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Love the UCU

13 February 2023

It's Valentine's Day tomorrow and we are back on the picket lines:

Picket for Valentine's Day

Strike days this week include Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 February over pay, casualisation, equality pay gaps and workloads, as well as cuts to our USS pensions.

UCU strikes are having an impact

9 February 2023

Today the UCU agreed to meet Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) with the mediators Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) next Monday 13 and Tuesday 14 February to discuss our pay and working conditions dispute and hopefully a way forward. This is another clear sign that your magnificent support is working.

Action short of a strike

4 February 2023

Don't forget that we are continuously on "Action Short of a Strike" (ASOS) in between the full strike days. ASOS includes:

  • working to contract
  • not covering for absent colleagues
  • removing uploaded materials related to, and/or not sharing materials related to, lectures or classes that will be or have been cancelled as a result of strike action
  • not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action
  • not undertaking any voluntary activities.

We are all on strike: Thursday, Friday, and Wednesday: November 24,25, & 30

23 November 2022

You have had plenty of emails from Head Office about the industrial action coming up and you should have received some from us, the local branch. Unfortunately, Aston's email server is still making life difficult for us. We are emailing from the domain name, astonucu.org, and they have recognised that as legitimate. But it is still falling foul of spam filters and quarantine. Check those too. In the meantime, I have asked them to exclude us from the filters.

Congratulations!

29 October 2022

The national UCU vote has made it absolutely clear what we think of the pay, conditions, and pensions foisted on us by our employers. 81.14% are in favour of taking industrial action, which will be national and much easier to coordinate this time. It is our last real chance to make a difference to the quality of our lives and the quality of higher education. We must make it count, each and every one of us, by supporting all the action on all occasions. 

New ballots: Please make sure you vote!

12 September 2022

It is vital we have our say in the latest UCU ballots for strike action. There are two ballots, one for the pension and one for pay and conditions. The National UCU is recommending a yes vote for both and this time it will be different: the ballot is aggregated across all universities so if there is more than 50% in favour of strike action, all the universities will be part of it. This will make our actions more effective and give us the best chance of winning in what is an essential battle.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU VOTE