News

The branch is pleased to report that it has co-opted 4 members to the Executive Committee in July. Thank you to Saleem Rashid, Steve Kirtley and Saoirse O'Shea for standing as Ordinary members and to Torin Grace who is now our Central Academic-Related Staff Officer. 

You can see who is on our Exec. commitee on this page.

The results of our Executve Committee and AL reps Committee elections were annouced at our AGM on 7th June. For the newly elected Executive Committee and AL Reps Committee, please see the reports below. We don’t elect departmental reps, but we do list them. If you think you could help but were too modest to stand, we have a small number of vacancies. Get in touch to learn more: ucu@open.ac.uk. 

We thanked all outgoing members of the Exec and the AL Reps committees at the AGM, but gave special thanks to: 

UCU is holding a Reclaim Higher Education campaign launch event on Thursday 9 May 2024 at 6pm to 7.30pm via Facebook, YouTube and X/Twitter.

UCU website for further information on the campaign. 

Executive Committee

It will soon be time for our annual UCU branch election of officers and executive committee members for 2024-2025, and to prepare for our next Annual General Meeting which will be held on 7th June 2024 at 1pm. 

The result of the General Secretary election has been announced.

Jo Grady has been re-elected as General Secretary of UCU, for a further five-year term from 1 August 2024.

UCU press release

Scrutineer's report and count sheet

The government recently passed the Strike (Minimum Service Levels) Act and are currently consulting on applying these MSLs to schools, further education and universities. This of course would have a severely detrimental impact on our members’ right to strike and as such we are currently formulating a coordinated campaigning response for all levels of the union to fight back.
 

UCU has launched a new campaign called Exposed and there is a new website.

UCU knows that many members are raising concerns about attacks on academic freedom or freedom of speech with their branches, including some migrant members facing additional complications linked to their visa status.

UCU has announced the results of the ballot. UCU members have voted for strike action in their thousands. Returning a huge vote in favour of both strike action and action short of a strike. Sadly, UCU has fallen foul of the anti-union laws and the ballot has not met the required thresholds.

View UCU press release 

The UCU rising ballot closes on 2nd November, please return your ballot papers and tell us that you have voted using this form: 

Tell us you have voted form

The last date to post your ballot paper is Tuesday 31st October. 

UCU wants all members to have their say in the USS consultation, read the guidance about completing the USS consultation on the UCU website. 

Following a vigorous debate at a full branch meeting on 20 September, the branch voted not to stand down strike action next week. We are asking all members to observe the strike action from Monday 25th to Friday 29th September. 

view UCU press release, 6 September