Vicky Blake UCU (she/her)
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vickyblake.bsky.social
Vicky Blake UCU (she/her)
@vickyblake.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.7K following 440 posts
♥️education ♥️unions ♥️democracy
Widening Participation @ Leeds Uni
UCU NEC, negotiator, Educ'n Comm Chair, Climate+Ecological Emergency Comm Co-chair
@leedsucu Branch Sec
vickyblakeucu.uk
Neurodivergent, LC
#EduSky #AbortionIsHealthcare #CleanTheAir
Posts Replies Media Videos
vickyblake.bsky.social
The venue for today’s #USS JNC meeting - before the wind started up and the rain started just in time for us to leave this afternoon!
Photo looking up at the Liver Building, which is massive, clad in almost sandy coloured stone, with its famous clock tower in shot, and the Liver Bird standing at the top. The sky is pale and cloudy.
October 21, 2025 at 4:27 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Marching with Agnes today because we promised we’d come to this year’s #DurhamMinersGala together. Rest in power comrade, we miss you x

📸 for poster photo Chris Tregenza

@uonucu.bsky.social @leedsucu.bsky.social @redhillsdurham.bsky.social #BigMeeting #DurhamMiners
View from behind me looking out across the banners stretching ahead at Durham Miners Gala, with a poster pinned to the back of my rucksack, with a picture of Agnes Flues in hi vis and with a megaphone, with “REST IN POWER AGNES FLUES” as text. Photo of three adults and a child (Jonathan and his daughter, me, and Anja) with Leeds UCU’s handheld walking banner - long pink banner we are holding in front of us, with the UoL UCU logo in pink and purple on a white rectangle, and “Solidarity from” ahead of it, with a purple silhouette design of people marching with banners underneath. Poster with large photo of Agnes Flues centred with her marching ahead of a crowd with UCU banners, wearing hi vis and looking determined, chanting into a megaphone. Text reads REST IN POWER AGNES FLUES Photo credit Chris Tregenza
July 12, 2025 at 8:22 AM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Standing ovation for guest speaker Arley Gill, Chair of Grenada Reparations Commission, at @ucu.org.uk Congress #UCU2025, inviting us to partner in the reparative struggle - to educate, organise, mobilise, and agitate, to build strong and robust coalitions and alliances to right a historical wrong.
Shot of Arley Gill at the podium at congress with larger image of him on screen behind
May 24, 2025 at 9:54 AM
vickyblake.bsky.social
I've now seen an email which essentially claims by putting info about being on strike into an autoreply (again: a tactic UCU has routinely advised us to use as members) that the staff doing so have caused UCU to disclose personal sensitive data. Let's compare this assertion to UCU's template:
4/7
Screenshot text reads: Out of office/auto-reply - strike days I am currently unavailable and taking part in the University and College Union (UCU) strike action to defend our right to a fair pension / fair pay, secure contracts and equality at work. (*delete as appropriate*) Please redirect your query to university management asking them to listen to staff concerns. Cymraeg: Dydw i ddim ar gael ar hyn o bryd ac yn cymryd rhan mewn streic fel rhan o weithredu diwydiannol gan Undeb y Brifysgol a'r Coleg (UCU) i amddiffyn ein hawl i bensiwn teg / cyflog teg, cytundebau diogel a chydraddoldeb yn y gwaith. (*dileer fel sy'n briodol*) A fyddech cystal ag ailgyfeirio eich ymholiadau at reolwyr y brifysgol gan ofyn iddynt i wrando ar bryderon y staff
April 3, 2025 at 5:22 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Visiting the @uniteucu.bsky.social pickets in Leeds earlier this morning with the Leeds Trades Council banner and fellow @leedsucu.bsky.social officer Emily.
Solidarity to all on #UCU staff on strike, we need this dispute resolved now @ucu.org.uk
Everyone deserves a safe & professional workplace!
