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sairaweiner.bsky.social
@sairaweiner.bsky.social
82 followers 77 following 14 posts
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Reposted
bladeofthes.bsky.social
March 10, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted
ucu.org.uk
⁦⏰ @newcastleucu.bsky.social start their second week of strikes today.

🚨 @ducu.bsky.social are balloting for strike action.

@thenorthernecho.bsky.social covered the 'worrying situation' universities are facing 👇

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/2498999...
Concern over 'heartbreaking' cuts at North East Universities as unions take action
Staff unions have described a “worrying” situation for universities in the North East as two weeks of industrial action begin at Newcastle.
www.thenorthernecho.co.uk
March 10, 2025 at 1:23 PM
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qmucu.bsky.social
Hearing from colleagues on Fixed-Term Contracts, including how they have to double check every single detail of their contract because HR doesn't have their best interest at heart and will use any detail against them when challenged. WHILE THEY HAVE NO EXPERTISE IN HR.
qmucu.bsky.social QM_UCU @qmucu.bsky.social · Mar 6
QMUL is increasingly using Fixed-Term Contracts and ignoring the negative consequences. Our working group has garnered data & testimonies which reveal the extent. And they offer concrete interventions that put halt to deteriorating conditions

Blogpost & full report: qmucu.org/2025/03/06/r...
The report argues that fixed term contracts are currently being misused in the Higher Education sector which is leading to poor working conditions and hardship for many staff, as well as impacting on teaching and research performance and the workload of permanent staff. It will cover the legal frameworks that govern part-time and/or fixed-term contracts, the ways in which staff on fixed term contracts are being treated less favourably than their full-time permanent colleagues, and also propose a series of changes and improvements to the management of of fixed-term contracts by permanent staff and improvement to the experience and working conditions for staff on fixed-term contracts, when they are genuinely justified. However this report will also present evidence to show that in many cases where the work is ongoing, the use of such contracts in situations is unjustified and leads to inefficiencies, poor employment practice, hardship and career stagnation. In these situations outlined below we have proposed solutions and ways to replace unnecessary fractional contracts with substantive academic contracts that offer meaningful career development opportunities. Above all the solutions are aimed to ensure that no detriment is experienced by current or future staff.
March 10, 2025 at 1:35 PM
sairaweiner.bsky.social
Gutted that @illdoitanyway.bsky.social didn't win the UCU Presidential election. Seems like the era of white men leading the @ucu.org.uk is back. Thankfully Our incoming President Maria can try and hold back the tide
March 6, 2025 at 4:49 PM
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illdoitanyway.bsky.social
Thank you to all who voted in the UCU elections. Congratulations to @dyfrigjones.bsky.social elected VP. I will serve a third term as Midlands rep, & as things have landed, am moving straight into a ballot at @bcu-ucu.bsky.social

rhiannonforucuvp.wordpress.com/2025/03/06/t...
Thank you for your support
UCU and other trade union members in front of Birmingham City University I wanted to start by congratulating our Vice President Elect Dyfrig Jones on his successful campaign. Standing for election …
rhiannonforucuvp.wordpress.com
March 6, 2025 at 4:29 PM
sairaweiner.bsky.social
Why the UCU Honorary Treasurer resigned. @ucu.org.uk
davidharvie.bsky.social David Harvie @davidharvie.bsky.social · Feb 28
I have resigned as honorary treasurer of UCU. I have spent the past 21 months trying to make UCU more transparent, its senior officers and officials more accountable, its practices more ethical and imaginative; I have tried to democratise its financial decision-making. [1/2]
February 28, 2025 at 12:14 PM
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illdoitanyway.bsky.social
Solidarity with QUB UCU. The implosion of the broken financial model of Higher Education is the result of choices: choices UCU must mobilise sector-wide to challenge. Branches are doing incredible work to firefight but this issue is bigger than branch level.
February 3, 2025 at 8:25 PM
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illdoitanyway.bsky.social
We have had Brum, Telford, Walsall, Cannock and more targeted by the Far Right in the West Mids in recent years. This man is always central to bringing union members out on the streets to oppose them. Thank you Stephen Moreton from the CWU for this great endorsement for my UCU VP campaign.
January 31, 2025 at 10:31 PM
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illdoitanyway.bsky.social
Fantastic outcome and congratulations to all who have worked so hard to get this @ducuuo.bsky.social ballot turned around!

The funding model is broken. We must have sector change.
January 31, 2025 at 11:06 PM
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illdoitanyway.bsky.social
I am very proud to be running with Deepa Govindarajan Driver in these UCU NEC elections.

Deepa is highly qualified to scrutinise UCU finances as honorary treasurer - with the backbone & nuanced understanding she has shown delivering USS victory for members as a negotiator.

deepadriver.org
Dr Deepa Driver • Lecturer in Governance, Financial Regulation and Risk, University of Reading (2008 - today) • Previously a financial regulator, banker and consultant • Member of UCU's NEC; former vice-chair of Higher Education Committee • Chair of negotiators (union side), USS pensions JNC • Branch President, Reading UCU • Former chair of UCU's Legal Panel
January 31, 2025 at 11:31 PM
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graham-oh.bsky.social
If you want a VP/President who will stand up for @ucu members with integrity, thought, and commitment, then vote for Rhiannon @illdoitanyway.bsky.social
See rhiannonforucuvp.wordpress.com
Rhiannon for UCU VP (Higher Education)
Vote Rhiannon Lockley (she/her) for UCU Vice President (Higher Education): ballots are live 27th January till 3rd March 2025
rhiannonforucuvp.wordpress.com
February 1, 2025 at 7:08 AM
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illdoitanyway.bsky.social
Chaos & heartbreak. The HE funding model is broken beyond repair. Solidarity with all the individual UCU branches who are fighting heroically to defend the sector. The leverage to push Labour on from the rotten ideology causing cuts - now & still coming - demands full union mobilisation.
Quarter of leading UK universities cutting staff due to budget shortfalls
Up to 10,000 redundancies or job losses feared as institutes undergo restructuring
www.theguardian.com
February 1, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reposted
Join a union to save jobs at the University of Dundee.

