News

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

UCU have announced that there will be a new industrial action ballot before the end of September, read the UCU press release. 

UPDATE, August 2023 - the Executive Committee co-opted 2 new members to the Committee at its first meeting of the new UCU year on 4th July.  Valerie Demouy and Marianna Volpi have now joined the Executive Committee as Ordinary members. 

The branch is very pleased to report that we have 6 new members joining our Executive Committee for the next year, the new Exec and AL reps committees come into operation on 28 June 2023. Our annual election results were announced at our AGM on 7 June, see election report files here.

The OU Students Association (OUSA) recently conducted an informal poll of on UCU’s Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB). The leadership has published two statements:  Association Leaders stand against UCU marking and assessment boycott (oustudents.com) (11 May, updated 16 May) and a further statement on 19 May. The UCU branch president received a letter following this announcement.

It has come to our attention that the University Secretary's Office claim that UCU was consulted on the decision to dissolve the AL Assembly and AL Executive. The implication was that UCU was aware this decision was in progress and perhaps acquiesced in it.
 
This is categorically untrue, as the project lead has confirmed following correspondence.
 

UCU has announced today (Monday 3rd April) that it has successfully renewed its strike mandate at UK universities for a further six months, telling employers that "university staff are in the driving seat." 

Read UCU press release

We are running a programme of events on Zoom, one each day during the strike. Please check your email for the invite links, and see the pickets, rallies and events page for up-to-date information about the events.

UCU has served notice on employers for a further day of strike action to hit universities on Wednesday 15th March. The action was called by the union's higher education committee which met on Friday 24th February. 

The union has called this date (15 March) in addition to those set to take place on Thursday 16, Friday 17, Monday 20, Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 March. 

Read full news item on UCU website

UCU announced on Friday 17 February that they have reached a point in discussions with employers where they have made significant progress across a range of issues. To allow the ongoing negotiations to continue in a constructive environment UCU has agreed to pause action across the pay and pension disputes for the next two weeks and create a period of calm. 

For the upcoming strike action the Open University pattern will include two weekends, These have been added where the existing pattern already had a Friday. Therefore the 'extra' dates will be Saturday 11th February, Sunday 12th February, Saturday 18th March and Sunday 19th March. See list of the national UCU strike dates below.

How does this work?

Staff who work the normal 5-day working pattern (or a part-time portion of the standard weekday work week) are not affected by this. You would not declare the extra strike days.