The Friday email: 14 July 2023

UCU Rising: keep up the pressure as talks resume

Today (Friday 14 July) UCU are meeting with the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) on the pay and working conditions dispute in higher education and on the ongoing marking and assessment boycott (MAB). We will provide updates on these talks as soon as we can.

In the meantime, and for the avoidance of doubt, our campaign and the marking and assessment boycott (MAB) continue. Next week Cardiff, Leicester, Lancaster and Exeter universities will be taking part in strike action to fight back against punitive salary deductions. Earlier this week, at University of Edinburgh's graduation ceremony, students expressed support for staff who are fighting for fair treatment and fair pay.

It is crucial that we keep up the pressure so please continue to hold the line and give your negotiators the leverage they need to deliver a deal. If you are not in an HE institution or not involved in marking and assessment activities, please support your colleagues by donating to the fighting fund.

Respect FE: the money is there, now fight for our share

Today the Department for Education announced colleges will receive an additional £185m in 2023/24 and £285m in 2024/25. Education secretary Gillian Keegan said the funding is 'equivalent' to that provided to schools for the 6.5% teachers' pay award also just announced. Whilst the additional funding is welcome we need to fight to make sure this money is invested in staff and in the kind of settlement the sector needs.

Earlier this week we wrote to college leaders in England setting out our demands and putting employers on notice that if they don't address the crisis in FE pay, workload and national bargaining, then UCU will move to an industrial action ballot in early September. The full list of college branches who will be balloted can be found here.

Before you break up and hopefully get to enjoy a rest over the summer please do your bit for the campaign:

• sign and share the pledge setting out UCU's demands on pay, workload and national bargaining
• check and update your details online to make sure you get your ballot paper in September
• keep in touch with Respect FE over the summer on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Meanwhile, a strike ballot will open at five colleges across North East England over low pay. The colleges being balloted include Bede Sixth Form College, NETA Training Group, Stockton Riverside College, The Skills Academy, and Redcar and Cleveland College. They are all part of employer group Education Training Collective (ETC). 

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
• UCU members at the University of East Anglia were on strike over the continued threat of redundancy faced by more than 100 staff. Branches are encouraged to pass motions in support of UEA staff (template available here) and donate to the UEA UCU hardship fund.

Defend jobs: boycott the University of Brighton! 

UCU has announced an academic boycott of the University of Brighton who plan to sack over a hundred members of staff, despite £ millions being spent on building projects over the last two years. The 'greylisting' of the university, which is the ultimate sanction the union can impose, calls on members, other trade unions, labour movement organisations and the international academic community to support our members at Brighton who are taking industrial action to defend jobs. 'Greylisting' actions include not applying for jobs at an institution, not speaking at events or writing for journals based at that institution or engaging in research projects outside of contractual obligations. Find out more about the campaign at the University of Brighton and how you can support the academic boycott here. #SaveBrightonUni #BoycottBrightonUni

Damning new report shows prison education needs complete revamp

The new Ofsted report shows the depth of the crisis in prison education caused by ongoing underinvestment and a lack of appreciation for the value of the work prison educators do. The report highlights the massive problems posed by staff shortages, which it says 'still limit the quality of reading education in most prisons'. In fifteen of the prisons inspected by Ofsted, the report points out, 'a shortage of qualified English teachers made it difficult to provide reading lessons'. Click here for UCU's response.

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. 

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.

Ninth Education International world congress, 11-13 July

Earlier this week, UCU president Justine Mercer and UCU's international policy officer Rob Copeland participated in the Education International (EI) World Congress. Organised around the theme of 'Growing our unions, elevating our professions, defending democracy'; the online Congress brought together education trade unions from around the world. Highlights included a comprehensive progress report from EI general secretary David Edwards and inspirational opening remarks by EI president Susan Hopgood. 

Support RMT's campaign to save our ticket offices 

The government and train operating companies have now revealed their plans to close almost 1,000 ticket offices across the UK, putting 2,300 jobs at risk. Closing ticket offices will be catastrophic for passengers in general, but particularly for disabled people, the elderly, people with learning difficulties, non-English speakers, and many more people who rely on being able to speak to someone at a station in order to get around.

Public consultations have opened for each train company and they will close on Wednesday 26 July. It is imperative that we get the biggest possible public opposition registered to these plans; you can respond to the public consultations online via RMT's website.

Check your details on MyUCU

Before you break up for the summer holiday, please check and update your details on MyUCU to ensure that you will receive important information about our campaigns. As part of our data management and preparation for upcoming industrial action ballots, UCU staff have also been contacting members whose email or postal address appear to be out of date. If you receive a text message from us, please say hello.