Branch updates

News in brief from SUCU Committee.

Great first week of action!

Published on

Dear SUCU members,

An amazing day two of the action today! Our pickets have been solid and strong despite inclement weather on both days so far, and we were very grateful for support from local MP Olivia Blake today! If you saw the General Secretary’s email yesterday you’ll have seen that she is confident that if we can keep this up, we’ll see a shift in the employers’ position.

This week was half term and we were glad to welcome some very young picketers to Jessop West. We’d love to see as many dogs as you have available at the picket on Monday!

Our teachouts continue strong, and we have a great line up of talks next week! On Tuesday we’re hosting a screening of the film The Battle For Orgreave with activists from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign. Register to reserve your space here! On Wednesday, we will be rallying after pickets on Wednesday at 12.30pm after Firth Court. Also on Wednesday, we are going to have picketers on every single building --talk to people in your work areas about making Wednesday a huge action!

You may have seen some of the media coverage of the strike yesterday – the General Secretary on Radio 4’s Today programme, the segment on Channel 4 news, and branch VP and national pay negotiator Robyn Orfitelli on BBC Look North.

We are meeting the Vice Chancellor with representatives from the Students’ Union again on Tuesday 26th February. We’d like your feedback on anything you think we should be raising at that meeting. We’re glad that all parties are continue to work together constructively at this point, but at the same time we want all UCU members to be asking tough questions of their leaders right now. It’s completely unacceptable that the employers are reluctant to move at speed here – the disruption that is currently being caused is on their conscience, and we need to apply as much pressure as we can.

Please take the weekend to rest and recharge and we look forward to seeing you again on the pickets on Monday morning. As ever, if you have questions, concerns, or feedback, please get in touch.

