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News Archives

Strikes 2020: Day 2… Leicester UCU Unaffordables

Published: 21st February, 2020

Leicester UCU strikers were out again for the second of 14 days of strike action against cuts to pensions and pay. Today we were safe from yesterday’s heavy downpours, the only rain experienced was The Weather Girl’s ‘It’s Raining Men’ ringing out from the Victoria Park picket line. Every picket was full of striking staff…

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Strikes 2020: Day 1… it never rains…

Published: 20th February, 2020

Nice to see a photo from our Nov-Dec 2019 pickets adorning the BBC’s pre-strike story. But BBC, please, it’s not only lecturers who are now striking – also researchers, contract teachers and numerous professional services employees: counsellors, librarians, technicians, and others! Today it rained… but we were there. Sometimes the rain stopped… Then we got…

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On demonstrations and deductions – you decided!

Published: 19th February, 2020

As you know our institution’s leadership team offered us a ‘deal’. If we agreed to refrain from campus demonstrations and agreed to report our strike action using their online form, then they would ‘generously’ spread pay deductions over three months. We consulted with all Leicester UCU members, via an e-ballot. That ballot closed at midday…

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Press Release: University of Leicester workers vote for campus demonstrations

Published: 19th February, 2020

The following was issued to news media outlets in Leicester on Wednesday 19 Febuary. Tomorrow (February 20) lecturers, researchers and professional services staff at University of Leicester (members of the University and College Union) will walk out on the first of 14 days of strike action. They will be joined by colleagues at De Montfort,…

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Why we are striking again – and other FAQs

Published: 18th February, 2020

Why are we striking again? In a nutshell, because although UCU’s negotiators in both disputes have made progress, our employers have not shifted enough.  As UCU’s general secretary Jo Grady has explained we have made considerable progress in the USS dispute – and Universities UK has the opportunity to end that dispute right now. The situation…

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Disruption and deductions – have your say!

Published: 13th February, 2020

This is the text of an email sent to all members of Leicester UCU. If you are a member of Leicester UCU, please check your inbox for this email: it contains a unique link to the poll. You cannot access it from here, for obvious reasons. We need your opinion! Please think carefully about the…

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On the forthcoming strike…

Published: 7th February, 2020

Email sent to all Leicester UCU members, 7 February You will have received – and hopefully read – the recent email from Jo Grady, UCU’s general secretary. You may also have seen the announcement on UCU’s website; or read newspaper reports, e.g. in the Financial Times or Times Higher. In a nutshell, our elected representatives on UCU’s higher education committee…

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Anti-Chinese racism on campus

Published: 7th February, 2020

Leicester UCU Officers were appalled to hear of incidents of anti-Chinese racism on campus, targeting students as a result of the spread of Corona virus. We support the statements from both Leicester Students Union and the University Registrar in calling this out as unwelcome at our University and in our city. Next week is UCU’s week of action against…

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Joint statement on JEP

Published: 22nd January, 2020

Following the USS strikes of February and March 2018, Leicester UCU and University of Leicester’s leadership team established a joint pensions group. This group has met regularly since. Below and attached is a joint statement on the second report of the Joint Expert Panel, published in December. We are pleased that we have been able…

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Nita Sanghera – R.I.P.

Published: 17th January, 2020

We are shocked and saddened to learned of the death yesterday of UCU’s president-elect Nita Sanghera. Below we repost the words of two of Nita’s close friends and comrades, Rhiannon Lockley and Dave Muritu. For most of us at Leicester UCU, we knew Nita as a result of the generous support she offered us during…

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