UNIVERSITY workers walked out in their thousands today at the start of a three-day strike to protect wages, working conditions, pensions and jobs.

Pickets were in action across Britain, and many were joined by students in solidarity with the University and College Union (UCU) members’ struggle.

Strike action hit 58 universities, including 10 in Scotland, where hundreds picketed the University of Glasgow and rallied outside the campus on University Avenue.

Lecturers at 42 more universities are balloting on joining the strike action, and the UCU is planning further strikes in the new year.

The strike so far covers 50,000 staff.

One UCU picket at Roehampton University, in the London borough of Wandsworth, said: “We don’t want to go on strike. We do our jobs because of our students.

“We know how hard the past couple of years have been, but high workloads mean that we are at breaking point, with many colleagues off sick with stress and many others reporting poor mental health, sleeping disorders and exhaustion.”

Students walked out and joined picket lines at campuses including Bristol, Durham, Goldsmiths, Liverpool, Leicester and at Queen’s University Belfast.

A National Union of Students survey has shown that 73 per cent of students support the strike, with just 9 per cent opposed to it.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “If university managers doubted the determination of staff to change the higher education sector for the better, the numbers of staff on strike today prove they are very sadly mistaken.

“Thousands of dedicated university staff and students are on picket lines, attending demos and marching to demand fair pay, decent pensions and improved working conditions. 

“The level of action seen today is just the beginning, and university managers now need to wake up and address the very modest demands of staff. Otherwise, the potential for more widespread and escalating industrial action in the new year becomes very real.”

The workers are calling for a £2,500 pay rise; an end to insecure, temporary and zero-hours contracts, which currently affect more than 75,000 academic staff; withdrawal of proposed cuts to pensions; and an end to pay inequalities, such as for minority ethnic workers and disabled people.