Support branches in the marking boycott

Today, 20 UCU branches began a marking and assessment boycott as part of the USS pensions and Four Fights disputes. Some of these branches are facing the threat of punitive deductions from their employers and need all of our support to back them up.  

What can I do to support the disputes? 

If your branch is not in the marking and assessment boycott, there are still things you can do to back up your fellow members. You can donate to our fighting fund to support members in the disputes. And you can post a message of support on social media using the hashtag #OneOfUsAllOfUs  

What happens next in these disputes?  

UCU's sector conference meets on Thursday 2 June as part of our annual Congress and has important decisions to take about the long-term future of both disputes.  

There are proposals from two branches calling for immediate re-ballots in all branches, starting in June. There is a motion from another branch proposing to re-ballot all branches from October. There will be a range of other motions covering other aspects of the disputes.  

I gave members my view about what it will take to win these disputes before the April sector conferences, but the key thing is that this union is a democracy--if you want conference's decisions to reflect your views, look out for communications from your branch and for opportunities to have a say about how your branch's delegation will be voting.  

Huge challenges facing the sector post-REF  

Thousands of members will have seen or heard the deeply worrying announcements in the past week of a wave of redundancies in post-92 institutions--from Roehampton to De Montfort to Wolverhampton.   

This is not about financial need. This is about the effects of marketisation. It is about the capriciousness of research funding allocations and unregulated student recruitment. It is about the narrowing of provision, as the government fixates on spurious metrics of employability while universities give up on offering a broad, comprehensive range of teaching and research to the communities they serve.  

These branches are getting the full support of their regional offices and we are coordinating a national response to beat these cuts. It will take a massive effort but we have saved hundreds of jobs from attacks like these in the past and we can do it again--just remember the similar dispute at another post-92 university, Chester, last summer, where the branch stopped a massive round of compulsory redundancies.  

At the same time, we also need to look at sector-wide answers to the underlying issues. That is why I am glad to announce that UCU's higher education committee recently decided to investigate new policies on student distribution that could reduce volatility in student intake and place the whole sector on a more stable footing. This work will now be taken forward as a matter of urgency and you will hear more about it in due course.  

In solidarity

Jo Grady 
UCU general secretary