Published: 7th May, 2018
As explained in the Strike FAQ, UCU members should not read or respond to any emails whilst on strike, and should immediately delete, unread, all emails on return to work — except for those from students. During strike periods, we ask you to put an out-of-office auto-reply on your emails. We suggest the following text — though of course…
Published: 2nd May, 2018
The scandal about the Home Office’s mistreatment of the Windrush generation has dominated the news in the past week. Students at UK universities have also been victims of the ‘hostile environment’ as this story in the Financial Times makes clear, and British universities have themselves become ‘enforcers‘. The University of Leicester is complicit. At the…
Published: 28th March, 2018
Last week, University of Leicester employees were the lucky recipients of two reports. One contained the results of the 2017 staff survey – our response is here. The other was the Gender Pay Gap Report. Below, one ‘dejected but unsurprised’ colleague explains why the institution’s proposed strategies for change are ‘narrow, unradical, and wholly inadequate’….
Published: 21st March, 2018
Here are two lovely fliers distributed at a meeting of Leicester Students’ Union – where students took the decision to back UCU in any future strike action over the pensions dispute. PDFs of the fliers are here – lists and here – sausages & classroom. A more generic one – i.e. without specific references to…
Published: 20th March, 2018
You may have received and read an ‘addressing the facts‘ email from USS. Please see below for a counter argument, as prepared by Leeds UCU: Members will be receiving an ‘urgent update’ from the USS trustee today. We would like to offer some further information on this update. We note that the trustee points out…
Published: 15th March, 2018
Today was a day of high spirits. The excellent news from yesterday afternoon that strike pay is to be deducted at a rate of 2 days per month over the next 7 months resulted in a particularly buoyant mood on the picket lines. (More info on this deduction agreement is here.) As we came together…
Published: 14th March, 2018
Our branch negotiating team met with members of ULT today in order to discuss operational matters related to the current industrial action. It was a cordial and productive meeting in which we were able to find many points of agreement. I am delighted to report the extremely welcome outcomes of that meeting. University of Leicester…
Published: 14th March, 2018
Briefly, yesterday the press informed the world that the strike action would be called off from today, but after the proposed deal was rejected, we resolved to stay out on strike. So we were pleased to wake up to a crisp and sunny spring morning, and at last it seemed that the weather was on…
Published: 13th March, 2018
Flier produced March 13 to explain UCU branches’ decisive rejection of ‘deal’ proposed by UCU and UUK negotiators on March 12. Available here as PDF and here as Word doc – feel free to adapt as you wish.
Published: 13th March, 2018
Was that the most intense day so far? It’s been an emotional 20 hours. Yesterday evening we learned that our UCU negotiators had struck a deal with their Universities UK counter-parts. UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt was selling it as a good deal – a done deal? But it took no time to work out…