Sheffield UCU Committee is calling on members to vote YES! To Strike Action and YES! to Action Short Of a Strike.
Every member’s support is crucial during the Get The Vote Out campaign for an industrial action ballot! We have compiled some common questions you may hear as you speak to other members about the ballot.
Please have conversations with colleagues and ask them to return their ballots.
Colleagues not in UCU can join us here.
- What is the dispute about? How many jobs are at risk?
- Isn’t there a crisis in Higher Education? Can these problems be solved at Sheffield?
- Weren’t we just out on strike?
- What type of action will we take?
- What financial support will be available for striking members?
- How much pay will I lose?
- Does striking actually work?
- How can I shape what type of action we take?
What is the dispute about? How many jobs are at risk?
Since the Vice Chancellor was appointed to the University, we have seen a systemic programme of destabilising change management, with thousands of staff being placed at risk of losing their jobs. For some staff, this stressful experience has happened several times in the last five years. Even for those staff who have not lost their jobs, this campaign has created a demoralising cycle of stress and uncertainty. We need the constant threat to our livelihoods to end, and to have senior leaders who do not see staff as expendable.
In addition to over 1000 staff who have faced disruptive restructures over the 2024/2025 academic year, in May the Vice Chancellor announced the university would be undertaking reviews in 5 academic areas: East Asian Studies, Civil and Structural Engineering, Materials Engineering, Chemistry, and the Management School. This is on top of the university-wide restructuring of professional services staff, the ongoing restructure of IT Services, the upcoming restructure of East Asian Studies language provision, and restructures of Nuclear AMRC and the English Language Teaching Centre which took place at the beginning of the 2024/25 academic year.
Alongside a number of staff that remain in scope for redundancy as a result of the PS staff restructure, the upcoming dispute is about resisting further redundancies and restructuring processes to ensure greater security for all staff. SUCU therefore demands the university:
- commit to no compulsory redundancies;
- negotiate and agree with UCU on measures to avoid compulsory redundancies;
- commit to significantly reducing the planned cuts to staff costs, and to the extent that financial savings are indeed necessary, to shift savings to non-staff budgets;
- negotiate and agree with UCU measures to make financial savings without the need to revert to the Management of Change policy/procedure and the issuing of S188 notice of proposed redundancies;
- negotiate with UCU over staff workloads and job security, in light of the effects of VSS, Central Vacancy Management, and the ending of fixed-term contracts.
Isn’t there a crisis in Higher Education? Can these problems be solved at Sheffield?
Whilst there is clearly a crisis in the HE sector which requires urgent Government intervention, we don’t believe that the University of Sheffield is in the level of financial difficulty that it is painting itself to be in. The Vice Chancellor and University Executive Board have also failed to take accountability for their own role in the decline in international student numbers.
Using the latest student recruitment data from the Office for Students, our recent article shows that Sheffield had been hit way harder than average in international recruitment.
Further, the branch committee believes that the University has not demonstrated the financial or organisational need for the aggressive and abrupt changes to staffing that have been undertaken and are further proposed. The University’s public accounts demonstrate that it has very little debt, strong reserves, liquidity and an operational surplus, and could afford a more measured approach to its current financial situation.
Weren’t we just out on strike?
Our strike action in Spring was a phenomenal show of strength and we were able to pause all redundancies until the end of the year, ensuring that as many members facing redundancy could be redeployed. However, further cuts have been announced and, as we mentioned at the time, calling off the last dispute was a strategic pause to support those members rather than a full resolution
What type of action will we take?
We are balloting for 2 forms of industrial action, details of which available below:
If we receive a mandate for both forms, we will be able to call both strike action and ASOS, but if we only get a mandate for one (e.g. ASOS), we will only be able to take that form of action.
It’s important to get as clear and strong a mandate as possible to show our strength to management, so we are recommending members to vote YES to both forms on their ballot.
What financial support will be available for striking members?
We are still confirming details over the number of days support available from UCU national, but members should be able to claim from the following 2 sources for lost pay following strike action:
The National Fighting Fund is able to cover £50 per day if you earn over £30,000 and up to £75 per day if you earn under £30,000, from the third day of action. This is expected to be subject to a cap of 8-15 total days claimable. Our Local Industrial Action Solidarity Fund is able to supplement this amount. This support is available to all members of the branch.
General information about claiming from these funds is available below:
Financial Support for Strike Action
How much pay will I lose?
The University normally deducts 1/365th of the annual salary for a full-time employee (pro-rated for part-time arrangements) per day of strike action taken. These deductions are taken pre-tax, so the impact on your take home pay is likely to be less than this. Approximate estimates based on 2022 HE pay spine figures can be found here.
You can attempt to calculate the approximate impact on your take home pay by:
- Dividing your gross annual salary by 1/365th to calculate your day rate
- Multiply this by the number of days of strike action taken within the payroll period to calculate the gross deduction amount
- Subtract this from your gross monthly salary (Gross annual salary divided by 12)
- Enter this figure into the Salary Calculator (make sure to enter your tax code, pension contributions, student loan repayments etc to make this as accurate as possible)
This should only be used as a rough estimate, your actual take home pay may differ due to a range of factors.
Does striking actually work?
Withdrawing labour can be one of the most powerful actions that workers in dispute can take. This year, members of Newcastle UCU took 44 days of strike action over the course of 3 months, and achieved an agreement for no compulsory redundancies this year, and that there would be no ‘workforce resizing’ that was going to threaten 150 jobs next academic year. As a branch, we combine any IA we take with public campaigning and other types of organising to ensure that our action has the most impact.
Crucially though: The longer the picket line the shorter the strike! We need full member participation in our ballot and in any action we take to try to achieve a positive outcome to the dispute.
How can I shape what type of action we take?
The best way to shape the decisions of the branch is to attend general meetings and, especially whilst we are in dispute, the regular extraordinary general meetings that we run as a branch. We are committed to members shaping our strategy through our democratic procedures and general meetings are the best place to do this.
We also run ‘Dispute Committee’ for the duration of disputes. This is a space open to all members of the union to discuss, debate and shape our strategy. If you want to get involved, email us at ucu@sheffield.ac.uk.
Departmental reps will also be engaging with members regularly, so get in touch with them if they haven’t reached out to see if they need any support in organising members within your work area.