That the Parliament recognises the thousands of higher education staff who, it considers, are being forced to take strike action to preserve their pay and working conditions in a time of growing economic hardship; notes the strong ballot mandates of members of the University and College Union Scotland, Unite and Unison to take what it sees as necessary industrial action; believes that lecturers have been forced to take such industrial action in defence of their pay and pensions; understands that the background to the dispute includes a number of factors such as a 25% reduction in members wages since 2009, and reductions to the guaranteed Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension income by 35%; considers that the increased workload of lecturers is of significant detriment to students, and calls on the employers to engage immediately in constructive dialogue with union representatives to resolve this dispute.