Picket outside UCU office in Leeds with red “SOLIDARITY FROM LEEDS TRADES UNION COUNCIL” banner and white banner with colourful writing from the National Shop Stewards Network, and several red Unite flags and hi-vis Picket and supportive visitors outside UCU office in Leeds with several red Unite flags and hi-vis
April 1, 2025 at 8:35 AM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Visiting @newcastleucu.bsky.social pickets this morning (more pics to follow)
Solidarity to all #UCU branches in dispute right now defending jobs & all taking industrial action, including full solidarity with @uniteucu.bsky.social, the #UCU staff union whose first day of strike action is today.
Shot of picketers with an array of strike placards and pink hats in the sunshine outside the King’s Gate building that houses the uni’s senior administration
March 27, 2025 at 11:02 AM
vickyblake.bsky.social
I find “five years on” difficult. Surely it’s “five years in” because it hasn’t gone away & so many of us are left with the “gift” of long covid and vascular & organ damage.
This time in 2020 I was sick with my first infection which began before the lockdown that should have been in place earlier.
Split photo (screenshot from a video call in March 2020) where the left hand shot is me lying in bed. My head and top of shoulders in pyjamas are visible, I’m a white woman with brown hair and eyes lying on white bedding with a pattern that looks like black paintbrush strokes. I look pale and exhausted but am smiling because I’m on a video call to my (now, but not then) ex’s dog Margot who is in the right hand shot. She’s a black and white whippet cross with a white flash down half her face into her long snoot, wearing red pyjama and in her crate because she was also poorly having had to have an operation during lockdown which was really traumatic for her. She’s no longer with us 💔. She has a quizzical look in her eyes and her ears are pricked up.
March 23, 2025 at 11:43 AM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Working on committees together, and becoming friends and comrades in the pro-choice movement means I’ve seen Rhiannon’s dedication to equality and to all UCU members across every part of the post-16 education sector. 6/9
Photo of Rhiannon (left) and me next to her, at a TUC conference. It's a little bit blurry with stark conference lighting visible in the space above our heads. I am looking at papers with a concentrating face and Rhiannon is holding up a sign that says 'TRADE UNION CAMPAIGN TO REPEAL THE 8TH' - related to the 2018 referendum in Ireland
February 21, 2025 at 4:45 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
I met Rhiannon soon after I joined the UCU Women Members Standing Committee ~13 years ago. Rhiannon is a member of UCU Left, I am not. There have been times we have agreed, disagreed, and times we’ve learned from each other. 5/9
Photo of Rhiannon and me seated at a table which tells me this was Women’s TUC annual conference. Rhiannon has on a UCU Your Union, Your Voice, Your Vote T shirt and purple cardi, I’ve got a black Tahir on and we both have our arms raised to vote.
February 21, 2025 at 4:45 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
It’s vital that we elect a candidate who believes in our union’s democracy and who will prioritise democracy and fair debate over their personal views. I trust that this is how Rhiannon will conduct herself - I have seen her in action both in UCU & as a fellow campaigner with Abortion Rights. 4/9
Photo of me and Rhiannon at a picket line, both in our coats and pink UCU beanie hats this time: I’m wearing a UCU Rosie Riveter Tshirt and pink tights with hearts on, Rhiannon is in black with spotty wellies - the Birmingham UCU banner (bright pink with purple stitched writing) is partially visible behind us.
February 21, 2025 at 4:45 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
I’m voting for Rhiannon Lockley @illdoitanyway as #UCU VP 2025, becoming UCU President in 2027. As a past UCU President I know exactly how tough a job it is, and I am confident Rhiannon has the skills and experience to lead us with compassion and excellence.