All best wishes,

SUCU Committee

January 2020 Newsletter

Published on

Welcome to our first monthly newsletter of 2020! In this edition, you can find information on our on-going disputes, recent and upcoming local and national union meetings and events and much more.   Updates on Industrial Action and Bargaining  This week, our on-going disputes on pay and pensions got a big boost from the news that an additional 14 branches can now join in industrial action after re-balloting their members. The union’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) met yesterday to make a decision on whether - and when - further action in the disputes will take place. Motions forwarded by our branch (see below) on the disputes from our January meeting were conveyed to the HEC in advance. We will be sending out information on the decisions made by the HEC early next week.  As a reminder, we are still undertaking Action Short of Strike (ASOS). External examiners have been submitting their resignations -- further information on resigning as an external examiner can be found here. In addition, we recommend that members decline to take part in work activities outside of their normal contracted days, including Saturday Open Days, and to withdraw any such offer already made, unless explicitly written into their contracts. General guidance on declining voluntary work is available here. Please come to the meeting on February 13 (information below) to learn more about taking action short of a strike or contact the branch in the meantime with any pressing questions not covered in the previous link.  In terms of the USS dispute, there is a huge amount of activity going on currently, with mediated discussions involving UCU, UUK and USS considering the Joint Expert Panel's recommendations alongside frequent meetings between UCU and UUK's negotiators. Detailed discussions on the 2020 valuation will begin in February, and offer the chance of finding a valuation approach which we can believe in. The big question is whether employers will make the moves needed to avert potential strike action this spring by offering to pay the unjustified contribution increases and give us reassurance over the future of the scheme. Detailed information on the on-going pay negotiations can be found in the emails sent by the General Secretary and pay negotiators earlier this week in response to the latest offer by the employers.      Branch Positions on Industrial Disputes from January Meeting  At a standing-room only Sheffield UCU general meeting on Thursday 23 Jan, members voted to support three motions related to our industrial disputes.  The first motion called for continued coordination of our pay and pensions disputes. The second motion calls on national negotiators "to prioritise the claims relating to casualisation, gender and race pay gap, and workload, and in relation to pay, the claims of staff employed on contracts at grade 8 and below", and on the HEC to "put any deal that represents significant progress on these areas of priority to a members' ballot". The third motion calls for a plan to be put into place in the eventuality that substantial progress is made in one of the two disputes but not in the other, allowing time for any offer to be put to members and for consultation with members on progressing the other dispute.     Reminder on Strike Deductions, Strike Pay and Donating to the Hardship Fund As a reminder, deductions for last year’s industrial action will be taken from our January and February paychecks. Once pay has been deducted, you may apply to the national union for strike pay. Members earning £30,000 or more will be able to claim up to £50 from the third day onwards, while members earning below £30,000 will be able to claim up to £75 per day from the second day onwards. Application to the fund is via the online form: https://ucu.custhelp.com/app/fighting_fund/ In addition, members who are disproportionately hit financially by taking part in industrial action, e.g. sole-income households, members on hourly-paid, part-time or fixed-term contracts, or due to other personal circumstances may apply for additional support from the SUCU Hardship Fund. Claims from lower paid members and those on insecure contracts will be prioritised. To apply to the SUCU Hardship fund, please fill out this form. All information will be treated as strictly confidential.  The SUCU Hardship Fund is made up of solidarity donations and branch funds. We ask members who had a dispensation not to strike to donate their earnings for the strike day/s to this fund. If you want to donate to the fund, you can do so using these details: Account name: UCU Sheffield 70 Hardship Fund Sort code: 60-83-01 Account number: 20391171  Please get in touch if you have any questions.     