Author: Sean

Principal Research Fellow, Survey of English Usage, University College London

Liverpool UCU March For Health Jobs

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Image shows a big pink poster advertising the March For Health Jobs.

12:30pm Saturday 10th July 2021

Meet at the famous Bombed Out Church, Berry Street, Liverpool city centre

This demonstration has been called by UCU University of Liverpool and TUC Liverpool, to highlight the fight for jobs in the city, including those at the university. Fire and Rehire fights, such as Manchester bus drivers, have been won by determined action. We need to build on these and other successful union actions throughout the trade union movement, and fight for all jobs.

At the University of Liverpool, 47 teachers and researchers in the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences were due to be made redundant this summer, but industrial action by UCU members has reduced this number to 21. We are determined to save every job, through strikes, working to contract, a marking & assessment boycott, and protests.

The solidarity shown by other trade unionists and activists has been crucial to building our members’ confidence and supporting the campaign. We invite you to join us at this in-person, socially distanced demonstration through Liverpool, and help us to show the university that we will remain defiant.

Please wear a mask if you can, bring your union banners, home made placards and posters, and share this event widely with friends and colleagues.

Staff – Student Solidarity Rally UCU Chester

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Chester Town Hall – 12pm Saturday 24th July 2021

Chester University management are intending to make staff redundant at the end of July, at a time when it is extremely difficult to find secure employment in higher education. The number of staff at risk is relatively small, and their jobs could easily be saved, but management won’t budge.

The demonstration has been called to “reclaim the university” and show university management that staff and students are united in their resistance.

Chester 24 07 21 b.jpg

All UCU branches in the northwest should aim to send delegates to the demo and show our support for UCU Chester. Trains depart from Liverpool Central at 10:55am and from Manchester Piccadilli (via Crew) at 10:31am. Bring your branch banner.

Twitter Storm: please schedule your Tweets in support of the Chester branch to post at the time of the protest, 12:00-1:00pm on Saturday 24th July. Use these hashtags in your Tweets: #reclaimouruniversity #noredundancieschester, and remember to tag in the UCU Chester branch: @ChesterUcu

University of Liverpool UCU On Strike Again

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University of Liverpool UCU on strike

Wednesday 4th – Saturday 14th August 2021

UCU members at the University of Liverpool are continuing to fight against unjust compulsory redundancies. They have already had many successes: after 3 weeks of strike action and 4 weeks of marking and assessment boycott, the original 47 compulsory redundancies have been reduced to just 2 jobs. University management have refused to withdraw the final 2 redundancies, so UCU members will take further strike action for 11 days.

The strike will cover the vital confirmation and clearing period, when universities try to recruit as many new students as possible: Wednesday 4th – Saturday 14th August.

Your support and solidarity are vital to Liverpool’s success. Your messages of solidarity and generous donations to the local strike fund have given their members the confidence and determination to keep fighting and stand together, knowing they are not alone in their battle. UCU members are not the only ones watching what happens at Liverpool. Other university and college employers want to make cuts, so what happens in this dispute will affect your employers’ confidence too.

Let’s make sure the message goes out from Liverpool loud and clear: the only acceptable number of compulsory redundancies is zero.

How can you support the UCU branch at the University of Liverpool?

Twitter Storm 9:00-10:00am Wednesday 4th August (the first day of the strike)

  • Use your branch Twitter account to Tweet a message of solidarity for UCU Liverpool
  • Encourage members of your branch to participate
  • Schedule your tweets between 9:00-10:00am
  • Remember to use these tags for Liverpool UCU: #FightForHealthJobs @ULivUCU2
  • Use @LivUni if you want to tag in the university

 Solidarity Strike Rally 12:00pm Friday 6th August (online)

  • Join UCU Liverpool for a mass solidarity rally
  • Encourage members of your branch to participate
  • Register here:
  • Facebook here:
  • Speakers include UCU general secretary Jo Grady, and activists from Sheffield, Goldsmiths and others

 Campus Protest 12:00pm Monday 9th August (in person)

  • Bring your branch banner and join UCU Liverpool members for a protest on campus
  • Encourage members of your branch to participate
  • Meet at University Square (Liverpool L3 5RF) at 12:00pm
  • This will take place the day before A-Level results are announced, and will be the last chance the university has to stop the strike on Results Day

 Solidarity for UCU Liverpool

Know Your Pension

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Image shows details of the Know Your Pension event

Online pre-HESC meeting for activists, 18:30pm Thursday 2nd September 2021

This meeting will tackle key issues on the USS pension debate as we prepare for potential action over pensions.

