Cambridge Uni workers strike

At least 500 Unite members employed by the University of Cambridge spent four days on strike demanding a ‘Cambridge weighting’ pay supplement to deal with the cost of living in one of the most expensive cities in the country.

Unite members, including library, museum, estates management, finance, student services and IT staff, walked out on Tuesday April 21, Wednesday April 22, Thursday April 30 and Friday May 1.

As a result of the industrial action, the University of Cambridge’s art and antiques museum, The Fitzwilliam Museum in Trumpington Street, was closed on each of the four days, and Unite members set up a picket line outside.

Meanwhile, the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Free School Lane, which forms part of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, was closed on April 30 and May 1. A rally supporting the striking workers was also held on Friday, May 1, opposite King’s College, one of the university’s most famous and prestigious colleges.

The workers are demanding that the university introduce the weighting in line with the University of Oxford, which introduced an ‘Oxford weighting’ of £1,500 per year, increased it by 15 per cent to £1,730 in August 2025, and extended it to all non-clinical staff.

Cambridge staff receive no equivalent, and so far, the university has only offered a 2.5 per cent interim payment, which does little to combat the cost-of-living crisis for its lowest-paid workers and can be withdrawn at any time, as university bosses have made no firm commitment to retain it permanently.

At the same time, the university has imposed a paltry 1.4 per cent pay increase for 2025/26 through the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) which represents universities in pay negotiations with five recognised trade unions Unite, Unison, University and College Union (UCU), GMB and the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) known collectively as the Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES) unions.

The pay offer is a significant real terms pay cut and led to Unite, Unison and University College Union (UCU) branches at the university launching strike ballots.

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in February, the average house price in Cambridge was £475,000, and the average monthly rent was £1,795, more than 30 per cent higher than the national average. In Oxford, according to the ONS, the average house price in February was £474,000, while the average monthly rent is £1,952.

Despite its claim that it can’t afford the additional payment in its 2024/25 accounts, published in July 2025, showed that the university had net assets of £8.26 billion and a surplus of £287.3 million. Unite has also argued that the university has £4 billion in endowments, which could be used to help fund the pay increase.

David Jackson, Unite health and safety rep at the Fitzwilliam Museum, argued that workers were in a very difficult position because living in the city was very expensive, but that commuting into Cambridge was also too costly.

“Cambridge is the most expensive place to live outside of London at the moment; it’s only getting worse. It’s too expensive to live in Cambridge because you can’t afford the house prices and the rent, and if you move outside of Cambridge, it becomes too expensive to travel into work. A lot of us are stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment. The payment from the Cambridge weighting would really help with these costs.”

According to Jackson, the university has been more interested in boasting about the money that they spend on new buildings. However, when unions have campaigned for higher pay, the university has pleaded poverty.

“The argument for it seems so obvious to us. Cambridge has this habit of, when it suits them, spending hundreds of millions of pounds on shiny buildings. When it suits them not to do that, they are ‘old buildings and centuries of tradition’. Whenever we come to them asking for more pay, it’s only ever that side that they present to us.

“They have stuck to this line of pleading poverty quite religiously, despite the fact that the union has had accountants go through the books, and we now know how much money they have. Whenever they come around the table with us, it’s always this pleading poverty.”

Jackson added that Unite membership is growing across the university, particularly amongst the lowest-paid staff who provide some of the most vital services to students and members of the public.

“The people who are in the union at the museum who are suffering most due to this wage stagnation are assistant-level staff. We’re the people manning the galleries, but also security, so if they can’t secure the place, they can’t get it open.

“Some of the other museums in Cambridge also closed down today. They’ve tried really hard to keep the other university-owned museums open, but the Zoology Museum and the Scott Polar Museum had to close as well. These museums operate mostly with volunteers, but the few paid staff they do have have supported us.

“We’ve had a big increase in membership, particularly at some of the smaller museums; a lot of people have been signing up in the past couple of days, particularly in the museums and the library as well.

“We’ve had a really good showing at the university library this week. This week is exam week for a lot of students. These facilities that they rely on are very dependent on lower pay grades like us.”

Unite national officer for education Andrew Murray said that low pay and the cost-of-living pressures were issues for non-academic staff at universities across the country, something that is reflected in the fact that Unite members at Glasgow, Strathclyde, Glasgow School of Art, Edinburgh Napier and Heriot-Watt universities walked out earlier this year over pay.

He added that Unite, along with the other JNCHES unions, were hoping to negotiate an improved pay offer for 2026/27 while they were also exploring the possibility of a joint lobbying campaign to improve higher education (HE) funding.

“Obviously, the cost-of-living pressures in Cambridge particularly impacts on lower paid professional staff at the university, such as museum and library staff, but it also impacts on the technical and estates staff we represent.

“The strikes at Cambridge and in other British universities take place when the JNCHES unions (Unite, UCU, Unison, GMB and EIS) are in the process of negotiating the 2026-27 pay claim with UECA. The current pay offer is 1.8% for the majority of staff, with the exception of staff on pay spine 7 and below, where the offer is 2%. The JNCHES unions have rejected this offer.

“We are meeting with UCEA on Wednesday, 13th May, for the third negotiating meeting, and we have asked UCEA to come to that meeting with an improved offer, particularly as the impact of the Iran war is making the inflation outlook for staff even worse.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said, “Cambridge University is exceptionally wealthy and can more than afford to provide a fair wage for its lowest-paid workers and introduce a local pay supplement as Oxford University has. These workers have Unite’s total backing in striking to achieve this.”

Unite regional officer Chris Hardwick said,“Cambridge University is entirely responsible for the disruption that will be caused to students. It can entirely afford to pay Cambridge weighting and help alleviate the severe cost of living pressures its workers are suffering but is choosing not to out of greed.

“This dispute will continue to escalate until the university follows Oxford’s example and introduces a supplement to support loyal and hardworking staff.”  

By Sean Meleady

Photos by Andrew Osborne, Unite Engineering branch