Final pay offer promises 1.8 per cent minimum rise for UK staff

I am a member of Unison and a great believer in Trade Unions and appreciate how they fight for our rights. However I think a lot of people cannot afford to lose a day's pay striking for a better pay increase. It kinds of defeats the object in my opinion.

I see the UCEA is falling back on it's usual excuse "Ucea also highlighted that many staff were eligible for additional incremental pay increases which took the average overall rise to 3.4 per cent", whilst SOME staff MAY get an increment, depending on department manager directions from above to agree or block it, an awful lot of staff are stalled at their grade ceiling and unable to go any further. Of course the perceived greed of some VC's and their senior management teams, as iterated by many of the key, but lowly paid, staff who actually keep the Universities clean and healthy may be a factor, but it's the commercialisation and selling out the Universities 'soul' to big investors, like the American pensions funds and their 'requirement' to keep pay down and returns up that needs to be addressed as well.