Open meeting for all members, reps and supporters
6:30pm Thursday 11th May, 2023
Come to this meeting to hear from branches in the frontline. Help us build solidarity and strengthen the MAB.
Themes
- How has the MAB been developing across HE?
- How best to coordinate the action?
- What strategy do we need to win?
Speakers include SOAS, Queen Margaret, Nottingham and Brighton UCU branches.
The Marking and Assessment Boycott is beginning to bite.
Universities are beginning to realise that students may not progress or graduate. They are considering mitigation with estimated grades. But that means reaching agreements with professional bodies to permit students on accredited courses to pass. See above.
Employers are turning nasty. Blatantly disproportionate and punitive deductions are now threatened across several employers in order to try to scare people from participating.
Union members face threats of pay deductions that range from 1 week to 10, and from 0% to 100%.
This is double-edged.
On the one hand, it means that the UCEA ‘united front’ is in disarray. Universities that went through the MAB last year, like Queen Mary and Ulster, learned that threats can backfire. In the first place, members simply do not disclose whether they are participating or not. Members are motivated by the scale of the inflation pay cut we all face — a 15% real-terms cut, or 55 calendar days of MAB at 100%!
But it also means that some colleagues are facing savage attacks. In the first place, salary sharing and targeted approaches, and declining to disclose information, are basic defence mechanisms. But this is not enough.
Branches are planning strike action to resist. At SOAS, members face a 100% pay cut over 5 weeks, and are moving towards hard-hitting strikes. Other branches are likely to follow.
Meanwhile, the spectre of restructuring and redundancies has returned to our sector. Over 100 redundancies are threatened at the University of Brighton, with many union activists in redundancy pools. We have to win this fight.
The stakes are extremely high. Come to this meeting to discuss the way forward.
Please share the details widely in your branch and with other UCU activists. Please make sure your branch is represented at this important meeting.
UCU Solidarity Movement 