UK universities have avoided further strikes after less than 50 per cent of University and College Union (UCU) members voted in the latest industrial action ballot.
Two-thirds (68 per cent) of those who participated in the poll backed carrying on the strikes over pay and working conditions, but the union has missed the threshold required under trade union laws.
Turnout in the ballot, which covered 140 universities, was only 43 per cent. Seventy-five per cent of voting members had also backed action short of a strike.
General secretary Jo Grady blamed “anti-democratic” restrictions for the setback, as UCU pointed out that the turnout in the latest local elections in the UK was 32 per cent.
