Campaign rally organised by the UCU Solidarity Movement
6:30pm Thursday 1st July 2021
The fight against job cuts at Liverpool and Leicester universities has reached a crucial stage. After recent strikes, members of both branches are now taking part in marking and assessment boycotts as part of their campaigns. Management at Liverpool have announced that they are imposing 100% pay docking on all staff who participate.
Meanwhile, there is now a real prospect of a fightback that can unite the entire union membership in defending the whole post-16 education sector.
Strike ballots over pay and conditions in 20 FE colleges are ongoing. And the decisions from Congress and sector conferences mean that universities are relaunching the Four Fights dispute and preparing for a fight in defence of USS pensions.
On 2nd July, the HE Committee will discuss how to implement this mandate. UCU’s policy is to launch industrial action ballots across pre- and post-92 HE as well as FE, at a time when members in prisons and in Adult Community Education are standing up against cuts.
We are on the verge of a potential co-ordinated struggle for the future of the post-16 sector, in which we can lead the trade union movement to defend education. We now need to organise to ensure we can deliver united cross-sectoral action.
The UCU Solidarity Movement has therefore called a rally on Thursday 1st July to highlight these issues and other initiatives such as the campaign in Defence of the Arts, as well as providing an opportunity for UCU branches to build solidarity for local disputes.
Speakers include:
- Vicky Blake – UCU President
- Ant O’Hanlon – University of Liverpool UCU
- Deepa Driver – USS Pensions Negotiator
- Jane Inskip – Vice Chair of Novus branch – prison education
- Robyn Orfitelli – University of Sheffield UCU
- Sean Vernell – UCU NEC and Vice Chair of the Further Education Committee
- Tanveer Ahmed – Royal College of Art UCU
- Donny Gluckstein – EIS FELA – Scottish further education
- Plus speakers from Liverpool and Leicester UCU branches
Please circulate this notice among colleagues, share the details on social media, and ensure your branch is well represented at the rally.
We are planning a Twitter Storm between 1:00pm and 2:00pm on Thursday to publicise the Rally. Please be prepared to tweet and quote retweet messages on your Twitter. Use the hashtag #UCUFightsBack and include the signup link in your scheduled tweets.
This event is for all across post-16 education. If you would like to help build the event or get involved in the UCU Solidarity Movement, please join our next planning meeting at 6pm on Wednesday 30th June.
UCU Solidarity Movement 