Warwick UCU is a branch of the national Universities and Colleges Union who works to ensure that your rights are protected in the workplace and fights for better working conditions for staff.
Annual Meetings
Every year, Warwick UCU hosts an Annual General Meeting (AGM) for all members to come and share their thoughts, ideas and perform business such as electing new committee members, approving new policy, and providing an update on committee activities. We also hold member meetings when a particular issue needs to be voted on, or communication needs to be shared. Please keep an eye out for emails from Warwick UCU for the dates of these meetings.
UCU hold a national AGM which focusses on wider issues and brings together branches from across the country.
UCU also holds an annual congress. This congress is UCU’s supreme policy-making body and includes separate annual meetings of UCU’s further and higher education sector conferences, where policy particular to these areas is decided. For more details about the last congress or the forthcoming one (usually held May each year), please visit the UCU webpage.
Ballots
Occasionally, you will receive a ballot through the post asking you to vote on things such as the election of national committee members and in the event of proposed strike action. It is important we have the most accurate details for you, such as email, address and branch so please visit myUCU when you have any change of these to ensure we have the correct details for you.
Warwick UCU will also hold more informal votes, such as when requesting feedback on a particular issue or whether to approve proposed changes to pay and working conditions which are then taken to the University, regional and national meetings as required. These are anonymous online votes collected during special ad hoc meetings. Please look out for emails from Warwick UCU about when these meetings are held.
Ballot Exclusions
In some situations, you will be excluded from voting, usually when being asked about industrial action. Please login to MyUCU to update your information if any of the following are true for you, or you can contact the Administrator to do it for you.
The following members are not balloted:
- When strike action is balloted, members on long-term sickness, maternity, parental or study leave (i.e. those who would not be expected to take industrial action on the day envisaged). You are still eligible to vote in UCU elections and are welcome to attend Warwick UCU meetings where voting takes place.
- If you are registered with more than one branch of UCU, you will only be balloted once at your primary listed employer. Please check MyUCU if you have more than one university/college employer. Again, you are welcome to Warwick UCU meetings and to vote when these take place even if Warwick is not your primary employer.
If you receive a ballot while you are in any of the categories above, please contact the Administrator.
Get Involved
There are a number of ways to get involved with the union. We understand that you may feel that you do not have the time to devote, but without local reps, contacts and caseworkers the branch cannot provide the support that we all may rely on one day and we cannot continue to grow.
Be an Active Member
By taking a more active role as an ordinary member by attending meetings when you can and voting in elections, you do make a difference to how UCU both nationally and at Warwick can function. The more active members we have, the easier it is to negotiate. There are some useful resources on UCU’s Build the Union web pages.
There are several localised actions in other institutions that you can support by signing petitions and sharing details. For a list, please see the national UCU webpage.
Volunteer as a Caseworker
Please see the Caseworker page for more details about the role and contact the casework coordinator if you have any questions. Full training and support is provided.
Join the Committee
Working with the committee as a general member or in a specific role gives you the opportunity to shape what happens at Warwick and is also a great route into becoming involved nationally. Please email the Administrator for more details.
Become a Department Contact
Please see the departmental contacts page for more details. These roles can be done in conjunction with other members of staff by agreement.
Training
UCU offers a variety of training courses for those who want to become more involved.