2/9
Photo of Rhiannon and me at a demo, with the large pink UCU Cymru banner behind us. Rhiannon has sunglasses on and mine are on my head, it looks like I’ve got a pink UCU flag tucked over my shoulder. We are both smiling.
February 21, 2025 at 4:45 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Resolution of this dispute is urgent & overdue. So it’s deeply concerning that a few weeks ago, before the organisational review we’d understood had been agreed with @uniteucu.bsky.social could feasibly be completed, a restructure was announced with only 30 day’s consultation ahead of winter break/2
A selfie angle shot (me on the left in a We Shall Overcome black beanie hat) of Unite UCU picketers and supporters visiting from Leeds UCU and Leeds Trades Council, Red unite flags visible. Shot taken outside UCU Yorkshire and Humber regional office in Leeds
December 11, 2024 at 12:47 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Please show your support for @uniteucu.bsky.social who are on day 3 of their strike today that began on Monday, for a Safe & Professional Workplace. I’m ashamed that it has become necessary for workers to strike against my union @ucu.org.uk /1
Picket photo outside the UCU Yorkshire and Humber regional office in Leeds- photo of Unite strikers with red hi vis and red Unite flags, and supportive visitors to the picket from UCU members (including me on the left) with the edge of the Uni of Leeds UCU banner visible on the left (pink with purple and white stitched lettering). My pink t shirt reads “Black Staff Matter” top to bottom next to a graphic of a raised fist, with “Black Members Matter” horizontally along the bottom.
December 11, 2024 at 12:47 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Solidarity with our #UCU branch at the University of Sheffield International College (@UcuUsic on bird site) who've entered into dispute with their employer because 36 academic and student staff are at risk of compulsory redundancy, with "VR" offered alongside (not enhanced). Please spread the word!
Image of tweet 1 from a thread by @UcuUsic on X / Twitter (University of Sheffield International College UCU branch) We are disappointed to report that we are in dispute with our employer, @Study_Group , +are currently holding a consultative ballot for strike action which will close soon. This is in response to 36 academic+student staff being placed at risk of compulsory redundancy /1 Image of continued thread from @UcuUsic on Twitter/X, tweets 2-4, which read: Similar redundancies are proposed at many other @Study_Group sites, many of which are unfortunately denied @ucu recognition by the employer. We have made clear we do not accept compulsory redundancies+will move towards industrial action unless these notices are withdrawn. /2 In a move that @Study_Group themselves admit is not good practice they have moved straight to compulsory redundancies to downsize us. They are offering 'voluntary' redundancy alongside this but this comes with only statutory redundancy payments, meaning no enhanced VR payment. /3 This underlines how@sheffielduni uses outsourcing to@Study_Group to deny us the same terms and conditions received by members of our sister branch @sheffielducu. In a sector characterised by shocking employment conditions, outsourced workers receive the very worst treatment. 4/ Image of continued thread from @UcuUsic on Twitter/X, tweets 2-4, which read: Not content with serving compulsory redundancy notices just before Christmas, @Study_Group have even cancelled our work Christmas party. These are the miserly, money grabbing bosses that Charles Dickens warned us about - modern day Ebeneezer Scrooges. /5 [GIF of black and white film snippet of Ebeneezer Scrooge shouting (with subtitle) "HUMBUG!") We were the first ever union branch to take strike action in outsourced Higher Education - we are ready to do it all over again if the threat of compulsory redundancies is not withdrawn Messages of support for little branch very welcome! #Solidarity /6
December 5, 2024 at 1:56 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
The conference is advisory not binding, but if it passes ought to inform the work of the Disabled Members Commitee this year. Here's the text (with alt text) ⬇️
While it's fairly self explanatory, I think it's worth emphasising the intent is to make shared spaces more accessible for *everyone* 2/4