Lunchtime Training on Member Recruitment, Involvement and Support This semester, we will be running a two-part lunchtime training course, open to all members, on union involvement, organisation and campaigns. The aim of the training is to help members become active in the union and navigate how the union works nationally and locally. The first part of the training, on “Member Recruitment, Involvement & Support”, will be held next week, on Monday 3 February and Wednesday 5 February from, 12-1pm in Hicks F35. Please note that the same material will be delivered both days so if you would like to join Part 1 of the training either on 3 February or 5 February, please contact Caroline (c.j.metz@sheffield.ac.uk) or Eda (eyazici1@sheffield.ac.uk) and feel free to bring along your lunches. The second half of the training will focus on “Organising & campaigning” and will run in March. You will not need to have completed Part 1 in order to attend Part 2, but we advise that you make the most of this opportunity!   Meeting for Professional Services Members Professional Services members of Sheffield UCU have been meeting since before the November/ December strike to discuss issues that specifically pertain to their work areas across the University.  These meetings have proved to be supportive spaces where members can air concerns and gather views. The last meeting, held in January particularly focused on ASOS and members found it really useful to hear how our ongoing industrial action is working in different areas of the University and to discuss individual worries and queries about this phase of our dispute.  Members have been sent a link to our Google Survey where you can give us your opinion on how these meetings are working for you, and your ideas on their future. We want to make them worth attending and useful, so if you haven't done so already, please tell us what you think.  Our next meeting is on 11 February, 1-2pm in the John Pemberton Lecture Theatre B in Regent Court where we'll be able to discuss some of the initial ideas from the survey and also talk about a motion to take to the March meeting of the UCU Academic-Related and Professional Services meeting. Please do join us.      All-Member Meeting on Action Short of a Strike  On Thursday 13th February, from 1-2 pm in Hicks Lecture Theatre 7, we're holding an all-member meeting to discuss action short of a strike. We have been taking ASOS since November 25th 2019 and the committee have received a large number of enquiries from members about what that actually looks like and how we can maximise the effectiveness  of this action. Please come along to talk this through with other members, and please encourage people in your department or work area to come along as well.      10 Month Contract Survey We are hoping to gather member testimonies on the use of ten month contracts for use in our ongoing negotiations with university management to try to improve the terms of employment of our members. If you are, or have been, employed on these types of contracts, or are aware of their use in your department or elsewhere in the university, please fill in our survey.     Holocaust Memorial Day Many thanks to everyone who participated in our Holocaust Memorial Day event on January 30. UCU has put together a webpage of resources for HMD which can be accessed here.     Report Back on Academic Career Pathways (ACP) Action Group Meeting Thanks to everyone who came to our packed Action Group last week on the Academic Career Pathways (ACP). The meeting was standing room only, and the strength of feeling across the University on this issue was clear both from the numbers who attended and from the force of the questions and comments that were put to the representatives of HR. HR is now conducting a review of the first year of implementation of the ACP framework. SUCU has been asked to feed into the review, so we will be soliciting further feedback from members to inform our response: please watch out for further emails on this soon!     UCU Equality Research Conference A one-day conference for academics, researchers and activists conducting research on equality focusing on the areas of Data Casualisation and LGBT+ Mental Health Friday will be held on May 15th 2020, 10am – 4pm in Manchester. Further information and the call for papers can be found here.     Annual Meeting of Staff on Casualised Contracts A one-day meeting open to all members who are on casualised contracts (including GTAs, casual workers, and fixed-term contracts of any description) will be held on February 29 2020, 10am-4pm in London. The registration deadline is 14 February at 5pm.  Deadlines for nominations and submission of motions are available here.      Migrant Members’ Annual Conference, Thursday 27 February The inaugural migrant members' annual conference will be held on Thursday 27 February from 10:30 - 16:00 in London. The meeting  is open to all members who identify as migrants. The registration deadline is Thursday 13 February. Deadlines for nominations to the new migrant members' committee and submission of motions to the conference are available here.      Indian Universities Solidarity Statement At our general meeting on January 23, members expressed solidarity with universities and other protest sites in India currently experiencing serious attacks and violent repression by the state. A statement on the situation in India was shared at the meeting by a member and is available here.     Nita Sanghera  Sheffield UCU was so sorry to hear of the passing of Nita Sanghera, UCU's President-Elect. Nita was an inspiration to so many of us and a superb activist. We're thankful for her work and send our love and condolences to her family. Donations in her name may be made to John Taylor Hospice.    

