The Friday email: 16 June 2023

Respect FE: live launch

Please join us for a very special UCU Live online event to launch the new Respect FE campaign on on Thursday 22 June at 18:00 on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter.

Our campaign is for a different kind of further education and a new deal for college staff that recognises the value of the work you do and calls for professional respect as well as better pay and working conditions. Please sign the Respect FE pledge that sets out our demands on pay, workload, binding national bargaining and a just transition on climate.

In the coming weeks and months we will be building our campaign in college workplaces as well as taking our demands to the employers and the politicians but the most important part of any campaign is you! You can help prepare for the autumn strike ballot by checking and updating your details on MyUCU now to ensure you receive your postal ballot papers.

Industrial action across colleges

UCU members at Kirklees College, Bradford College, Leeds City College and Harrogate College in Yorkshire and Humberside have also been striking for fair pay and working conditions this week.

Meanwhile, City College Norwich, Barnsley College, Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group, York College and Stanmore College are being balloted for strike action.

UCU Rising: strike action against punitive deductions

Increasing numbers of higher education branches have followed the union's escalation strategy and escalated to strike action over punitive deductions over the marking and assessment boycott (MAB) in the pay and working conditions dispute.

Please show your solidarity to members who will be striking next week at Leeds, Bristol, Liverpool John Moores, Heriot-Watt, Keele, Durham, Queen Mary, Edinburgh, Brighton, Leicester and Newcastle.

Student support for our action and members remains high and the National Union of Students (NUS) has organised an open letter urging Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) to settle with UCU; please encourage your local student officers to sign.

Fighting back against redundancies at universities

UCU members are fighting back against redundancies at a number of institutions. Please give them your support:

• University of Kent management reneged on an agreement with UCU to ensure job security among arts and humanities academics. The announcement came in the wake of a proposal to put large numbers of professional services staff at risk. We encourage all UCU members to sign this petition
• staff at the University of Brighton are fighting back against management's plans to sack over a hundred members of staff; they won their ballot with 90% voting for strike action on a 61% turnout. You can donate to the branch's fundraiser here
• University of East Anglia (UEA) announced that over 200 staff are at risk of redundancy. Branches are encouraged to pass motions in support of UEA staff (template available here) and donate to the UEA UCU hardship fund.

Online training for the workload campaign

Online training for workload reps continues over the summer. For more information on the workload campaign and the role of the workload rep please contact Alex Lancaster. To register on workload reps 1 or 2 training sessions please follow the links below:

• Wednesday 26 July
• Friday 11 August
• Wednesday 6 September
• Friday 8 September
• Wednesday 11 October.

Trans Pride London, 8 July

Trans Pride London will take place on Saturday 8 July and the trade union bloc will be meeting at 13:00. It will be a show of solidarity with all trans and non-binary people. Can you join the trade union bloc for this march? To register your interest and get more info please complete this form. You can also use the same form to register interest in joining the UCU walking group at Pride London on Saturday 1 July.