Motion 5 Mitigating transmissible disease risks Proposer University of Leeds Word count 145 Conference notes: 1. Air quality in UK workplaces and institutions is rarely mitigated 2. Airborne transmission of diseases including SARS-CoV-2 3. Concerning emergent trends in health, socio-economic, and educational impacts of Covid-19 and sequelae 4. Clean indoor air benefits everyone Conference believes: 1. Failures in UK public health imperil health and lives disproportionately impact minoritised communities 2. This does not absolve employers of health and safety responsibilities Conference calls on UCU to: 1. Consult with advocacy and affected patient groups (including Hazards, Doctors in Unite) to embed best practice structural mitigations to reduce disease transmission and pollutants in UCU workplaces and organising spaces, including: a. ventilation, mechanical air filtration b. CO2 monitoring c. Supporting & providing resources for hybrid working and events, frequently reviewing practice to maximise inclusion 2. Demand post-16 education employers follow suit 3. Improve UCU training and guidance on transmissible diseases and chronic variable conditions including Long Covid, ME/CFS 4. Actively campaign for Covid-19 occupational disease recognition
November 28, 2024 at 3:32 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Further fig update: some of the cuttings are growing green shoots and Mum is very pleased!
Table of plants with a bit of my Mum’s face in profile looking down at them (Mum is a white woman with short grey hair, wearing glasses and a bit of her green cardigan is visible in the window reflection). The plants are in small pots, including several bushy coleus plants (those are mine so they’re looking leggy and like I should have repotted them ages ago), spider plants, two pink/purple cyclamens, and among all this are several pots of sticks where the sticks are in water to encourage rooting etc. Very very tiny green shoots are visible coming out of the top of some of these sticks - fig cutting sticks!
November 16, 2024 at 10:36 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Finally got this pop up after wondering how everyone else knew their number 🥶😅
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,227,034!
A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #1,227,034, Vicky Blake UCU (she/her) ‪@vickyblake.bsky.social‬, joined on Sep 26, 2023"
September 23, 2024 at 12:53 AM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Today is my Dad’s 70th birthday and we love him very much. I’m not sure we have experienced a cuter family moment than my 2yo nephew initiating a random extra round of singing happy birthday mid afternoon because he felt like it for Grampy. Much time on the trampoline in the sunshine was had too.
Family photo taken in selfie mode by my brother closest to camera (tall white guy in glasses with short brown hair wearing a Monkey Island r shirt (showing evolution from apes to Guybrush Threepwood, it’s a great t shirt), and me (white woman with medium length brown hair jeans and purple vest) leaning sideways to my tiny 2yo nephew with face obscured for privacy pointing to the camera, and my Dad (white man turning 70 today with a full head of shaggy grey/white hair and a “Mr Cool” Mr Men t shirt), niece (face so obscured for privacy), and Mum (white woman with cropped short grey hair in purple cardigan) all on an outdoor patio sofa smiling at the camera. You can tell it’s sunny from the sun shining on the patio and the apple tree behind them and because the bit outdoor sun umbrella is up.
September 14, 2024 at 7:57 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Full room (~80 people?) I’m at the side/back can’t see everyone but me + 1 that I can see at the moment. I have my QT3 next to me but not sure about staying long enough to see if contributions are taken from the floor. Main hall air qual much better than this, noticed similar at other conf venues.
Pic of SmartAir QT3 (mini air purifier that basically looks like an enclosed fan with vents at the front - because that’s what it is, with a filter behind the vents) standing on top of a black portable charger. Aranet CO2 monitor is on top of the QT3 showing 1745ppm CO2 (and the line underneath it is against the red zone), 24.8 degrees C, 54% humidity)
September 9, 2024 at 12:33 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Something I “knew” but am usually bad at putting into practice: a *real* break from work is good for you. Just coming to end of a family hol with my brother’s family & my parents. I think it’s the first time in ~20 years I managed to switch off (and it took until nearly the end of the week away🫠)
Shot of a path through a (mostly pine I think) forest with tall trees either side and a blue sky visible between them. Light from the sunny day is dappled with shade across the path which is brown, but with layers of green bracken close to ground level mirrors the green as you get closer to the top of the trees.
September 2, 2024 at 7:31 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
#AbortionIsHealthcare

