Category Archives: Pensions

The longer the picket line, the shorter the dispute

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Noticed has been served that strike action will be taking place in November as follows:

  • Thursday 24 November
  • Friday 25 November
  • Wednesday 30 November (with a national demonstration at Kings Cross in London)

We will also be commencing Action Short of Strike (ASOS) from Wednesday 23 November. This means:

  • work to contract (meaning that you only fulfil the duties explicitly expressed in your contract)
  • not undertake voluntary activities
  • not cover for absent colleagues
  • refuse to reschedule classes missed due to industrial action
  • remove materials for classes that would have taken place on strike days from online learning platforms.

Our message to the employers is clear, and this is just the start. If negotiations are not heading in the right direction by the new year, then we will commence escalating action including a marking and assessment boycott.

Financial support will be available for those who need it, and more information will be circulated shortly.

We need to deliver the kind of action that makes our employers, led by vice-chancellors with huge pay packets, sit up and listen.

What happens next? Members’ Meeting Wednesday 26 October

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Thank-you to all who have voted. The ballot will close on Friday 21 October, and we hope that we will be able to inform members and employers of the result on Monday 24 October.

We will then hold a members’ meeting to discuss the next steps and establish a branch position for the Branch Delegate Meeting (BDM) on Monday 31 October. The outcomes of the BDM will inform the decisions of a Special Higher Education Committee on Thursday 3 November.

The local branch members’ meeting will be held online via Zoom on Wednesday 26 October at 12pm. If you have not received instructions on how to join the Zoom meeting, please contact the branch office.

We need this meeting to be quorate, so please attend. Deciding on the next steps is crucial and we need to hear the views of members.

 

Support from our students

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To all staff at my university and specifically staff who educate me, I feel the education I receive is under threat. I believe my education is under threat due to cuts to staffing, cuts to pay, and increasing workloads. Therefore, as a student, I want to encourage and support you in voting YES on the UCU ballot. You deserve better. Your working conditions are our learning conditions. There are very few days left to post your ballot!

– Cameron, SPS President

 

UCU Live: Vote YES or your vice chancellor speaks for you!

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Watch this event live on YouTube at 7.30pm on 6 October 2022.

We cannot simply rely on vice chancellors doing what is right, we must also show them our power. And we can only do that by delivering a strong YES vote in this ballot.

If you haven’t voted and posted your ballot paper yet, please do so as soon as possible and let us know.

If you haven’t received a ballot paper or have lost it, request a replacement here.

UCU Rising: halfway through the ballot

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We know that some of you still have concerns about voting YES in this ballot. That is why our general secretary Jo Grady last night answered your difficult questions about the ballot in a UCU Live Q&A session which you can replay here.

We are now officially halfway through our higher education ballot window but we cannot afford to take our foot off the gas now. If you have already voted or need a replacement ballot please let us know now.

Winning this ballot is the only way that we can bring your employers back to the negotiating table, the only way that we can improve your working conditions, and the only way that we can fix the injustices of the higher education sector.

UCU Rising – there’s still time to vote

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First of all thank you for your continued support of both UCU nationally and of your local branch. UCU is its members and you are vital to our continued work within Heriot Watt and also with national collective bargaining.

I received my ballot papers the day after they were sent (which is highly unusual). I had just returned from visiting my local CWU picket line to taking UCU’s best wishes to our brilliant fellow trade unionists working as posties. CWU have always supported our pickets, visiting to stand with us in solidarity. Twice now people in the street have stopped me to say thank you for standing with the posties and to say good luck in our ballots.

This morning I had a knock at the door and it was my lovely postie with a parcel, saying they remembered me from visiting their pickets and they wanted to see how I was and to say thank you. A timely and moving reminder that we are not in this alone. We are part of a wider labour movement, standing together, in solidarity, to create the change all of our workplaces so desperately need.

If you have not returned your ballot papers yet, please do so ASAP and be part of a collective movement with your postie, trail workers, dock workers, barristers in England and all the other trade unionists voting to stand up for what is right.

Today you will have received an email asking if you have returned your ballot papers. We ask so that we can see where we are in terms of ballots having been received and if there are members with any questions about the ballots.

If you would like to know more about the campaign or need to order a replacement ballot you can find that information here https://www.ucu.org.uk/rising

Yours in solidarity,
Kate (HW UCU equalities officer and UCU Scotland Equalities Officer)