STAFF at the University of York were today launching two days of strikes as a pensions row escalates.

About 800 members of the campus’ University and College Union (UCU) were due to stage pickets at entrances to Langwith, Goodrick and Vanbrugh Colleges in Heslington Road before a protest rally at Heslington Hall.

The union said it intended to “make its feelings known” to the university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Brian Cantor, who chairs the Employers Pension Forum which is negotiating over changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension fund.