Author: Sean

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

UK-wide strike meeting III

SeanLeave a comment
Image shows line drawing of picketers, and details of the meeting

6pm Wednesday 16th March 2022

Our disputes received a huge boost last week with news of the fantastic victory at the Royal College of Arts (RCA) – a monumental deal providing a route to permanency for staff at one of the HE sector’s most casualised workplaces.

Ahead of the third phase of strike action and the launch of reballots, the UCU Solidarity Movement is reconvening a UK-Wide Strike Organising Meeting to discuss how branch reps and activists can best build the strikes and build an effective GTVO campaign.

Members face a massive assault on living conditions. Action on casualisation can’t wait if members are losing their jobs. Workloads are out of control. Insecure jobs help create and reinforce the gender and race pay gaps.

Meanwhile, from 1 April members in the USS pension scheme face catastrophic cuts of 30-40% in future pensions.

Our members are furious. We need to lead them – to make the strikes count and build the reballot campaign.

The new ballots open on 16th March, the same day as the start of the next phase of strikes at Goldsmiths. Join us that same evening – to discuss the lessons of the victory at RCA, to learn from colleagues about what worked in the last phase of action, and to share best practice from GTVO campaigns.

Building our fightback – UK-wide Strike Organising Meeting III

6pm Wednesday 16th March

Register now for this online event and join our mailing list to keep up to date with further events and activities.

Building Solidarity & Resistance

SeanLeave a comment

Thursday 26 May 2022, 6pm on Zoom

It is time for everyone to rally to support of the Union. Our disputes over Four Fights and the USS pension scheme are at a crossroads.

A new rank and file coordination is developing out of necessity. Branches who are boycotting are working together to support each other and coordinate tactics.

Every union activist must now see their priority as raising solidarity and twinning for branches taking action.

At the same time, Higher Education is beginning to see evidence of a crisis of student recruitment this summer. This is on top of a wave of redundancies at Goldsmiths, which began its marking boycott earlier in the term.

  • De Montfort University has announced 56 redundancies
  • Roehampton University has notified 226 staff that they are ‘at risk’
  • Wolverhampton University has announced the ‘suspension’ of schools and programmes, and a mass VS scheme

We need to build solidarity with all branches taking action and/or facing redundancies. Whether you are in the eye of a storm or simply wish to offer solidarity please come to this meeting to help us chart the way ahead.

Building solidarity, winning the MAB

Sean

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.

Continue reading “Building solidarity, winning the MAB” →

Successes of the marking and assessment boycott in HE branches summer 2022

Sean

The following 31 UCU branches took part in a marking and assessment boycott in summer 2022:

Anglia Ruskin, Bath Spa, Bedfordshire, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Gloucestershire, Heriot Watt, IDS at Sussex, Loughborough, Kings College London, Kingston, Leeds, Leeds Beckett, Manchester, Napier, Nottingham, Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, Sheffield, SOAS, Sunderland, Sussex, University of the Arts London, Ulster, York.

UCU branches taking part in the Marking and Assessment Boycott this last term have achieved a remarkable success – often against management intransigence – in forcing concessions from local employers.

44 branches were mandated to take part.  31 then voted to boycott.  Lengthy delays meant staff at many universities had finished all or most of their marking by the time boycotts were authorised.  With small numbers in each branch willing and able to carry it out, there were real fears of a negligible impact, with participants hit by 100% pay deductions.  QMUL has had 100% deductions. However, the boycott has achieved significant successes.

Continue reading “Successes of the marking and assessment boycott in HE branches summer 2022” →