On 7 September please join our counter demo to the annual anti-choice "March for Life" in London if you can!

🪧Abortion should be safe, legal, and free🪧

Add your voice to the pro-choice majority

Please spread the word:
linktr.ee/abortionri...
Electronic flyer with photo of abortion rights pro-choice protesters taking up the bottom half, and at the too it read: STAND UP FOR CHOICE: ABORTION IS HEALTHCARE Save the date: Parliament Square, 7 September 2024, 2pm. Then in pink text box with white writing: Join our counter protest against the anti-abortion bullies at "March for Life"
September 1, 2024 at 9:01 AM
vickyblake.bsky.social
#AbortionIsHealthcare

On 7 September please join our counter demo to the annual anti-choice "March for Life" in London if you can!

🪧Abortion should be safe, legal, and free🪧

Add your voice to the pro-choice majority

Please spread the word:
linktr.ee/abortionri...
Electronic flyer with photo of abortion rights pro-choice protesters taking up the bottom half, and at the too it read: STAND UP FOR CHOICE: ABORTION IS HEALTHCARE Save the date: Parliament Square, 7 September 2024, 2pm. Then in pink text box with white writing: Join our counter protest against the anti-abortion bullies at "March for Life"
August 25, 2024 at 9:01 AM
vickyblake.bsky.social
The sun looks fake in its own sunset today 😳
Greyish sky with cloud a darker grey across the top ~1/5th of the pic, a silhouette of the top of a cliff line/hills with the shape of a church tower discernible right at the bottom, and just above the centre midline the sun is basically a big red disc with a slightly yellow outline which looks like I cut it out of red paper and stuck it on the drew round it with a thin yellow marker pen. No “bleed” of colour like a usual sunset.
August 18, 2024 at 7:34 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
Q: How many photos have you taken of this coastline Vicky?
A: Yes.

My absolute favourite thing (sea swimming) in my favourite place, for a little bit of peace & headspace. 42 years and it’s still magic to me, as it was to my Grannie, Mum, more recently my niece.

#SaveOurSeas #EndSewagePollution
Photo of a Devon beach taken from a rocky cliff (visible in foreground) above a sandy beach in a small bay with grass covered cliffs in the distance and rocky outcrops sticking into the blue sea with only small waves, against a blue sky with a few fluffy small white clouds and a haze of pale yellow on the horizon (taken just before 6pm). A few people visible on the beach like tiny ants. Taken after 7pm so more golden light: shot from the sandy Devon beach looking out to the Plymouth Sound with the silhouette of a sailboat, and the breakwater visible across the silvery sea against a dimming but golden evening sky. Large anvil shaped lump of rock and the end of a low rocky outcrop in the foreground on the beach. Shot of the setting sun taken from above the beach which is just visible (patches of sand amid the rocks as the tide is coming gently in). The sea is rippling over the rocks and is a silvery grey with a golden light shining down the centre of the photo in a yellowy beam across the sea. On the right hand side are pokey out rocky promontories between where I’m sitting and the next bay which you can’t see from here. The sun is low, large, and yellow to orange starting to move towards the shadow of the cliffs across the water (Cornwall viewed from Devon) My silly face smiling with pink mirrored sunglasses on, smiling a bit in my purple swim towel robe/hooded tunic thing, with the sea and sky and a bit of rocky beach below me (taken as a selfie while sitting on rocks above the beach where I swam for nearly an hour between the first of these photos and the rest of them).
August 14, 2024 at 7:24 PM
vickyblake.bsky.social
These are lovely! Below - #Devon #sunset - in my favourite place. I was swimming in this bit of sea about an hour before I took the photo, watching the sun start to set from in the water, which was still quite warm especially when swimming in the setting sunbeams 🌅🥰
Glorious red and orange sunset behind a small rocky headland in a very flat Devon bit of sea, with a small red and white striped light tower (not full lighthouse) on the lower rocks and a “rounded” fort (Fort Bovisand) above it which is sandy coloured stone with red window shields (it used to be a diving centre once, too). There are hills visible the other side of the water (pretty sure that’s Cornwall across the water because Fort Cawsand is opposite Fort Bovisand though not very easy to see on this picture. The sky is beautiful: the top arc of the setting yellow sun is right above the middle of the fort, and it becomes red and blue range above with striated colours moving into “long and horizontally fluffy” clouds in the top 1/3 of the photo. I’m sure that kind of cloud has a name but I don’t know what it is! The whole scene makes me feel peaceful to look at, and to remember: this is my favourite place.
July 31, 2024 at 12:55 AM