The Pornstar Martini
Question ; what have pensions and pornstar martinis got to do with each other
Answer; after announcing they would have a day off from negotiating, the UUK pension team appear to have deferred to the bar for some of these popular beverages.
Here is the press release following a hard two hours discussing pensions with the UCU
Employers willing to meet @ucu at any time or place to resolve pensions dispute – full statement after first day of talks at ACAS #USSstrikes pic.twitter.com/ZGexMABVBO
— Universities UK (@UniversitiesUK) March 5, 2018
and here is a report of a “lost tweet” from its press office
I can imagine A LOT of very awkward conversations at @UniversitiesUK offices tomorrow morning….But it’s OK. Who hasn’t had one too many Pornstar Martinis and drunk tweeted their organisation into a corner? #USSstrike #pornstarmartini #UUK
— Natasha Saunders (@NEGSaunders) March 5, 2018
Martini gate, as it will surely be known, comes at the end of a bad day for the Universities UK pension negotiating team who now appear to have done a post-martini u-turn.
No confirmation yet from #UUK re apparent Twitter deal with #UCU to resume ACAS talks tomorrow. It is late, however, and will check for an update in the morning.
— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) March 5, 2018
Time was when it was the boozy “beer and sandwiches” brigade of the far-left who could be relied on for inebriate rambling. Now it’s the bosses who are proving themselves drunk and disorderly.
Time was that it was the unions who were up to vote rigging, now its the bosses.
Timely reminder:
1)UUK issued an impt risk survey with insufficient time for recipients to consult & respond.
2)they surveyed parties they shouldnt have, making survey invalid
3)they presented opinions of surveyed parties as being valid, despite being told they weren’t #usstrike https://t.co/l2AeQ4PoNk— Jo Grady (@DrJoGrady) March 5, 2018
UUK are not behaving and have not behaved any differently than the picture painted by the recent Channel 4 dispatches documentary, which painted some Vice Chancellors as out of touch , extravagant and venal.
This blog has carried a number of serious articles from senior lecturers such as Dennis Leach and Mike Otsuka that coherently argue the case to continue to let lecturers accrue defined benefit pensions as part of their remuneration.
There is no intellectual weight behind the philosophical arguments of UUK and no financial weight in their claims they cannot afford to pay the expected pensions.
Instead there is growing concern, not just within the Universities, but without, that its governance – epitomised by certain Vice-Chancellors – is incompetent.
UUK – back down now.
I speak as a parent of a university student who – though he gets no current teaching, supports the strike. I also speak as a card-carrying member of the conservative party.
I have no natural inclination to support industrial action by unions.
However, everything I have and am reading about the conduct of this pensions strike suggests that it is the unions who are behaving responsibly and the UUK who are not.
It is time for the UUK to accept that they are losing the argument and back down.
Email from @ucu about @UniversitiesUK rejection of talks tomorrow.
Apparently they are ‘not yet ready to respond’. Let’s hope this means their position is significantly shifting. #USSstrikes pic.twitter.com/wEDpFkqqh5
— Jo Grady (@DrJoGrady) March 5, 2018
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