December 2019 Newsletter

Published on

Thank you for Your Participation! Many thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s strike action. The tremendous participation on our picket lines, at our rallies, in our teach-outs, at our emergency general meetings and at our end of strike party shows the strength of feeling among the membership on key issues of employment. We are grateful for the support shown by students and staff beyond UCU and in the broader trade union movement. Together, we sent a strong message to UUK, UCEA and our university administration that we are unwilling to accept continued erosion of our pay and working conditions and increased contributions to our pension plan. Thirty-six additional institutions around the country that were unable to meet the participation threshold in the original pay and/or pensions ballots are now re-balloting for industrial action. This is certain to increase pressure on employer representatives to make meaningful concessions at the bargaining table. However, if sufficient concessions are not forthcoming, UCU may call for a renewed round of industrial action in the new year with a larger number of institutions participating.   Pay Deductions and ASOS The Vice-Chancellor has agreed that no pay from our eight day strike will be deducted in December, and that for all members, the deductions will be split between January and February and used for the benefit of students, who will be directly involved in the allocation of funds. Action short of a strike (ASOS) began on Thursday, December 5th. ASOS is a crucial component of our industrial action strategy. Our dispute is still live and ASOS enables us to make this visible beyond the strike, keeping the pressure on key decision makers in our universities and their national representatives in bargaining. In addition, working to contract is a powerful way to highlight the workload component of our pay claim by demonstrating just how much the sector depends on its workforce to work beyond our contracts on a regular basis, creating unmanageable workloads for so many of us. Members are asked to refuse to undertake voluntary work, not cover for absent colleagues, not reschedule lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action and to work to contract. The union is not currently calling for a marking boycott but may choose to do so as a possible escalation of the disputes in the coming months. More detailed guidance on ASOS may be found in the national industrial action FAQs (see questions 4-10, and 15), the national UCU information on working to contract, and the national UCU guidance on 'action short of strike' for academic-related and professional services staff (please note that this page includes guidance on a marking boycott, which is not as yet actioned). There is also ASOS advice on pp. 3-5 of our local SUCU guidance for members, as well as a template email auto-response for the ASOS period on p. 8. If you have specific questions about how to implement ASOS in your role or department, please contact the branch. University management have clarified that they do not intend to seek deductions for ASOS. They have indicated that they will be monitoring the progress of the dispute, and that if at any point in the future they change their position on ASOS deductions, they will be in communication with staff in advance. However, we would like to emphasise that we are not aware of any deductions being made for action short of a strike for any of our members in recent memory.   Updates on Bargaining On Tuesday, UCU negotiators met with UCEA, the employer-side organization that negotiates in our pay dispute, for the second time since the start of our strike action. They reported that our mandate for action is (slowly but steadily) moving the employers in a positive direction. Previously, UCEA has refused to engage with workload, casualisation, and equalities pay gaps on a sector wide level. In the most recent meeting, they began to discuss the type of framework that might be possible on a sector wide level for these issues. There remains a lot of work to do to ensure that any such 'frameworks' would have enough weight behind them to bring about real, substantive change, but this represents a significant shift in discussion. On pay, UCEA has previously claimed to have “no mandate” for alternation to their headline pay offer of 1.8%. After a decade of pay erosion, this represents an untenable and irresponsible position. We know that this erosion is the result of strategic choices being made by our employers, and the health of the sector demands they reverse it by shifting their priorities away from capital expenditure and overseas campuses, and towards staff and students. At the end of Tuesday's meeting, UCEA agreed to re-consult their member institutions regarding what movement they might be able to make in this area. As for the USS dispute, the publication of the Joint Expert Panel's report last week is expected to give new impetus to the talks. The report makes a number of substantial recommendations for change, and states that "a failure to take forward the recommendations in this report would mark a failure for members, employers and the sector".  We're expecting facilitated discussions on how to implement the recommendations to be the likely next step in the new year. It is important to note that the resolve of members in the strike action has significantly changed the dynamics of bargaining and progress is being made. The central issue remains the employers’ attempt to increase our contribution rate above 8%.  Employers continue to maintain that it is unaffordable for them to pick up the costs to keep this rate down, but the recent release of healthy financial results from many institutions (including Sheffield), in addition to the fact that post-92 institutions are already paying a higher rate, does not bear this out. Negotiators have also been pressing matters relating to the very serious problems concerning governance of the pensions scheme. Universities UK have attempted in recent meetings to hide behind a "lack of a mandate" from VCs to resolve the dispute. For that reason, it is imperative that we increase the pressure on VCs to force UUK to concede ground. While Koen Lamberts has assured SUCU that he will continue to do everything he can to try to resolve the disputes, we need to see not just words but action in this regard.   Requesting Money from -- and Donating to -- the Hardship Fund To help mitigate financial hardship from the strike, there are two sources of support: UCU’s national Fighting Fund and the local SUCU Hardship Fund. The national fund provides strike pay of up to £75/day for those earning under £30kpa, and £50/day for those earning more. You can apply once you have lost pay here. The SUCU Hardship Fund is for members who have been disproportionately hit financially by taking part in industrial action, e.g. sole-income households, members on hourly-paid, part-time or fixed-term contracts, or due to other personal circumstances. We are encouraging members to apply in the first instance to the national UCU Fighting Fund, as UCU has vastly greater resources nationally than we do locally. However, we recognise that the national Fighting Fund may still leave individuals in hardship, and our local SUCU Hardship Fund can then assist. Application to the fund is via the online form. We are also appealing for donations to the fund from members and friends of SUCU, and particularly from those unable to take part in industrial action. Please send donations to: account name: UCU Sheffield 70 Hardship Fund; sort code: 60-83-01; account number: 20391171.   