Category: News

As we approach the end of the year, and for many a winter break and festive period, we hope that all of our members are able to find some peace and celebration amidst all the uncertainty in the sector and beyond.

Warwick UCU members contributed to the consultative ballot regarding the offer by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) on pay and working conditions. You can review the results here, which recommended rejection of the pay offer, acceptance of other elements of the offer, and a willingness to participate in industrial action.

Our members also continue to participate in solidarity actions relating to demilitarisation and solidarity for Palestine: the Staff Network for Palestine was recently launched for anyone wishing to get involved.

Please remember to contact Becks – membership@warwickucu.org.uk – if you’d like to be involved with any of our initiatives and committees (no experience required!) and we hope to see you at our Term 2 Social on Wednesday 15^th January (13:00-14:30 at Curiositea).

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. 

UCU National Marking and Assessment Boycott

The University and College Union (UCU) is holding a national marking and assessment boycott over pay, casualisation, workloads and equal pay.

For more information:

UCU national website: https://ucu.org.uk/MAB2023

Warwick UCU local FAQs and guidance: https://warwickucu.org.uk/activists/committee/campaigns-and-live-issues/marking-and-assessment-boycott/

We encourage you to join the boycott and stand with UCU in its fight for better pay and working conditions.

The third day of national strike action saw UCU turn out in strength both on the Warwick picket line and at the mass rally in London. Strong showings from English despite the cold weather, a third successful #bikesforstrikes rally and a great teach out from Warwick Pride. And it was someone’s birthday.

Staff from English deploy Dickens to highlight UUK miserliness

In stark contrast with the university administration, student support has been heartwarming throughout these three days of action. The Warwick Pride Society stepped up with two powerful talks to remind us why the struggles against inequality in higher ed are intrinsically linked to struggles for emancipation among oppressed minorities, including LGBTQ+ communities, everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

Again, the weather gods were kind to participants in the #bikesforstrikes rally around campus:

And we celebrated a cherished comrade’s birthday – our deputy Vice-Chair Gavin is still unsure how he feels about turning 23:

Meanwhile in central London, UCU crowds made an excellent showing while being addressed by some veterans in labour organising:

 

 

 

 

 

And Warwick members carried their research with them:

An excellent turnout for the group photo closed out this phase of industrial action. It’s now up to university administrators to make sure this very challenging year for all of us, staff and students alike, does not extend into a prolonged winter of discontent. Happy holidays, everyone!

Brilliant sunshine for today’s picket, which saw visits from striking CWU workers, MP for Coventry South Zarah Sultana and journalist-researcher and chair of Coventry Green New Deal David Ridley. Also: more intensely relaxed cycling around campus, and an engaged and engaging talk on bell hooks’s radical pedagogy. And let’s not forget about the vegetarian chilli.

Posties support uni workers, uni workers support posties

Zarah Sultana with a message for management

David Ridley (author of No Consolation: Radical Politics in Terrifying Times) gave an insightful talk connecting the higher education crisis with the climate crisis. He asked us three questions: (1) How can universities like Warwick put the green transition at the heart of what they do? (2) How can universities link up with other educational institutions (primary, secondary, FE) in this effort? (3) How can UCU connect with other unions and NGOs, nationally and internationally?

This food for thought was joined by literal nourishment from Professional Services Branch Secretary Caroline Proctor, and very welcome it was; never say the union doesn’t feed you, in every sense.

Oh yes

History PhD student Sue Lemos gave a stirring talk on the legacy of Black feminist and social activist bell hooks, with special attention to hooks’s concept of engaged pedagogy centred on love.

The #bikesforstrikes (or #pedalsforpensions) action continues to add an essential element of motion to the usually stationary activity of picketing.

And chatting with fellow picketers, along with the occasional breakout boogie, continues to enliven our time on the line.

Don’t miss the final day of action on Wednesday 30 December, when there’s more dancing in the offing. See you next week!

 

A rousing start to three days of strike action at Warwick, with a strong turnout, welcome support from students, picket line poetry, #bikesforstrikes, a talk on Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s message of resistance, casualisation stories and more. And hot drinks supplied with the necessary heat by our new generator. Let’s not forget that.

 

 

 

 

 

The picket line was enlivened by a ‘critical mass’-style cycle rally taking a relaxed tour of local thoroughfares.

Jonathan Skinner from English & Comparative Literary Studies led a poetry reading/workshop, taking its cue from Audre Lorde (“Poetry is not a luxury”). In one exercise, participants ‘mitigated’ the Vice Chancellor’s message of regret that industrial action was taking place by creatively erasing it, revealing the poetic potential in even the most prosaic admin comms.

