The Friday email: 23 June 2023

UCU Rising: gaining support for the MAB

This week UCU members in higher education have seen increased support for the marking and assessment boycott (MAB) from students and the public, with increasing divisions showing among employers. 

Management at more and more universities are waking up to the fact that the only way out of this dispute is through negotiation. This week Glasgow Caledonian University and University of Exeter joined the calls for Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) to return to negotiations.  

Increasing numbers of higher education branches have followed the union's escalation strategy in the pay and working conditions dispute and escalated to strike action over punitive deductions over the marking and assessment boycott. Please show your solidarity to members who will be striking next week at the universities of Leicester, Brighton, Leeds, Lancaster, Essex, Newcastle, Stirling, and Durham.

More and more students are showing their solidarity with UCU members taking part in the MAB, and demanding that their universities settle the dispute rather than threaten their graduations and devalue their degrees. 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. Thousands of students at the University of Cambridge may be unable to graduate because UCEA is refusing to restart negotiations. Click here to read University of Cambridge's announcement and general secretary Jo Grady's response. 

Members at many universities continue to face punitive deductions for taking part in the MAB. We are stepping up the campaign against the most hawkish employers with plans being drawn up for mass member events at branches facing 100% deductions. 

Every day that passes our action is being felt more and is gaining more traction with the public. This week we have secured primetime coverage on BBC Radio 4, Channel 5, Sky News and regional channels across the UK. Our action has also been picked up by the Sunday Times, The Independent, The Telegraph, and The Times. We will continue to make the case for our members and students to build a wall of pressure on our employers. 

Respect FE: building the campaign

On Thursday 22 June we held a UCU Live online launch event for the Respect FE campaign and you can catch up now via YouTube. 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.

Build the Union month: October 2023

Preparations are being made for the biggest recruitment campaign in the union's history this October. This recruitment drive will involve every part of the union and every branch; we will all have a part to play. Keep an eye on our Build the Union resources page, which is being updated with the latest information and materials. 

There is no need to wait until October to start recruiting your colleagues, so all members are encouraged to speak to colleagues today, listen to their concerns, explain how the union can help, and get them signed up. The bigger the union, the bigger the wins. 

News from Stanmore and Weston colleges

A strike ballot over low pay and poor working conditions opened on Thursday 22 June at Stanmore College in London. The college has offered staff a paltry 1% consolidated pay increase alongside a £1.5k one off payment. It has also attempted to reconfigure its offer but the envelope of money available has not changed.

UCU slammed outgoing Weston College principal Sir Paul Phillips for running the college as his 'personal fiefdom' after FE Week reported it is facing a recruitment crisis. Sir Paul Phillips is the highest-paid principal in England and received a 16% uplift to his basic pay last year, whereas his employees, some of whom have to use food banks, received just 3%. Click here for the full story.

Falmouth University on-campus academic staff brought in-house

UCU welcomed Falmouth University's decision to bring on-campus academic staff in-house from Tuesday 1 August 2023. The move means staff will automatically be enrolled onto the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS). All new campus-based academic jobs will also be employed directly through the university, rather than a subsidiary company. The decision brings a long-running dispute to an end with Falmouth UCU members overwhelmingly voting to resolve the dispute and work constructively with management going forward. 

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
• having announced 77 redundancies across professional services earlier this month, University of East Anglia (UEA) announced details of its academic redundancies this week. 86% of these cuts fall in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, with 31 jobs set to be cut. 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.

The impact of generative AI on UK academic and professional services staff

Researchers based at the universities of Bristol, Swansea, Keele and Munster are interested in the thoughts of academic and professional services staff on the ways with which generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, are being used in UK universities and potentially impacting working practices. Please complete this short survey which should take no longer than 10 minutes.

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. 

Celebrating 50 years of Palestinian universities, 45 years of friendship

Since 1978, Fobzu has been working in the UK to ensure that Palestinians teaching and learning in tough conditions do not stand alone. Palestinian higher education is under attack; click here to find out more about how you can help. To receive updates about higher education in Palestine, Fobzu's work and our events click here.