The Association of University Teachers today made a last ditch attempt to persuade its members to vote for industrial action by pointing the finger at "fat cat" vice-chancellors.
Vice-chancellors have had double the pay rise of the average lecturer in the last seven years, claims the union.
AUT members are currently being balloted on strike action over a new pay deal. The AUT say the modernising deal gives too much local flexibility for too few rewards and in some cases will cost their members money. The result of the ballot is due this Friday.
Today they released analysis of two-year-old figures from the annual survey of vice-chancellors' wages which they say showed that, over the seven years leading up to 2002, the 100 best paid vice-chancellors had an average pay rise of 49%. This compared with lecturers who got 25% in actual terms.
The top-earning vice-chancellor is Laura Tyson, at the London Business School, who in 2001/2 was being paid £316,000 and had seen the salary for her post increase by 157.3% since 1994/5.
The AUT deputy general secretary Malcolm Keight said: "These figures will enrage academics and senior support staff up and down the country.
"This is hypocrisy and 'fat-cattery' at its worst. And I am sure many staff will want to know why they are now being asked to accept a pay overhaul that will lead to many losing up to £47,000 in career earnings."
The plea to members to back strike action came as it emerged that increasing hostilities between the seven campus unions were threatening to bubble over. The Times Higher Education Supplement reported that the Trade Union Congress was this week being called in to mediate between the unions. All unions have accepted the deal bar the AUT and the post-1992 institution lecturers' union Natfhe who have chosen not to recommend the deal to their members.
Last week the AUT sent an email round all its members in the post-1992 universities giving them eight reasons why their should reject the offer. The non-academic unions, which include Unison and Amicus, have accused the AUT of misleading its members over the deal.
Roger Kline, head of higher education at Natfhe, told EducationGuardian.co.uk that they sympathized with the AUT's specific problems with the deal, but preferred to back a national deal while there was no viable alternative on the table.
"We think that what is on offer - if we manage to resolve our outstanding issues, which we hope to be able to do by the end of the month - will be substantially better than the likely alternative.
"If there isn't a national deal it will be a pay free-for-all."
