In February UUK voted through plans to cut 35% from the guaranteed retirement income of members of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). However, the latest USS Financial Monitoring Report (FMP) shows that scheme assets have soared to over £88bn, placing it in a stronger position and evaporating any justification for devastating pension cuts. We the undersigned call on the chair of the Joint Negotiating Committee to note the improved financial position of the USS scheme…
UCU is campaigning for a pay rise for prison educators. Your pay has reduced against inflation by over 25% which means you are working one day a week for free compared to 2009. Average salaries are the lowest in the sector with prison teachers earning on average £10,000 less than secondary school teachers The cost of living has been rising fast with RPI currently 8.2% and climbing. The Ministry of Justice have built in an…
Staffordshire University UCU is campaigning to stop the University’s plans to bring in a two-tier workforce. The University has decided that all new staff will be employed by a wholly owned subsidiary on different contractual terms. This will inevitably lead to a two-tier workforce and over time, increase pressure by the University to ‘harmonise downwards’ to less favourable working conditions for everyone. It will also destroy cohesion, meaning that colleagues working side by side may…
To: Open University vice-chancellor Professor Tim Blackman Dear Professor Blackman, We, the undersigned, ask the Open University to use its strength within the sector to push for negotiations and an end to the disputes over which UCU is currently taking strike action. Under the current changes proposed by USS, benefits are set to fall catastrophically. Many scheme members face a cut in their retirement income of 30% or more. The last few years have seen…
Aston University has announced sweeping plans to close a whole host of programmes and services which will hugely impact language and humanities provision at the institution. This includes closing the Department of History, Languages and Translation and the Languages for All programme. The plans mean that 24 staff are at risk of redundancy and would have far reaching implications for these important disciplines at the university and more widely across the higher education sector. Please…
The UCU branch at Hull University asks that you sign this petition to show your support of the branch position in the two disputes that it currently has lodged with the employer.
University of Leeds is RAMming through redundancies In the middle of the Covid-19 global crisis, University of Leeds management has taken the strategic decision to make ‘voluntary’ redundancies in departments working to tackle the Covid pandemic: the school of medicine (SoM) and the faculty of biological sciences (FBS). In its 2018/2019 accounts (the latest published) the university reported an operating surplus of £38m and healthy reserves. The university has not given us any financial explanation…
Recognition of UCU at Ravensbourne University is important because it provides a framework for collective bargaining to help improve your working conditions and will give your UCU branch a voice at the university. Unionised workplaces have better terms and conditions, better job security, higher pay and more pay rises than non-unionised workplaces. Unionised workplaces can…
University College Birmingham (UCB) management are conducting a restructuring exercise. Management argue this is not a cost cutting exercise. 73 senior lecturing staff have been told they are at risk of redundancy and asked to re-apply for 42 new senior lecturer roles. These new roles have an increasing workload with no additional pay. Staff who…
University of Essex staff are increasingly concerned about the implications of messaging from senior management that proposes or implies substantial changes to the spaces in which staff will be expected to carry out their work in the coming months and years. It is essential that we acknowledge the serious short and long term negative consequences…
In April, Kingston University announced the closure to new applicants of its BA Politics, Human Rights, International Relations courses, the final closure of its BA History course, and proposed severe staffing cuts in Media and Communications and Film Studies. This represents a concerted attack on the provision of social sciences, arts and humanities at Kingston.…
Students need more support to develop as they recover from the pandemic. We the undersigned call upon New City College to withdraw threats of job losses, pay cuts and detriment to terms and conditions to supported learning staff. We should demand government provide the support our staff and students need, not implement local cuts.
In the midst of the global Covid-19 crisis, London South Bank University (LSBU) has announced a drastic programme of course closures following a review of its teaching portfolio by the university executive. Seven courses* in the School Law and Social Sciences have been closed with immediate effect, with 16 teaching staff placed at risk of…