Calling Professional Services Colleagues - We've Started Regular PS Member Meetings If you're feeling a bit isolated and/or want to discuss issues you're facing as a Professional Services member of staff taking strike action or ASOS (or anything else) come and join colleagues at regular meetings, meet UCU PS members from across the University and build our community. So far there have been two gatherings, one pre- and one post-strike, each attended by at least one member of our branch committee. Members raised a number of issues, including the inclusivity of strike action and picket lines, the impact of pickets on students, particularly those considered vulnerable and needing to access services, being the only UCU member in a department and the challenges of working with colleagues from other unions. They have been constructive meetings with a supportive atmosphere and those who have attended already (c. 40 members to each meeting) have found them useful. The hope is that they will support Professional Services staff to build networks across the University. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, January 14 from 12:00-1:00 in Richard Roberts B79. Please join us if you can and bring along PS colleagues who aren't in UCU if they're keen to find out more about it. Tea and coffee will be available and do feel free to bring and eat your lunch.   ACP Promotion Appeals and Action Group Our January 22 action group meeting will focus on academic career pathways. HR representatives from the university will be in attendance so that members can discuss with them directly any concerns or suggestions on the new framework and their experiences of applying for promotion (or not) this year. The meeting will be held in Hicks F41 from 1:00-2:00 pm. All members are welcome to attend. For those of you who took part in the first year of promotions round under the new academic careers pathways and were unsuccessful and unsatisfied with the decision, please note we have negotiated an extension to the deadline for lodging an intent to appeal. Previously, the deadline disadvantaged those taking strike action. The new deadline is 10am on 24 December. Those wishing to appeal will be asked in January to submit supporting documentation. Please visit the following link for further information: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/hr/thedeal/arr#tab01 If you are not sure if you are eligible to appeal but would like to, please lodge an intent to appeal anyway. Your appeal can always be withdrawn but you cannot join the process at a later stage if you have not lodged your intent to appeal before the deadline.   REF Special Cases Panel Deadlines for the Research Excellence Framework 2020 are approaching, and internally that means that decisions are being made on who to return, what outputs to include, and so on. As part of the REF Code of Practice, Sheffield has developed a process for people to disclose any equality-related circumstances that may mean they are entitled to reductions in outputs, as outlined here. Reasons for these may be family-related leave, illness, disability, caring responsibilities and more. UCU is represented on the committee assessing these applications through our branch E&D officer Mark Pendleton. All disclosures are confidential and used only for the purpose of considering REF outputs. At this stage there are not a large number of applications, so we do have some concerns that not all eligible members have submitted such requests. The final deadline for doing so is 17 January. Should you have any concerns or questions about the process, please contact the branch at ucu@sheffield.ac.uk.   Widening Participation and Fair Pay Like every other university in the country, Sheffield has an obligation to carry out widening participation ("WP") activities in its local area: activities intended to improve the attainment and inform the higher education decisions of students from demographics which are under-represented at university. These activities are carried out by a wide range of academic and professional services staff, both inside departments and more centrally. Just as with many of the rest of the university's activities, these activities have been associated with increasing managerialist pressure upon staff in recent years. Some of the usual pressures simply take the form of a drive towards more detailed reporting. This is originally of governmental origin, and may perhaps be well-intentioned, though its burden on staff has not been analysed. Some of it is of a less welcome kind: a pressure to realign the goals of widening participation with the goals of admissions: from simply providing sales pitches for the University of Sheffield at WP events, to full-scale mergers of admissions activities with reportable WP activities. This is a clear reflection of neoliberal ideology: many staff feel that engagement with the local community is a worthwhile end in itself, but, in the neoliberal university, the only engagement that matters is that which increases the university's income. Over the past few months, however, Sheffield UCU has been faced with an unexpected challenge: word got about in several departments that there was an attempt afoot to fix the rates of pay for students delivering subject-specific WP sessions to grades 2 and 3 (depending on whether the session had been designed by the person giving it, or not). In many departments, these had habitually been given by experienced PhD students. Such students, of course, will be paid at grades 6 or 7 for their teaching of undergraduates. It is true that school students are less advanced than undergraduates, but, by their very nature, WP sessions require mentions of university-level topics, and presenting advanced topics in an elementary way is indisputably a skilled job. After pressure from SUCU, university management relented: PhD students will be paid more appropriately for this work, at grade 6, in future. This particular story has a happy ending, but it does serve to reflect how willing some managers are to undervalue their own business of learning and teaching, if there is money to be saved by doing so.   