The Friday email: 15 October 2021

Further education disputes: #JusticeForCollegeTeachers enters third week

Staff at five colleges walked out again for the third week in the ongoing fight for fair pay and working conditions: City and Islington College, College of North East London, Westminster Kingsway College, Croydon College, and Lambeth College.

Strikes were suspended at City of Bristol College, Weymouth College, and New College Swindon after late deals, and action at South Thames College, Merton College, Carshalton College, and Kingston College were also suspended while further negotiations took place.

This is a fast-moving situation; branch committees and UCU's regional officials are working hard behind the scenes to support our members. We will update you with the latest developments as we receive them, in our roundup of disputes and wins as well as the dedicated #JusticeForCollegeTeachers page.

Higher education disputes: Royal College of Art; 'Four Fights' and USS ballots; members' voices video project

UCU members at the Royal College of Art (RCA) began their second week of strikes (Tuesday 12 October to Thursday 14 October) in the fight against casualised contracts, to protect the terms and conditions of established academic staff, and to push back against the use of unfair contracts for new staff. You can read an article featuring RCA UCU in Dazed, and you can support RCA UCU by following them and sending messages of solidarity through various channels. 
 
The higher education industrial ballots ('Four Fights' and USS pension) will arrive at your doorstep from Monday 18 October. For the avoidance of doubt, all UCU members will receive a single ballot pack (which looks like this). If you work in a non-USS institution, the pack will contain one ballot paper ('Four Fights'). If you work in a USS institution, the pack will contain two ballot papers ('Four Fights' and USS pension). If you have two ballot papers, please use both.

The ballot closes on Thursday 4 November (12 noon). Within the ballot pack, there will be a first-class prepaid envelope. To make absolutely sure that your vote arrives at Civica Election Services (the scrutineer), please post your ballot on or before Tuesday 2 November.

Please note that, if you do not receive your ballot, our replacement ballot request form will open from Friday 22 October to Thursday 28 October (5pm). We will send out a reminder about this very soon.

Your UCU branch will have further details on the ballot timetable and 'get the vote out' (GTVO) activities; please volunteer to help. Branch officers should have campaign materials delivered. Further digital resources are being uploaded as we speak on the dedicated HE 2021 ballots GTVO page. 

A reminder that we are producing a series of videos which capture the lives of members in higher education, and how they are affected by degraded pay, casualisation, equality failings and more. Please get in touch with the UCU press team if you would like to be involved.

COP26 is only three weeks away

This week's focus is on rep and member training opportunities.

• Learning opportunity for all UCU members: How to bring climate into any conversation? AimHi Earth are offering their world-leading climate and nature course to UCU members and welcome you to share this with other SU/TU reps/staff and officers. This four-week live and interactive course will take place every Wednesday at 12:30, starting on 10 November. The course focuses on driving behavioural change as well as increasing understanding, awareness and communication of the climate and ecological emergency. AimHi Earth are offering this course at no cost (standard cost £25pp) but welcome any voluntary donations. To register follow their Eventbrite link.
• Green New Deal Bargaining Course: November training for Green Reps and aspiring Green Reps. Join our next Green New Deal, bargaining and negotiating training course this November. The course will run over three mornings of 12, 19 and 26 November, and will provide useful resources and training for progressing the GND and aspects of the model claim at your institution. You will also have the opportunity to meet and join forces with other activists working to progress climate justice and sustainability issues at their workplace.

You can find a lot more resources and events on UCU's dedicated COP26 page.

Protect Student Choice campaign; Further education funding and accountability reforms in England

Over 100 MPs and Peers have written to Nadhim Zahawi asking him to rethink plans to scrap BTecs in England. UCU is a member of the Protect Student Choice campaign. Please sign the petition and share with your networks.

Please read UCU's submission to the government consultation on reforms to FE Funding and Accountability in England.

Reminders: Black History Month event; LGBT+ research conference; 'Mind Matters'; equality groups conference

UCU will be hosting a national online discussion event on Wednesday 20 October from 6.30-8pm to celebrate Black History Month. Speakers include Clive Fraser of University of Leicester, Savannah Hanson from Sheffield Students' Union, Nira Chamberlain from Loughborough University, and Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, NUS vice-president for higher education. The event will consider how historical events link to contemporary challenges facing black staff and students. You can register here.

The 2021 UCU LGBT+ research conference, entitled 'LGBT+ liberation: LGBT+ lives and issues in the context of normativities', will be held online from Tuesday 2 November to Thursday 4 November. Registration to attend the LGBT+ conference is now open.

A reminder that we have launched a new blog, 'Mind Matters', which serves as a space for UCU members to share their experiences and reflections on mental health and wellbeing, as well as being a catalyst for branches to use as conversation starters and for removing the stigma associated with mental health. Due to the issues that we anticipate being discussed, the 'Mind Matters' blog will only be open to UCU members and you will be required to login with your membership number and surname. 

A reminder too that the annual equality groups conference, an opportunity for UCU members to discuss and agree strategies to progress equality issues at work, will be held virtually across Thursday 2 December to Saturday 4 December.

And I want to thank you for giving me the best...

... membership updates. Many members have been refreshing their contact details through MyUCU; this is an enormous help. UCU Yorkshire and Humberside have created a video on MyUCU; please have a look and share it with your colleagues if they need a quick guide.
 
With best wishes

Ed Bailey
UCU acting head of campaigns