Before strike action

Guidance on how members can prepare for strike action.

Communicating with students, management, each other

How can you help?

Talk to your students, and ask for their support.
Posters and leaflets should be prominent in your department—put them on your doors and notice boards (ask your departmental rep, or collect them from our office at 3 Palmerston Road).
Talk about the dispute on social media, if you use it. UCU have made videos and graphics available to help explain the disputes, and our members have previously produced a student-facing video explaining the issues involved in these disputes.

Email auto-responses

We recommend that you set these up starting from the first day of strike action and leave on until the dispute is over. If you need help setting up an auto-response, see here.

ON STRIKE: I am on strike today until [date] as part of Sheffield UCU’s industrial action. Your email will not be read and you will need to resend it on [date].

ACTION SHORT OF A STRIKE: I am taking part in action short of a strike (ASOS) as part of Sheffield UCU’s industrial action. There may be a delay in my response due to workload issues.

You might like to include links to further information about the disputes in your out-of-office messages, or direct any students you work with to alternative sources of support.

If you’re invited to a meeting scheduled during strike action

When you receive an invitation to a meeting on a day when strikes are planned, we recommend that you accept the invitation, but do not attend unless the strike is called off.

This is in line with our guidance around avoiding notifying colleagues and the employer ahead of time, and allows for maximum disruption on the day of strikes.

However, we also realise that this approach may not be appropriate or possible for all members and for all situations. As such, you may instead want to consider the following options:

Ignore any invitations that you receive. This allows for a sense of ambiguity which can be quite disruptive, but may not be appropriate where you wish to make a statement about your action or where a response is required.
Decline the invitation (if it is beyond reasonable doubt that the strike will proceed), with a message of “I will very likely be taking part in industrial action this day as part of UCU’s industrial action, and as such will not be able to confirm my attendance”.

The approach you choose to take will depend on your individual circumstances and the nature of the meetings you are invited to, but please bear in mind that members planning to strike should avoid notifying the employer where possible.

If you’re asked to mitigate strike action

Members may be instructed to take steps to mitigate strike action in advance, either in their roles as line managers, as GTAs being asked to conduct teaching, or professional services colleagues being asked to develop plans to work around striking colleagues and/or yourselves.

We are under no legal obligation to inform anyone of whether we are taking strike action, before said action occurs. This means that none of us can or should assume anything about our colleagues’ participation, and thus we should not be acting to mitigate our own strike action in advance.

Some specific advice below:

If, as an instructor, you are asked whether you will take part in strike action, so that cover can be arranged, you are not required to answer, and we ask you not to. It is not appropriate for anyone to arrange cover for any modules you are responsible for, as they do not know whether or not you will participate in action.
If, as a postgraduate researcher, you or anyone you know are approached with regard to covering teaching, we ask you to decline.
If, as a member of professional services staff, you are asked to take actions to specifically mitigate strike action, we advise you to indicate that you do not know which members of staff will or will not be participating in action, and are thus not in a position to develop a mitigation strategy. If you are placed in a position where you are directly instructed to develop contingency plans, we encourage you to request precise details and instructions be provided with regard to said plans, and that you query how any information that went into forming said instructions was gathered.
If, as a line manager, you are instructed to ask staff whether they intend to take part in industrial action, we ask you to not do so, as staff are under no obligation to tell you. Relatedly, it is entirely appropriate for you to not undertake to mitigate specific staff members’ strike action in advance, as you cannot know who will choose to take part in this action.
If, as any member of staff, you are asked to make plans to mitigate your own action, you are not obligated to do so, as you do not have to inform the university of your decision to take part in action ahead of time.

If any members need assistance in navigating requests to pre-mitigate action, please get in touch and we will offer support.

Industrial Action for Beginners Support Sessions

We will be holding a number of support sessions for members who may be new to, or feeling unsure about, the practicalities of taking part in industrial action at the University. None of us take part in Industrial Action lightly, and it can be challenging to navigate both practically and emotionally, with diverse experiences based on individual circumstances and roles. Some of our seasoned picketers will be putting on a number of support sessions open to all members with the aim to build confidence, community, and solidarity. They will offer practical tips as well as being able to answer any questions attendees may have.

Whilst these sessions are primarily intended for those who are new to strike action, or have particular challenges based on their personal circumstances, we would also welcome any seasoned members who would like to join to offer advice.

The sessions will take place in View Deli on Level 4 of the Student’s Union Building.

Alternatively, you can join online via Google Meet by adding the events to your calendar using the links below:

Online Module Content

Strike action is a withdrawal of labour, including teaching labour. The University of Sheffield’s Trade Unions have negotiated with the University to develop a policy around lecture recordings and videos.

As a member of staff at the University of Sheffield, you have performance ownership over the lectures that you teach, including videos of these lectures. For days on which you will be striking, we encourage members to not make available any recordings over which you have performance rights, as these may serve to mitigate your strike action.