Report back from Equalities Group Conference This year's annual UCU Equality Groups conference was held in Birmingham between 21-23 November. The conference consisted of separate meetings for disabled, black, women and LGBT+ members across the three days, with a joint plenary on the morning of Friday, 22 November. The plenary session heard from our General Secretary Jo Grady, who outlined several priority areas for the equality work of the union over the coming year - continuing to confront sexual harassment in universities and colleges; developing and embedding the new migrant members representative structures to combat the Hostile Environment; and resourcing branches to better understand both the law and union policy and support transgender and non-binary members. Other speakers in this session were the Windrush campaigner Michael Braithwaite; NUS President Zamzam Ibrahim and trans advocate Sam Heyes. We also had a briefing from UCU bargaining and negotiating official Jenny Lennox, who led a session on strategies to address pay gaps. Our branch was well represented by Themesa Neckles, Jess Meacham, Robyn Orfitelli and Mark Pendleton. We will continue to grow our involvement with the UCU equality structures in the coming year, with Themesa continuing her term on the Disabled Members Committee; Mark being elected to the LGBT+ committee for a two-year term and, since the conference, Robyn being elected as one of two National Executive Committee spots for migrant members. Robyn will work with the equality officials and her fellow NEC migrant rep Dima Chami (Leeds) to create the migrant representative structures, initially through a stand-alone migrant members conference early in 2020. Stay tuned for details of how you can be involved in that. Any questions about this, or other equality and diversity matters, contact branch E&D officer Mark Pendleton at m.pendleton@sheffield.ac.uk.   Report back from USS Conference Friday saw four delegates from Sheffield UCU attend a special sector conference on the USS dispute, which was called as a result of a motion to this summer's Congress "to review the position and consider all actions available to UCU to defend USS". We're pleased that all motions and amendments put to the conference by Sheffield UCU were passed. The practical outcomes from that conference will be communicated to members by head office as soon as it's possible to do so, but you can see the motions debated and the publicly available outcomes here.   Report Back from Democracy Commission Congress On Saturday 7th December the Special Congress to consider the recommendations of the Democracy Commission was held in Manchester. It was a lively day of discussion, and our delegates regret that much of the business wasn't taken due to lack of time. You can view a full list of what was heard, what fell and what carried here. We are pleased that some changes to the union's structures have been achieved via the Democracy Commission, and we hope to continue to work on this both within the branch and nationally over the coming months and years. We know that members are interested in this work, and interested in improving our representational structures at local levels, so please do get in touch with us if you'd like to discuss this further and look out for future meetings on work in this area.   Climate Organising  Thanks to all our members who supported the Youth Strike 4 Climate again and helped out in organising, banner making and stewarding! It is now more important than ever that we organise on campus and beyond for effective climate action and bring students and staff together. A first step in that direction took place during our climate teach-out during the strike, from which four campaigns emerged: education for sustainable development; transport and flying; UoS clean energy switch; and food/waste. If you want to get involved in any of these, please get in touch with branch committee member Elena Simon and watch out for Energy Switch's workshop in January and a teaching week on climate in February 2020. Another thing you can do is to participate in the consultation process for the University’s sustainability strategy. The publication of the strategy has been delayed until April which gives everyone the chance to build it and make it as ambitious as needed.   Confucius Institute Motion A member brought a motion to the November branch meeting expressing concerns about possible conflicts of interest between the academic mission of the University and the contract the University has with the Confucius Institute. This was a response to press reports in Australia where the Institute's practices were simply accepted by certain Australian Universities, with implications for academic integrity and freedom. The motion requires SUCU to ask for a copy of the agreement between the Confucius Institute and the University of Sheffield in order to reassure members this does not contradict the University's principles of academic freedom. The motion was passed nem com.   Chile Motion A member brought a motion to the November branch meeting in solidarity with the on-going protest movement in Chile against the continuation nearly thirty years later of hardline neoliberal reforms instituted during the Pinochet dictatorship which have produced skyrocketing levels of inequality. The motion additionally condemned the on-going violence perpetrated by the government against protesters. Academic members of the union are asked to add their names to a global sign-on letter available here. In addition, the motion committed the branch to support and promote solidarity activities and events; send a letter of protest to the Chilean government; and make links with universities in Chile in support of academics and students calling for a new constitution and the end of political repression.   Solidarity with Workers and Students in India Sheffield UCU committee expresses solidarity with workers & students in Indian universities facing serious attacks and violent repression by the Indian state. We join the 10,000+ signatories of a letter condemning in the strongest possible terms the police brutality in Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, and the ongoing illegal siege and curfew imposed on Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim Universities. With them, we affirm the right of citizens to peaceful protest and the autonomy of the university as a non-militarized space for freedom of thought and expression. The brutalization of students and the attack on universities is against the fundamental norms of a democratic society. We call on UK university workers to recognize the dangers of the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) introduced by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 12 Dec and to protest accordingly. The Act offers a path to citizenship for Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Parsi, and Christian refugees but not to Muslims. Combined with BJP’s promise to enact a National Register of Citizens across India (a citizenship audit) NRC, this will in effect force Indian Muslims to 'prove' their citizenship.  Such a move would dwarf the Windrush scandal in the UK and will affect millions of Indians. We also convey solidarity with JNU lecturers fighting for accessible education for all #UCUStrikesBack #JNU and with Delhi University teachers on strike against casualization #DUTAIndefiniteStrike #UCUStrikesBack.   New Committee Member Elena Simon has been co-opted to the branch committee as an ordinary member. She has played an active role in UCU’s climate strike organising committee.   Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 In honor of this January’s Holocaust Memorial Day, Sheffield UCU will be hosting a talk by Professor Brian Klug from Oxford University on understanding antisemitism today.            