This is an information briefing from the UCU Solidarity Movement aimed at Higher Education workers. It will consist of short presentations to help us understand what is happening to pensions and the various proposals from the employers. Topics include:

  1. What is indexation and conditional indexation?
  2. The UUK proposal
  3. How is USS run and who are the different stakeholders?
  4. Why are USS so difficult? What’s in it for them?
  5. Joint Expert Panel 1 and 2, they said, USS did

The meeting will be followed by a debate on 7th September in the run up to the HESC (UCU Higher Education Sector Committee).

UNITE THE FIGHTS! UCU Solidarity Movement Rally

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Illustration of a group of people holding UCU and UCU Solidarity Movement banners created by Anthony Bradbury, Imperial College. Augmented with logos from universities and colleges that have been in dispute.

6.00pm Monday 20th September 2021

  • Uniting the Fights – Vicky Blake (UCU President)
  • The Fight for Safe Campuses – Marian Mayer (UCU University of Bournemouth)
  • Striking Back in FE – Margot Hill (UCU Croydon College)
  • Winning at Liverpool – Jo McNeill (UCU University of Liverpool)
  • How to Get the Vote Out – James Richards (UCU Heriot-Watt University)
  • Plus reports from Monday’s Special HEC

Colleagues will be aware that last week’s Higher Education Sector Conference voted for an immediate strike ballot in defence of USS pensions and also over the 4Fights.

Our union is now on an emergency campaign footing. With several disputes already taking place over jobs and pay in HE, branches across the four regions must now prepare for strike ballots that bring together pre- and post-92 branches across the HE sector. The same issues are central to disputes across the UCU. Members in 15 Further Education Colleges are due to begin strike action on 28th September over pay, workloads and redundancies.

We have called this meeting to help provide us with the tools and examples we need to win. Now more than ever we need to draw together the issues and build solidarity for UCU branches taking action now. Victories in these disputes can only help win the ballots to come over USS and the 4Fights.

  • 6.00pm Monday 20th September

Please share these details with your members and help make Monday’s meeting a success.

Get The Vote Out Special II: Sharing Best Practice

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Image shows ballot papers being posted in letter box, and details of the workshop

UCU Solidarity Movement Reballot Workshop

6pm Wednesday 15th December 2021

This is a re-run of our GTVO workshop, aimed at branches taking part in the USS / Four Fights reballot over the winter break. This meeting will hear from UCU branches that passed the threshold in the ballot, and activists will share experiences of building GTVO teams, energising reps and members, and planning effective campaigns.

We will discuss how best to utilise tools such as ThruText, phone banking and Mailmerge, and how to provide opportunities for members to ask questions and raise concerns, as well as working with students and other campus trade unions.

Online on Zoom in place of our usual Wednesday organising meeting.

#Goldstrike: A Fight for All Our Futures

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Image shows a large pink banner with the words “No cuts, we love our staff”

Solidarity Rally for UCU Goldsmiths

7pm Thursday 9th December 2021

Goldsmiths Senior Management Team (SMT) is planning mass staff redundancies across departments this term, including 52 jobs this year: 20 academics in English & Creative Writing and History, and 32 professional services staff, as part of a wider scheme of redundancies to be rolled out over two years. These cuts risk causing chaos and harming student experience.

Senior management claim these cuts are required due to a deal that was struck with Lloyds Bank and NatWest bank, negotiated by the consultancy firm KPMG, committing to £4million of staff cuts this year followed by £2million next year.

In response to the threat of mass redundancies, Goldsmiths UCU members have been taking 15 days of strike action, 23rd November 23rd – 13th December.

As the first three days of national strikes over USS and Four Fights come to an end, and the new ballots begin in branches which fell short of the threshold, we need to build the maximum possible support for the fight at Goldsmiths.

The Goldsmiths dispute is nothing less than a battle for the future of Higher Education. We cannot allow the banks to decide how our universities should be run and which courses should be funded. This meeting will hear from staff who face redundancy and discuss the magnificent campaign that activists have organised in defence of their jobs.

Speakers:

  • Mike Rosen (Author, lecturer at Goldsmiths)
  • Tara Povey (Joint President, Goldsmiths UCU)
  • Paula Ktorides (professional staff member at Goldsmiths facing redundancy)
  • Jon Trickett (MP)
  • Larissa Kennedy (President, NUS)
  • Vicky Blake (President, UCU)
  • Peta Bulmer (President, University of Liverpool UCU)

You can also find out more and support the strike fund here: https://goldsmithsucu.org/donations/strikefund/

Building The Action We Need To Win: Student-Staff Assembly

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Image shows poster for Student Staff Assembly, including sessions and speakers

12-3pm Saturday 29th January 2022

Hosted by the UCU Solidarity Movement

The strikes have been called: Now let’s build the fight to win on USS & Four Fights.