 

Bronwen Mehta from Politics spoke about the necessity of struggle relayed by Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Egyptian political prisoner.

The traditional group photo to finish the morning saw us out in force, meeting up with friends and allies from across the university, and lucky so far with the weather.

 

See you all at the pickets tomorrow. El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido!

This is information for all Warwick students who would like to know more about why lecturers, librarians, IT and other professional service staff at Warwick are taking industrial action.

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What is the strike about
What is it we want? What would constitute a win?
Why should students care?
How does industrial action affect you?
How can Warwick students help?

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What is the strike about? 

There are two reasons why we are striking:  

• First, to protect staff pensions, which are under renewed attack after the 2018, 2019 dispute(s).
• Second, to fight for the rights of casualised, female, disabled and BAME staff. Growing numbers of staff are working on short-term or precarious contracts that don’t pay them enough to make ends meet. There is also a persistent gender and racial pay gap. This means that at Warwick, for instance, women earn 74p for every £1 earned by men and BAME staff are paid an average of 25% less than their white colleagues. This action is about stopping the downgrading of pensions, ending casualisation and closing the gender and racial pay gap.

What is it we want? What would constitute a win? 

Our demands are simple:

• UCU members demand employers to revoke the massive cuts which they imposed on members of the USS pension scheme, and put pressure on USS to restore benefits to 2021 levels as soon as possible.
• UCU also want UUK to put strong pressure on USS to ensure that the next and all subsequent valuations of the financial health of the scheme to be evidence-based and are moderately prudent.
•  an increase to all spine points on the national pay scale of at least inflation (RPI) + 2% or 12% whichever is the higher
• nationally-agreed action, using an intersectional approach, to close the gender, ethnic and disability pay gaps
• an agreed framework to eliminate precarious employment practices by universities
• nationally agreed action to address excessive workloads and unpaid work, to include addressing the impact that excessive workloads are having on workforce stress and ill-health
• for the standard weekly, full-time contract of employment to be 35 hours, with no loss of pay.

These demands are easy to meet. We’re asking UUK (Universities UK, the association of university employers) to work with us to end the rampant levels of inequality in our workplaces and to make sure that people can actually afford to live on the pay for the jobs they do.

Why should students care? 

We know that you have incurred a large debt to attend university. Many of us fought hard against the meteoric rise of tuition fees. But the high fees you pay are not used to pay more to those who teach you. Gaps in gender and BAME pay, casualisation of staff and erosion of staff pensions are part of a decade-long assault on the integrity of universities as public institutions. As a result, we’ve seen the tripling of student fees, a trend toward short-term or sessional contracts at the expense of secure employment, the greater use of outsourcing models  and the ballooning of managerial pay – and with these developments, the persistence of racist and sexist cultures at our university.  

If we want an environment committed to fairness and transparency, where teaching, learning and research – not profit – are at the heart of what we do, then we must collectively take a stand.

How does industrial action affect you? 

Teaching and working with students is why we do this job, so we do not take strike action lightly, any more than nurses or doctors do. The UCU has called for three days of strike action on 24th, 25th and 30th November. On these days:

• UCU members won’t be teaching, holding office hours, marking or answering emails
• Any work missed, including teaching, will not be rescheduled
• Since 14th November 2022, UCU members have been observing action short of a strike (ASOS): this means working to contract, or working only the 36.5 hours per week stipulated in our contracts (most academics work 60+ hours, including weekends)

How can Warwick students help? 

In partnership with Warwick’s Student-Staff Solidarity Network, we will be holding a series of themed events on the picket lines, giving you a chance to join discussions about fees, debt, the future of work and radical alternatives to the status quo. We want you to be part of these activities. Join us! As Emma Goldman almost says, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your demonstration.”

Warwick Students Union voted to support the strikes – as individuals you can too.

If you want to help us stop hugely damaging changes to higher education, here are some ideas:

• Talk to your lecturers about the strike (and if they’re not in the UCU, suggest they join!)
• Discuss it with your family and friends (more info: https://www.ucu.org.uk/campaigns)
• Contact Vice-Chancellor Stuart Croft at S.Croft@warwick.ac.uk and ask him to lobby Universities UK to meaningfully negotiate
• Volunteer to help with the campaign by contacting the Student Staff Solidarity Network at studentstaffsolidarity@gmail.com and https://www.facebook.com/studentstaffsolidarity/

Remember: the more people support the strike, and the more unified that support, the sooner it’s likely to end.

With that in mind, please:

• Boycott lectures and seminars on strike days – do not cross the picket line!
• Join us as sympathetic onlookers/active supporters
• Help organise alternative student-led events
• Get in touch with any questions

Solidarity for all – together we can win this!