Friday update
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