Sheffield Strikes Back: Negotiations, picketing, rally, party!

Published on

Dear SUCU members Thank you so much to everyone who came along to our Emergency General Meeting yesterday to discuss the dispute. We talked about the progress of negotiations nationally on both the pay and pensions disputes, and since then a further meeting with UUK has concluded with no real movement from the employers. There’s a national UCU meeting to discuss the progress of the USS dispute this coming Friday that we’re sending branch delegates to - we’ll report back from that meeting as soon as we can afterwards. We know from the communications we’ve had with national negotiators that the industrial action is having an impact on these talks, but we consider it unconscionable that it’s taken seven days of strikes to get this far. Our employers’ representative bodies are gambling with students’ education and sitting out this round of strikes in a way that it’s difficult to view as anything other than hugely cynical. We urgently need VCs across the country to step up and show some actual leadership and we will continue to do all we can to encourage Koen Lamberts in this effort. We have written to the VC asking him to take a set of concrete actions to further the USS dispute, and will be writing to him shortly regarding the pay and conditions dispute. Local negotiations have continued positively. We met the VC with officers from the SU again on Monday and covered a range of issues, including ongoing concerns around Tier 4 students, better student representation in the allocation of deducted salary money, and a discussion of the national picture. Tomorrow is our eighth day of strike action, and Thursday we will commence ASOS. As a capstone to our action, we are holding two post-picketing events. We are holding a joint rally with the Students' Union. Gather on the SU concourse at 11:30 for an 11:45 start! Later in the evening, we are hosting a fundraising party for our local fighting fund, starting at 7pm at DINA on Cambridge Street. There will be food, music, karaoke (strictly optional, bad singers positively encouraged) and some time to relax and let our hair down after all our efforts. Register for the party here and please register friends and family members as well!

Strike reporting, Deductions, and ASOS

In order to facilitate a swifter release of the salary deductions monies to departments, we are asking all members to complete their strike notification forms as soon as we are back in work on Thursday, and certainly no later than the end of the following week. We will email all members on Thursday morning regarding reporting strike days, but we ask all of you to use our reporting form instead of the one that HR has provided. Action short of a strike (ASOS) will begin on Thursday 5th December. This particular round of ASOS is asking members to refuse to undertake voluntary work, not cover for absent colleagues, not reschedule lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action and to work to contract. There is detailed information about what that means here and if you have any questions or concerns about ASOS, please contact us. We’re asking departmental reps to schedule meetings for members in departments about ASOS as soon as they can after we return to work - ASOS is collective action that is most effective when all members are upholding it together. As you are aware, salary deductions will not kick in until January and February for salaried staff. Early in the new year, we will be sending information about claiming from either the national UCU fighting fund or the local hardship fund to all members. We are conscious as ever that hourly-paid staff will not be deducted in the same way as staff on contracts, and we urge any members affected by this to contact us for more information on financial support. You will need some communication from your department that confirms the work that you should have been undertaking that you will be unable to claim for or be paid for due to strike action - this can take the form of a letter or email. Our local hardship fund is here for anyone who will experience significant financial difficulties due to strike action and we strongly encourage anyone who needs it to make a claim.

Friday update

Published on

Dear Sheffield UCU members, Thank you all so much for an amazing week of action here at Sheffield. Our pickets continue to be loud, lively and well-attended, and Thursday’s rally wasn’t dampened by the rain. At the moment we are still expecting to be taking action again on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week and action short of a strike after that.                 

Local and national negotiations

You’ll have seen from the email that the Vice Chancellor sent to all staff yesterday that we are meeting him again on Monday, with representatives of the SU. We’ll be holding an extraordinary general meeting on Monday in the Students Union Foundry, from 11:30-12:30, and would like to see as many of you there as possible to discuss as a branch where this dispute is headed and what messages we need to take to the VC. We also need views from members to inform the position that our delegates will take at the special sector conference on USS being held on Friday 6th December. We remain optimistic that the strength of the action demonstrated across the UK is starting to shift both UCEA and UUK and will give you a more detailed update as soon as possible.

Teach Outs

Our Teach Outs will continue in Week 2 of action! Our thanks to everyone who has presented at them thus far, and to all of the attendees. We especially want to draw your attention to Monday’s sessions, which will form part of our local Disability Day of Action. Please everyone do come along following our Monday EGM. For a larger version of the poster see this link.

Party

On Wednesday 4th December we will be hosting a party at DINA on Cambridge Street (by the side of John Lewis). There will be food, music, karaoke (strictly optional, bad singers positively encouraged) and some time to relax and let our hair down after all our efforts. You can sign up for the party at the link here - please do register friends, family and other supporters too. The more the merrier! Make sure you do something you enjoy this weekend, and come back on Monday refreshed and ready to continue the action. The fight for better working conditions and learning conditions in the higher education sector won’t end next week but the work we’re doing and the action we’re taking is already making things better. As ever, if you have any questions about this or anything else to do with the industrial action, please get in touch, and follow our twitter feed for quicker updates. All best wishes SUCU Committee