Chose from three unions that can represent you.

UCU - sites.dundee.ac.uk/ducu/

UNISON - branches.unison.org.uk/branch/unive...

Unite - uodunite.org.uk/home/

#SaveDundeeUni
ducuuo.bsky.social Dundee UCU @ducuuo.bsky.social · Jan 29
Have you joined a union at the University of Dundee yet?

Fight to save your job and join a group of colleagues who will represent you in the face of cuts.

Academic and academic-related staff - www.ucu.org.uk/join

UNISON and Unite branches are excellent in representing staff too.
Join UCU
Why join UCU? Over 120,000 of your colleagues have chosen to belong to UCU - the largest union and most effective voice for people like you working in post-school education.
www.ucu.org.uk
January 30, 2025 at 12:52 PM
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socialistworker.bsky.social
Take the fight to Starmer’s Labour

👇Beat back Reform UK and racism, build struggle against Starmer and a socialist alternative
Take the fight to Starmer’s Labour
As the Labour Party plummets, it's essential the revolutionary left learns from previous experiences with left electoral alternatives.
buff.ly
January 7, 2025 at 5:01 PM
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sheffielducu.bsky.social
In a well attended General Meeting yesterday, Sheffield UCU members unanimously voted to lodge a Collective Grievance with the University in relation to the risk of compulsory redundancies across the institution.
December 13, 2024 at 12:39 PM
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lboroucu.bsky.social
Please sign and share this petition calling on the UCU leadership to end the dispute with UCU staff (members of Unite) @uniteucu.bsky.social
December 13, 2024 at 2:22 PM
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neunion.bsky.social
More highlights from the sixth form rally in Leeds.

NEU members across 32 non-academised sixth form colleges in England are striking over pay disparities. This could have been avoided if the government had addressed the unfair pay divide.#PayUp24

📷 Matt Wilkinson
December 13, 2024 at 1:48 PM
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uniteucu.bsky.social
Our ballot period may be short, but our members are on it.

#BackTheBallot #ReclaimUCU 🚀
Ballot envelope being posted Ballot envelope being posted Completed ballot paper with ‘yes’ to strike action and ‘yes’ to action short of a strike both crossed Ballot envelope being posted
December 13, 2024 at 4:03 PM
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gbuttars.bsky.social
I'm not a member of @uculeft.bsky.social but fully endorse this as an accurate account of yesterday's HEC meeting uculeft.org/hec-votes-fo...

Members deserve to be told the whole story.
HEC votes for a ballot – and a campaign to save the sector
The fight is on to save Higher Education. UCU’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) met on Thursday 12 December to consider what the union should do in the light of the financial crisis hitting our se…
uculeft.org
December 13, 2024 at 11:53 AM
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gonuj.org
We strike again tomorrow and Friday.

Please support us
SHARE our posts
WRITE to guardian.readers@theguardian.com
JOIN US - the picketline was packed last week. Will be the same tomorrow.

The strength of feeling is undimmed 💪⬇️
nujofficial.bsky.social The National Union of Journalists @nujofficial.bsky.social · Dec 11
Third day of Guardian & Observer strikes on Thurs 12 and Fri 13 to feature carols, protest songs & a festive picket line as campaign to #SavetheObserver continues.
Please show your support by re-posting & joining us at the Guardian’s HQ, details 👇

www.nuj.org.uk/resource/thi...
Third day of Guardian & Observer strikes to feature carols, protest songs and a festive picket line as campaign to Save the Observer continues
Show your support for striking Guardian and Observer Journalists
www.nuj.org.uk
December 11, 2024 at 2:57 PM
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vickyblake.bsky.social
Re #UCU HEC decisions today:
Seeking urgent clarification as I'm both surprised and concerned to see members' email reporting timeline/details that were not discussed/agreed at HEC meeting this morning, *before* the HE Officers have been able to meet to discuss how to progress decisions made. 1/2
December 12, 2024 at 6:16 PM
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illdoitanyway.bsky.social
This is very much the case. I had to leave HEC early after getting a call that my child had a fever but the key votes - deciding a political campaign to include IA, with timeline to be strategised on, were done. Timeline depends on a strategising meeting including lay input which has not occurred.
vickyblake.bsky.social Vicky Blake UCU (she/her) @vickyblake.bsky.social · Dec 12
The HE Officers are the team to whom decisions about implementation and detail are delegated between HEC meetings, comprising the HEC chair and vice chairs, and President. As I understand it they are due to meet tomorrow so I have written to them asking for clarification. 2/2
December 12, 2024 at 8:19 PM
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illdoitanyway.bsky.social
HE is in crisis. Today I & a majority of elected ucu leadership agreed a strategy to build politically to defend the sector, mobilising member voice in every space from lobbying to demonstrating to withdrawing labour strategically. HE officers are the decision body for timeline. They have not met.
December 12, 2024 at 8:27 PM