It's Valentine's Day tomorrow and we are back on the picket lines:

Strike days this week include Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 February over pay, casualisation, equality pay gaps and workloads, as well as cuts to our USS pensions.

Today the UCU agreed to meet Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) with the mediators Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) next Monday 13 and Tuesday 14 February to discuss our pay and working conditions dispute and hopefully a way forward. This is another clear sign that your magnificent support is working.

We are on strike today and Friday (9th and 10th February). There will be a picket today (Thursday) from 12 to 2pm outside the main entrance.

If you possible can, please join the picket.

Remember the whole sector is on strike not just us. This is the best chance we have had to change our employers' minds since Cameron and Osborne started our current austerity.

Don't forget that we are continuously on "Action Short of a Strike" (ASOS) in between the full strike days. ASOS includes:

• working to contract
• not covering for absent colleagues
• removing uploaded materials related to, and/or not sharing materials related to, lectures or classes that will be or have been cancelled as a result of strike action
• not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action
• not undertaking any voluntary activities.

You may have seen on the news or through the national UCU emails that our industrial action has brought the employers back to the negotiating table. Strikes work, and they work best if everyone supports them. Please keep doing so and we will improve not just our pay and conditions but also the future experience of our students.

Today the UCU across the country is showing its strength and resolve in fighting for better pay, pensions, and conditions at work. If you possibly can, join the demonstrations either locally or in London. Emails have been sent out to this effect and, of course, we are all on strike today.

You have had plenty of emails from Head Office about the industrial action coming up and you should have received some from us, the local branch. Unfortunately, Aston's email server is still making life difficult for us. We are emailing from the domain name, astonucu.org, and they have recognised that as legitimate. But it is still falling foul of spam filters and quarantine. Check those too. In the meantime, I have asked them to exclude us from the filters.

The national UCU vote has made it absolutely clear what we think of the pay, conditions, and pensions foisted on us by our employers. 81.14% are in favour of taking industrial action, which will be national and much easier to coordinate this time. It is our last real chance to make a difference to the quality of our lives and the quality of higher education. We must make it count, each and every one of us, by supporting all the action on all occasions.