The Friday email: 24 February 2023

UCU Rising: VOTE YES NOW!

UCU members in higher education should by now have received their ballot papers for our re-ballot in our pay and conditions and USS pensions disputes. It is vitally important that we win this re-ballot to extend our mandate through to the summer, hold our employers' feet to the fire and deliver the sector-defining deals that you deserve. 

As soon as you receive your ballot paper make sure that you fill it in and stick it in the postbox. We cannot afford to wait. Once you have voted let us know by filling in this form and sharing on social media tagging @ucu, @UCEA1 and @UniversitiesUK.

At UCU head office we have started texting members to confirm their votes and today texted over 10,000 members in one day. If you do receive a text from one of our dedicated ThruText volunteers, please make sure to let them know that you have voted YES as soon as possible. 

If you have already voted and let us know then your task is to speak to ten of your colleagues and make sure that they have done the same. Make sure that you don't speak to anyone in the workplace without asking them if they have voted and if they are not a member, sign them up!

Respect FE e-ballot opens Friday 3 March

Members in further education colleges (England) will be invited to show support for a national aggregated strike action ballot on pay, workload and national bargaining in a consultative e-ballot opening on Friday 3 March. Please look out for an email containing your unique link to vote next Friday. 

All are welcome to join general secretary Jo Grady and others for our special online UCU Live event to launch the Respect FE campaign on Thursday 2 March 18:30 on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Click here for more information about the Respect FE campaign and new 'get the vote out' leaflets, posters and stickers.

Strike action at Havant and South Downs College

UCU members at Havant and South Downs College (HSDC) took part in strike action on Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 February in a dispute about pay. National Education Union (NEU) members at HSDC were also on strike. NEU and UCU are working in partnership to win fair pay after a decade of below inflation pay increases at the college.

Northern Ireland further education: pay and conditions dispute

In response to lecturers not yet receiving payment for the 2021/22 pay award, coupled with a failure by DfE to allocate college budgets, the Northern Ireland further education committee (FEC) took the decision to escalate action short of strike (ASOS) in the ongoing dispute about pay and workload. From the week of Monday 20 February 2023, members have been instructed not to co-operate with Education Training Inspectorate (ETI) inspection, to maintain registers in Excel or paper format rather than input to the EBS system, and to refuse co-operation with the DfE's FE Review until such time the department allocates a budget to the employers enabling resolution of the lecturer pay dispute. Authority has also been granted by the national officers for further escalation should such become necessary.

Redundancies at University of East Anglia

The crisis at University of East Anglia deepens. UEA UCU branch has passed a vote of no confidence in the vice-chancellor and senior leaders. Preparations to go into dispute are being made as demands for information about the university's finances and a coherent recovery plan continue to be met with little response. Supporters can sign this joint union letter and continue to send messages of solidarity to UEA UCU via Twitter.

UCU national and Scotland elections 2023: use your vote

Elections for UCU officer and national executive committee (NEC) positions and elections for honorary treasurer of UCU Scotland and members of the UCU Scotland executive committee opened on Thursday 26 January. The election ballot will close on Wednesday 1 March, so please vote as soon as possible. It is no longer possible to request replacement voting papers.

Academic-related, professional services staff (ARPS) open meeting, 2 March

Following on from the well-attended ARPS open meeting on 16 February, which provided a forum for ARPS members to air concerns, share issues and find solidarity, the ARPS committee are organising a second meeting on Thursday 2 March 13:00. ARPS members are encouraged to attend and should register in advance.

UCU week of action against workplace racism 2023

The UCU week of action (22-28 February) is an annual event highlighting the need to fight racism in the workplace. Branches are encouraged to hold their own events around this year's theme. Materials this year are designed for members and branches to use on picket lines in support of the current phase of industrial action. Let us know what you are planning and we can add it to the week of action page.

UCU LGBT+ research conference

The UCU LGBT+ research conference will take place on Friday 19 May. The call for papers has an extended deadline of Friday 10 March; please complete the proposal form.

We are also looking for peer reviewers. The peer review will take place between 2 March and 20 March. It is not essential to have previous peer review experience. If you are interested in peer reviewing for this conference please complete this form by Thursday 2 March 18:00.

UCU statement on the earthquake in Turkey and Syria

UCU stands in solidarity with the people of Turkey and Syria affected by the devastating earthquake on 6 February. In order to support education union relief efforts on the ground, UCU has agreed to donate to the Education International (EI) solidarity fund. 

SOS NHS coalition national demonstration, 11 March

The SOS NHS coalition has called a national demonstration in London on Saturday 11 March to respond urgently to the NHS crisis and to bring striking workers from the NHS, different sectors and different unions in one big action. UCU is supporting the event and UCU president Janet Farrar will be speaking.