Respect FE Live reminder and Build the Union month

Respect FE: Live tonight!

Our Respect FE industrial action ballot closes in a week so if you haven't done so already, please return your ballot without delay (the last safe date to post is tomorrow Thursday 5 October).

To mark the final week of our ballot for action to secure a better deal for further education (FE) staff, please join us for a special UCU Live online event and invite your colleagues, family and friends to tune in tonight, Wednesday 4 October, at 18:30 on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

It's your union and the only way things will change in FE is if we act together so please remember to vote, remind your colleagues to do the same, and join us tonight online at 18:30.

Build the Union month

We are stepping into October which marks the start of our Build the Union month.

As you know, winning a ballot needs a combination of communications, political lobbying and all the hard work that is constantly happening in branches and our UCU national and regional offices. Yet local workplace organising remains one of our fundamental tools for winning. We know that colleagues having conversations with each other about the union, the ballot, and the sector in general have an enormous impact.

To that end, UCU has produced guidance on initiating those conversations, concentrating on member recruitment.

The premise is that, if each of our members were to contact 10 of their colleagues to join the union, then we would build our membership and increase our leverage with employers. 

Remember how, when you were a student, some of those little conversations that you had with your favourite teachers ended up being life-changing. Now each small but crucial conversation that you are going to have with your colleagues will be sector-transforming.

In solidarity

Jo Grady
UCU general secretary