Take part

UCU is a by-staff, for-staff organisation of university and college employees who work together to improve our working conditions. There are so many different ways you can take part. Have a look below, and see what you feel able to get involved with:

In your team

Talk to your colleagues

Word-of-mouth is one of the most important ways the union can grow. Talk to your colleagues about what the union’s done for you, encourage them to join – even link them to this website! Every little helps.

Talk to your local reps

Find out who your local rep is on our reps and contacts page, and ask them if you can help with anything. Reps can only address issues that they know about, so even keeping your rep abreast of any changes or management decisions in your area is a powerful way to help UCU support your unit.

Become a local contact

Local contacts help promote UCU by talking to colleagues about the union and sharing union materials, without taking on all the duties of a rep. We don’t name them on the website, but we do support them in the background. You can be as visible as you like in this role, and the branch will help you to promote the union in ways that work for you. Contact [email protected] for more information.

Become a rep

We are always looking for new reps! You will get a mentor to help you in the role, and membership of a cohort that support each other. UCU runs formal training across the year, for those who want to develop their skills further. A lot of our reps buddy up to make things easier and spread the work.

Local reps provide a point of contact for members in your area, help to promote UCU, and recruit new members. As you gain experience you can become involved in negotiations with management (though don’t have to be, if that doesn’t sound like you). Contact [email protected] if you’re interested.

As a branch

Join a working group or committee

Working groups and committees are the union’s way of tackling specific issues and themes at work. We have groups working on everything from Generative AI to workload issues, to divestment and ethical finance. It’s a good way to gain experience by focusing on an area that interests you, collaborating with a smaller group of likeminded people. See more on the working groups page. 

Go to branch meetings

Branch meetings are a good way to get briefed on what is happening this month. It’s a chance to find out what’s going on across the OU, share your perspective, and vote on branch policy. They are always on Teams, although sometimes there is a hybrid option. 

Quite often a working group will bring their findings or recommendations to a branch meeting, in order to increase awareness. Past motions can be found on the motions page, or you can find the dates of our branch meetings on the events page. 

Go to drop-in meetings

Members can meet informally at drop-in meetings. These tend to be more focused and flexible than branch meetings. For example, we might hold one about a particular issue or after an all-staff Town Hall event, to share thoughts. Unit Reps might hold them between members of their team, and we often run AL drop-in meetings. Basically, it depends on what's happening, but they are usually on Teams.

For the branch

Help with casework

Most of the day-to-day work of the branch involves supporting individual colleagues behind the scenes. Most concerns involve helping members to fix mistakes, such as management mis-reading policies, incorrect reasonable adjustments, payroll errors, or other unexpected accidents. Caseworkers can also help with tricky technical issues, such as FTE changes, Voluntary Severance applications, pensions, or overseas working. More experienced caseworkers will represent members in situations such as disciplinary, grievance or redundancy procedures, where their support wins truly life-changing improvement.

We are always interested in getting more caseworkers trained. You will always get to choose which cases you take on, and the more people we have available the faster we can offer help. Contact [email protected] for more information. 

Join the executive committee

The executive committee is responsible for the day-to-day running of the branch. Most Exec members focus on coordinating a specific area of the branch’s work. Some of the positions are named, such as the ‘AL Officer’ who focuses on AL concerns, but others are more informal, such as leading on environmental issues. The exec are democratically elected once a year in a ballot of the entire membership. If you are interested in joining the executive committee, the calling notice for nominations is issued in April.

Find out more about the executive committee, including who’s who, on our executive committee page.

Support our negotiators

Negotiators attend the Joint Negotiating Forum (OU + UCU) and the Joint Trade Unions Forum (OU + UCU + Unison) to formally negotiate a wide range of issues with university management, representing all OU staff. Ultimately, what we negotiate depends upon what the reps, caseworkers and working groups uncover and ask us to escalate. See our negotiating groups page for more information. 

Industrial action

Industrial action happens when we are in a dispute with the employer that can’t be solved through negotiations. It is something we all do together, and not something you can do individually. We can only take  industrial action if members call for specific agreement or action from the OU and if a majority of members vote for the branch to carry out specific actions, under specific legal protections. In short, we very rarely go on strike, and most of our time is spent representing members through other routes. 

There is more information about industrial action on our industrial action page.

Nationally

UCU works across the UK to campaign on issues that affect all colleges and universities. There are a range of ways to take part.

Go to a rally

Read the UCU Friday Email for information about upcoming rallies and marches. These are great fun and a good way to meet members from other branches, in addition to putting pressure on government and raising the profile of UCU.

Attend congress or join a national committee

See the UCU structures page for information about how UCU is organised democratically at a national level. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved, from attending congress as one of our 5 delegates, to seeking election to a national committee. National positions aren’t ‘promotions’ and don’t require exceptional expertise; the main requirements are enthusiasm for the topic.

If you would like to bring a motion to congress, to influence the union nationally, it needs to be proposed by a branch meeting. There are a couple of technical steps, but if you contact the branch mailbox someone will be happy to help you.

Join your local Trades Council

These are the local bodies that bring all the trade unions in an area together, and through which the TUC structures a lot of its everyday, practical, organising in communities, including against the Far Right. It's an interesting way to make contact and get involved with similarly-minded people in your area. Some are quite busy, with active memberships, some are less so, but the best way to find out is to get in contact. 

The OU is UK-wide so we can usually affiliate to any which would support members interests, and where we have someone interested in being a delegate. The OU UCU is currently affiliated to Lambeth, Luton, Fife, Northampton and Edinburgh trades councils. Some of the websites are slightly dated, but the meetings do take place so email the OU UCU mailbox if you want to get involved. 

To learn more about the TUC’s work against the far right, look here, and this educational interactive. There is also the Together Alliance, of which UCU is a founding member.

The lists of Trades Councils, sometimes called Trades Union Councils, are found at: 

Get training

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 is more intensive. Courses tends to be 1-3 days, depending upon the topic, and can be either online or face-to-face. The branch pays travel and accommodation for reps to attend training.

The OU operates across Britain and Ireland, so we have a variety of training options. Within UCU, everyone employed by 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. Members in the Republic of Ireland can also attend ICTU training. 

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

Sign up for local or specialist news

There's a lot of information that doesn't quite fit into the branch all-member emails, which you will need to sign up for yourself. Key ones include:

Trade Union Congress email alerts (opens in new window) This covers a huge amount in England, Scotland and Wales. A series of toggle switches allow you to opt-in to different areas of TUC news, research reports, particular subject areas, rep guidance, local events, and union wins!

There doesn't seem to be a newsletter for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Northern Ireland Committee (ICTUNI) or the main ICTU website, but both have news and events pages.

The STUC has a newsletter sign up, for Scotland-only matters.

The Institute of Employment Rights is a think tank sponsored by trade unions, with a weekly newsletter on changes in employment rights. Sign up here.

Some of the UCU national and regional offices have their own newsletter. Whilst the OU UCU is formally supported by the Eastern and Home Counties region staff, some items are geographically specific. For example, initiatives funded by a devolved government are often only open to residents of that national or local government. Alternatively, local trade union initiatives, such as community events, fêtes, and rallies, may be an opportunity to meet like-minded people in person. If your local UCU area has a newsletter, please email the relevant office to be added to the list. There is definitely one for Scotland!