We now know the shape of the action called by our unions leadership in the two HE disputes.

There are lots of debates about how to best take the fights forward, but we all know that we have to make the action that’s been called as successful and hard hitting as possible.

We need to build unity – between staff and students – centred on the 2nd March student day of action. We also need to build unity between branches and between UCU and the rest of the movement.

We also need to build solidarity for brilliant branches like Goldsmiths UCU that are involved in crucial local battles.

Meanwhile, it’s right for us to discuss how best we can win these fights and what action can best achieve this.

Come along to Saturday’s Student-Staff Assembly. Bring other activists and bring your own ideas and arguments.

12:00-1.30pm Session 1: Pay Justice, Pensions & Resisting Marketisation

  • Chair: Peta Bulmer (University of Liverpool UCU)
  • Speakers: Vicky Blake (UCU President), Sara Bafo (Goldsmiths SU President), Akansha Mehta & Grace Will (Goldsmiths UCU), Sky Morrison (Liverpool student), Emma Rose (NEU NEC), Stephen Reicher (University of St. Andrews and iSAGE)

1.30-3:00pm Session 2: Building Solidarity & Fighting Precarity

  • Chair: Nathan Francois (RCA UCU)
  • Speakers: Juliana Ojinnaka (Chair, UCU Black Members’ Committee), Columbia University (USA) strikers, Rhian Keyse (Chair, UCU Anti-Casualisation Committee), Rania Obead (Sudanese Uprising Support Group), Rep from student Red Square Movement, Sharifah Rahman (Leeds University student)

Each of these plenary sessions will provide plenty of opportunity for discussion from the floor.

The fight is on: strategies to win

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UK-Wide Strike Meeting

6pm Monday 21st February 2022

This coming Monday, branches involved in the Four Fights will join those already on strike over USS.

Meanwhile, there is excellent news from City University of London, where Unison members are due to join the UCU on strike on Monday. Management offered security guards a bonus to work on the 21st and 22nd. After staff rejected the bribe, City announced on Thursday that it will close on both days.

We are pleased to confirm that a City Unison rep will join the speakers at our UK-wide online strike meeting next Monday evening. We also hope to hear from the students who have now occupied four University of Sheffield buildings in solidarity with us.

This meeting is the place to be for UCU strikers, activists and students and others who want to build support for our action.

We need that action to be effective, well supported and successful. This event provides a forum to take stock, and to address important debates. How do we fight threatened pay deductions over ASOS? In the USS dispute, the employers will soon decide whether or not to accept the UCU proposals. Do members have enough say on industrial action strategy? How best to strengthen links between activists and branches? How best to win?

Opening speakers:

  • Vicky Blake (UCU President)
  • Tara Povey (Goldsmiths UCU)
  • Mike Rosen (author/Goldsmiths UCU)
  • Juliana Ojinnaka (Chair UCU Black Members Committee)
  • Cecilia Wee (RCA UCU)
  • Jess Edwards (NEC, National Education Union)
  • Jordy Lea (City Uni of London Unison rep)

Please note that the Corona Contract network also has an important meeting next Wednesday 23 February at 6pm, at which striking branches will discuss reports and vote on proposals for the next stage of the dispute. We hope that you can also promote and attend this event.

UK-wide strike meeting II

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Strategies to win: after the union’s Higher Education Committee – where next?

6pm Thursday 3 March 2022

At our last UK-wide strike meeting, attended by nearly 200 UCU members from 50 different branches, we agreed to hold a recall meeting on 3rd March. When this meeting takes place, staff at UK universities will have taken up to 10 days of strike action and ASOS over cuts to pensions and over the Four Fights campaign.

Meanwhile, UCU members at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art are intensifying their strike action against job losses. All this takes place against the background of an escalating assault on living standards, with other trade unions now starting ballots over pay.

We have taken part in teach-outs and marches and stood alongside our students and colleagues from Unison and other unions on the picket lines.

But, with managements refusing to accept the union’s demands over pensions and showing no sign of budging on the other issues, we have serious questions to address, such as:

  • What further strike action should UCU call?
  • How do we implement ASOS?
  • How do we respond to pay docking threats?

Register now for this online event and invite others from your branch to take part. Join our mailing list to keep up to date with further information.