About us

Seek Representation

Our local reps are a key link into the union for members, and take on different roles from publicity, to negotiating with local management, to identifying collective issues for action by the branch.  Our aim is to have at least one AL rep in each region, and at least one rep in each office location and unit.

Find your local rep on our Reps and Contacts page.  If you are interested in becoming a rep and would like to talk to someone about it, please contact the branch office.

There's further information about Health and Safety on our 'Get Help' page.

Our caseworkers are trained to help individual members with employment issues.  If you would like to know more about becoming a caseworker, please contact the branch office.  If you need help with an issue, please go to our Get Help page.

Get Trained

For CPD, UCU provides free, short, online courses to members and non-members. These are suitable for studying in OU-funded annual professional development time, covering EDI, sustainability, challenging casualisation, and more.

UCU's training for new Representatives tends to be 1-3 days, depending upon the topic. Everyone in the OU counts as the 'Eastern and Home Counties' region for training purposes, which tends to run classes online. Some courses are funded by devolved governments and are open to members resident in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. The branch pays travel and accommodation for reps to attend training.

Other bodies provide courses of varying lengths and specialism. UnionLearn and the GFTU do a real mix of short and long courses, the TUC and ICTU courses tend to be longer and for Reps. ACAS is very technical. If in doubt, ask the branch mailbox!

• UCU CPD courses
• UCU Rep courses
• Trade Union Congress Rep courses
• Trade Union Congress Short Webinars
• UnionLearn
• ICTU Northern Ireland 
• GFTU Educational Trust
• ACAS

Set Policy

Local policy is set by branch members at our branch meetings, and you can see which policy motions have been approved recently on our Motions page.  If you would like to suggest a change to policy, contact the branch office for information about drafting a motion. Email ucu@open.ac.uk.

As a local branch, we elect 5 delegates for the UCU national Congress, which meets once a year and determines national policy.  There are other national committees representing particular interest groups and sectors, for more information see the UCU national website.

Achieve Change

The branch takes its direction from members, based upon the policies passed at branch meetings and the AGM. For the union's day to day operations, the Executive Committee is elected each year, with representation from all member and staff categories. The Executive is supported by the following sub groups:

• Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) - where the union and management negotiate over issues affecting staff.  UCU members are appointed by the branch Executive Committee.
• Recruitment, Organisation and Campaigns Committee (ROCC) – focussing on recruitment and campaigns.
• Joint Trade Union forum (JTUF) where UCU and UNISON meet with People Services to discuss current employment issues.