "The union's proposal does not appear to be a serious attempt to reach agreement"
- 28 Jan: "We are awaiting confirmation from #USS that @UCUās proposal is viable, implementable, & fully costed"
- 26 Jan: "The union's proposal does not appear to be a serious attempt to reach agreement"
- 28 Jan: "We are awaiting confirmation from #USS that @UCUās proposal is viable, implementable, & fully costed"
28 Jan (cont): "If we receive confirmation, we will formally consult employers on [UCU's proposals]"
2 Feb: "UUK is consulting employers for views on potentially modifying the proposal for concluding the 2020 #USS valuation" (but not UCU's proposals)
2 Feb: "UUK is consulting employers for views on potentially modifying the proposal for concluding the 2020 #USS valuation" (but not UCU's proposals)
10 Feb: "Now we have received a costed proposal from UCU, we have formally asked employers whether they would wish to support it"
10 Feb: @MikeOtsuka writes to UUK about "serious misrepresentations of UCUās proposals" in the launch of the consultation. mikeotsuka.medium.com/uuks-serious-mā¦
10 Feb: @MikeOtsuka writes to UUK about "serious misrepresentations of UCUās proposals" in the launch of the consultation. mikeotsuka.medium.com/uuks-serious-mā¦
We're hearing more reports of universities keen to engage with their @UCU branches on the substance of our proposals, and some responding positively despite @UniversitiesUK's best attempts to undermine our attempts at a resolution. 1/
Branches who need assistance in their discussion with management should feel free to contact the negotiation team. 2/
Unfortunately, @SheffieldUni management, who have previously boasted about our highly constructive #USS Working Group, are not engaging, symptomatic of the increasingly insular approach to decision-making by UEB most evident in the efforts to close @UniShefArch. 3/
A few facts on the #USSmess situation, which has brought strikes to HE institutions across the country. Thread:
In March 2020, the USS pension valued pension assets at Ā£66.5 bn (in the midst of the Covid-19 stock market crash) and this valuation was used to predict that there would be a Ā£17.9 bn ādeficitā, using an assumption that there would be ā0.0%ā growth of assets above CPI inflation;
by January 2022, however, the pension assets had an interim value of Ā£92bn, or a Ā£7.6bn surplus, even taking into account the ādeficitā that USS had predicted on its own disputed assumptions;
Many of followers are not UK academics, so here's a quick š§µ on why higher education staff across the UK are on strike this week (and beyond). There are two big issues at play here: (1) pensions, and (2) the four fights. #UCUstrike #OneOfUsAllOfUs /1
Pensions: there have been some major proposed cuts to our pensions. These are largely based on a valuation of the pension fund carried out in March 2020, the beginning of the pandemic, when markets were volatile. #UCUstrike #OneOfUsAllOfUs /2
In brief, claims that the pension fund is in a terrible deficit have been shown to be false. The pension managers have been either incompetent or untruthful about this and related issues. #UCUstrike #OneOfUsAllOfUs /3
A long overdue thread on the @USSpensions consultation, and what you might consider saying.
Firstly, here's consultation link. You will need your USS member number, which you can find on the top of emails from them, plus identifying information. 1/
ussconsultation2021.co.uk/members
Firstly, here's consultation link. You will need your USS member number, which you can find on the top of emails from them, plus identifying information. 1/
ussconsultation2021.co.uk/members
Once you're logged in, you can play with the modeller and confirm that @UniversitiesUK are shameless about misrepresenting the scale of the cuts. (I am projected to lose ~36% of my future guaranteed pension, which falls to ~28% including DC converted to an annuity.) 2/
Once you've figured out the impacts, then you can go to the questions. I will not tell you what to say, as the questions are fairly clear and I would expect the responses fairly obvious. But here are some things you might like to consider saying at various points. 3/
