University strikers target Queen

University staff want £4,000 a year London weighting

The Queen could be running the gauntlet of striking university staff when she opens a college library in London on Thursday.

Staff at universities across London have been called out on strike for the day by four unions in a protest over the cost-of-living allowances they get for working in the capital.

The strike potentially will affect 120,000 students.

Staff from King's College London are among those taking part and the Queen is due to open its new Maughan Library.

The staff union Unison said the royal engagement would be "a focus" of strikers' activities.

Less than teachers

Other plans involve a lobby of the university employers' offices and an open-top bus with a band touring picket lines.

The unions involved - the others are the AUT, Natfhe and Amicus - representing thousands of staff "from porters to professors".

The AUT lecturers' union said staff had been angered by the low level of their London weighting allowance.

It said higher education workers had one of the lowest London weighting of all public servants.

Those at the University of London got £2,134, while those at the newer universities earned between £603 and £2,355.

This compared with £6,111 for police, £3,500 for the prison service and £3,105 for teachers.

Teachers in London are also due to go on strike over the same allowance issue on 26 November. They want £6,000.

Call for talks

The university staff are calling for a weighting allowance of £4,000, under the slogan "4K for decent pay".

The unions say the University of London is offering no increase at all, while those at the new universities are offering at most an extra £90.

No talks are scheduled.

The AUT's general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Throughout the build up to this dispute we have been very keen to meet with the vice-chancellors and talk. But they're not even prepared to do that.

"When reasonable staff are pushed to strike, vice-chancellors should sit down with the unions and seek a resolution. So far, they have not done this."