Category Archives: General News

UCU Boycott of Senate House (University of London):

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The UCU congress voted last week to boycott Senate House, the administrative centre of the University of London (UoL), because of its treatment of cleaning, catering and security staff and others not directly employed.

It is hoped the move will pressure the university into bringing the predominantly BAME and female staff in-house into direct employment, strengthening their workplace rights and providing the benefits enjoyed by other employees at the institution, such as equal terms on sick pay.

There have been 17 days of strike action since September 2017, when UoL cleaners and security began a campaign to end outsourcing, with calls for a boycott of Senate House beginning in December 2018. More than 180 Senate House events and 35 seminars were relocated, and more than 400 academics and 23 UCU branches have expressed support for the workers.

Read more in the Guardian

Find out how to observe our participation in this boycott

UCU Response to the Augur Review of education funding in England:

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Although focused on England, this review has the potential to seriously affect Universities in Wales because our systems are so entwined.

Responding to the funding review from Philip Augar, the University and College Union (UCU) said that the review had missed an opportunity to explore radical alternatives to the status quo and risked delivering an even worse version of the politically toxic system it was supposed to improve.

UCU head of policy and campaigns, Matt Waddup, said: “The prime minister called the Augar review because the current funding system was so politically toxic. Unfortunately, this review looks like a wasted opportunity to develop radical changes that would make a real difference for students and institutions.”

Read the full response.

Stand up to Trump

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The Stand Up to Trump Coalition, are planning to march in Cardiff on Saturday 1st June at 12PM, venue tba (Hopefully City Hall).

There will be a meeting to discuss details on Thursday 23rd May at 6.30pm in Cathays Community Centre, Cathays Terrace, Cardiff.

There is also a banner making workshop planned for the following Thursday, 30th at the same place and time.

They will be putting on coaches to the national demonstration in London on 4th June, details tba.

University of London Academic Boycott

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There is a currently a growing academic boycott of the University of London, in solidarity with UoL outsourced workers who are fighting to be brought in-house and treated equally to other UoL staff.

Following repeated protests and strikes, the university continues to refuse to sit down and negotiate with the outsourced migrant workers who are demanding the end of outsourcing and the discrimination in entails.

Furthermore, the University has  already been caught providing misinformation on Twitter  (then deleting the relevant tweets once caught out) and have refused to answer the IWGB’s 10 questions.

All this comes after the research NGO Corporate Watch released a damning report into the University of London’s outsourcing plans.

The IWGB are asking supporters to help the workers by pledging to boycott the university and more than 35 Senate House Seminars  and 180 Events have relocated in support of the boycott and  More than 430 academics have individually pledged solidarity to the Boycott,

 As part of the Boycott Senate House campaign they are asking supporters to have the motion passed at their local UCU branches.  So far 25 UCU branches have done so, proving that it is possible to have solidarity between different kinds of university workers.

Their next step is the UCU Congress, where the Boycott Senate House motion will be presented by one of the delegations.

Reasons for VSS

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Many of you may have seen this article from The Guardian highlighting the amount of Academics considering leaving the profession due to stress.

This is particularly relevant to Cardiff given the Voluntary Severance Scheme currently being undertaken.

It has also made us curious. Are you considering taking Voluntary Severance? If so why is that? If you could e-mail your responses to UCU@cardiff.ac.uk we’d be very interested to hear them and hopefully the information should allow us to defend you better in the future.

Last Chance to Vote in the UCU General Secretary Election

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You should have all received your postal ballot papers for the election of the UCU General Secretary. They need to be returned by Thursday 23rd May and the postage-paid return envelope is 2nd class post, so please do send your ballot ASAP (by Monday at the latest).

Turnout in the these elections tends to be very low (13-14% in the last three General Secretary elections), with membership inertia playing a greater role than is desirable.

The retirement of Sally Hunt has created an opportunity for a more open contest this year with two candidates from the Union’s membership in HE choose from (this is unprecedented) as well as a long-standing national UCU head office employee.

We urge you to read or listen to the manifestos of the three candidates, and to exercise your right to vote on the future leadership of the union:

You can also watch a video of a recent hustings event.

UCU General Secretary Hustings, Cardiff, Saturday 11th May

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The election for the new General Secretary of UCU is open and closes at noon on Thursday 23rd May. The General Secretary is the most senior position in the Union and the General Secretary will lead the Union over the next 5 years UCU has only ever had one General Secretary since its founding, Sally Hunt, who was General Secretary for 12 years.

This election is arguably the most important one in the Union and it is crucial that everyone votes! We are hosting a ‘hustings’ where candidates for General Secretary talk about why we should elect them and respond to questions from the floor.

Do you want to find out more about the current state of University and College education in the UK – across higher, further, adult, and prison education sectors? Do you want to influence the direction of the University and College Union for the next five years?

Find out how the candidates for General Secretary will address issues across the sector and change UCU for the better! We encourage all UCU members to attend!

When and where: Saturday 11th May, 1pm-2.30pm, Room E0.15, School of Mathematics, Senghennydd Road, Cardiff.

Vote in the UCU National General Secretary Election

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Following the resignation of Sally Hunt, a vacancy has arisen in the position of general secretary of the University and College Union. The position of general secretary is a full-time, salaried position as the union’s chief executive – in other words this is the most important vote for a UCU officer in a long while.

The candidates, with links to their manifestoes, are:

You can view a video of hustings hosted by Cambridge UCU. You can also read the emails written to members and already circulated by UCU head office.

The election for UCU General Secretary opened on Monday 29 April and closes at noon on Thursday 23 May 2019. Ballot material will be dispatched on 29 April – the union knows that this can take a few days to arrive.

If any member has not received the ballot paper to which they are entitled by Tuesday 7 May, they should request a duplicate using an online form which will be made available on this page. If you have any queries about the election process, please contact Catherine Wilkinson on: cwilkinson@ucu.org.uk (she’s head of constitution and committees).

Candidate info for position of UCU General Secretary

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The candidates for UCU General Secretary have now been announced and campaigning has begun. The candidates (in alphabetical order) are listed below, linked to their websites, where you can read about how they’d run our union, as well as find out about who’s endorsing their campaigns and why:

Your vote will be a postal ballot (between 19th April and 23rd May), and we urge you all to use it. As we’ve seen over the last year, whoever is in charge of our union has a huge say over momentous decisions about our futures. This is an important one.