Author: UCU Administrator

Over the past couple of months Warwick UCU has continued to work hard in supporting staff through consultations, both individual and collective, as part of the Warwick Transformations project.

As the whole university sector undergoes a time of financial stress, we are pushing the university for clearer communications on its situation, which we hope to see soon. 

Warwick UCU continues to work on the implementation of a new framework for Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs), and there have been changes implemented around allowances for training time with more changes planned for the coming year. 

We have also polled our members to get a sense of what their priorities are moving forward, and engaged in regional and national meetings in order to make members’ voices heard. Issues such as pay, casualisation, workload and visa costs were named as some of the most pressing priorities. 

Warwick UCU could always use involvement from its members, even if you only have five minutes a week to spare. Please contact Becks – membership@warwickucu.org.uk – if you’d like to be involved with any of our initiatives and committees. No experience required. 

Thank you to everyone who attended our Extraordinary General Meeting on Monday 23 September to discuss UCEA’s pay offer for the 2024/25 pay round. We had a lively discussion about UCEA’s offer and ultimately voted to reject the pay and pay-related offer and that we would be in favour of UCU carrying out a ballot for strike action. Our delegate, Caroline Proctor, brought our branch position to the Branch Delegate Meeting on Tuesday. The results of Branch Delegate Meeting are now available here, but the headline results are that the majority of branches rejected the pay offer, but accepted the pay-related elements of the offer; and were in favour of UCU carrying out a consultative and industrial action ballot over this offer.

After several years in the role of Treasurer for the branch, Felix is leaving the University in December for pastures new, so Warwick UCU Committee is seeking a new treasurer. This is an excellent opportunity to get more involved in UCU at Warwick with a role involving overseeing the Warwick UCU budget and actioning financial matters related to the Committee and membership more widely. If you are interested in the role or have any questions, please email Felix.

Don’t forget the beginning-of-term social taking place on Wednesday 2 October 16:30-18:30 at the Dirty Duck! This is an excellent opportunity to meet other members and share some free non-alcoholic drinks and snacks. All members welcome! 

 

Like many of you, we have been watching the ongoing far-right riots across the country in horror. From shocking scenes of racist and islamophobic rallies in major cities across the UK over the weekend, to numerous attacks on mosques, local businesses and individuals (including mob attacks, stabbings, and acid attacks). While these events affect us all, they directly impact many of our members and the broader campus community, whether that’s concerns about using public transport to come into work, or sending one’s children to pre-arranged daytime activities, thus being exposed or exposing one’s loved ones to risk. 

We have written to the University to request that they offer additional forms of support, from access to wellbeing services, to adjustments to their working patterns. Specifically, we have requested that the University authorise approval of work from home requests until the situation has calmed down. Finally, we have requested that the University communicate its support to both staff and students, especially Muslim, migrant and racialised staff and students.

We will let you know when we have received a response from the University, but in the meantime if you feel unsafe, contact your line manager and request permission to work from home. If you are struggling to get support, we are here for you. You can get in touch with our Casework Coordinator at casework-coordinator@warwickucu.org.uk or at administrator@warwickucu.org.uk. 

Finally, it is the responsibility of all of us as trade unionists to oppose all forms of racism. We would ask that all members consider signing this “Trade Union Open Letter” opposing the fascist mobilisations and standing in solidarity with those being targeted:  https://forms.gle/tHW5Wa6NVwduGSqT9. 

As a result of last year’s industrial action, in June the University’s People Committee formally approved the University’s commitment to ensuring no academic workloads exceed 100%. This formalises the removal of the “110%” clause from workload modelling principles and will be enacted across the institution soon. 

The move away from GTA contacts to fractional contracts, also a result of last year’s industrial action and the hard work of Warwick UCU representatives and associated working groups, is being trialled next academic year in three departments with the intention of rolling out the chance across the University in 2025-26. GTAs across the university will see some benefits in the coming academic year, including improved working conditions, clearer role descriptors and paid time for training. Once the move to fractional contacts is completed, we believe Warwick will have some of the best conditions for GTAs in UK higher education. 
 

Warwick Transformations continues to be a focus for the committee but with an expected pause over the summer period.