UNISON members at Birmingham University have won the living wage after taking two days of well-supported strike action.
In a complex agreement, the university has agreed to pay the living wage for the next two years and review it after that, while its financial year means that it will pay the wage from August, but then only upgrade it well after the succeeding November’s rise announcement.
Regional organiser Dawn Sant explains that the union is now working to get the August date changed so that staff don’t slip behind the living wage rate just three months later.
The union also hopes that,now the employers have moved, they will adopt the wage formally in the future, but in the meantime, this will make a real difference to about 350 low-paid workers.
The city council implemented the living wage a while ago and has made it clear that it wants to make the whole of Birmingham a living wage city.
It has therefore been prepared to publicly back UNISON, along with several Birmingham Labour MPs.
Ms Sant says that “their support has helped UNISON gain employers in Birmingham to pay a living wage. We look forwards to further negotiations on pay, which in turn can only benefit our members quality of life.”
And she is also full of praise for the branch, which, she says, fully incorporates an organising and recruiting approach into its work.
