A message from the General Secretary Dr Jo Grady:

Dear colleague

This week is national Get The Vote Out Week. This week every member, rep, branch and the national union will be focused on delivering the biggest possible vote in our reballot.

We need to see meetings in every branch in the UK. We need to see universities painted pink with our literature. We want to see branch social media accounts come alive.

We are encouraging every branch to put on local phone banks to call members and confirm their votes. Today we are also starting our Solidarity Phonebank where you can help us phonebank fellow members across the UK – email campaigns@ucu.org.uk now to volunteer.

I will be out on the road visiting branches in Plymouth, Exeter, Southampton, Portsmouth, Kent and more. If you are holding an online meeting, get in touch with me and I will do everything I can to join remotely on my travels.

We have been stunned by the number of members who have already confirmed their vote but we also know many of you are yet to post them off. If you are reading this email and have not yet voted, make sure that you send your ballot off today and let us know by filling in our form. If you’ve not received your ballot you can order a replacement here.

Join us for a UCU Live on Thursday at 19:30 when we will be letting every single VC in the UK know that we are going to smash the 50% ballot threshold and go well beyond. Set a reminder now on YouTube or Facebook or watch live on Twitter.

National Get The Vote Out Week – every member, every rep, every branch. One union.

See you on the road!

In solidarity

Jo Grady
UCU general secretary

By now all members should have received their ballot papers.

If you have mislaid your ballot paper or not yet received one (perhaps because you have changed residence) you can order a replacement by clicking on this link:

GTVO member form: UCU Rising reballot, February-March 2023

If you know of  colleagues considering joining UCU please make them aware that the cut off point for being automatically included in the ballot is:

23:59 on Thursday 23rd March.

Your vote is important regardless of your views on industrial action.  The turnout threshold must be met for the vote to be be valid, and also to show management locally that UCU remains relevant as the voice of staff.

So – please cast your vote.

The last safe day for posting is Tuesday 28th March, and the ballot closes on Friday 31st March.

Did you know that His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs allows UCU members to claim back income tax on your member subscription?

UCU has produced a helpful guide to allow you to make your application to HMRC which can be done by post or on-line.

Click here to learn how to make your claim.

Whilst progress has been made in our Four Fights and Pensions disputes, there is no doubt that there is still a way to go and that negotiators must be given the tools they need to hold employers to account for the failures of the last 15 years or more.

With the current mandate soon to expire, it is crucial that you show employers that this dispute MUST be satisfactorily resolved by voting YES in the ballot.

Ballot papers will be with you from today, and we urge you to make it a priority to complete and return the ballot WHATEVER YOUR VIEWS, to ensure that the ballot is valid despite the onerous anti-union employment laws under which it is conducted.

Equally as important, your participation sends a signal to University of Bradford that the local branch is both relevant and strong; a key factor in ensuring that the branch can be effective in its important role of supporting members individually.

You can see the most recent communication from the Genera Secretary Dr Jo Grady here

Members may be aware that as the HE sector continues the Four Fights and Pensions campaigns, our colleagues at Bradford College are also in dispute locally.

This follows a derisory pay offer from an employer who’s principle enjoys a salary some five times more than the median salary of college staff, and has some £9m in reserves.

At the same time college staff report being unable to afford fuel to travel into work or are skipping meals to make ends meet.

You can read more about the dispute here

Bradford University UCU extends best wishes and solidarity to its UCU comrades at Bradford College.

Talks with UCEA continue, with mediators The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) acting as facilitators.

Your support of industrial action has been a key motivator in persuading UCEA back to the negotiations; that pressure must now be maintained to ensure the best possible outcome in terms of workload, gender pay equality, precarity of contract, pay erosion, and pension benefits.

Trade union legislation requires that any mandate for action be renewed every 6 months so you should look out for ballot papers that should be dropping on doorsteps from 22nd February.   If pressure is to maintained, a YES vote is essential; give your union the tools to represent you effectively and robustly.

In the meantime members should ensure that their details are up to date by visiting myUCU.

Most importantly make sure you are paying the correct subscription to ensure you qualify for strike pay if needed.

UCEA have agreed to further talks involving ACAS, to take place next Monday & Tuesday.

Whilst this is a welcome development we should not be complacent.

A resolution can only be achieved if the employer returns to meaningful negotiations in good faith, and makes an improved offer on all strands of the Four Fights USS Pension disputes.

What is clear is that the level of support for the strike by members is beginning to focus the minds of employers; that support will remain crucial to progress going forwards.

You can see the full statement from UCU here

Your personal participation is key to our collective success.

• support the strike,
• join the picket line.

The next two phases of strike action are:

• 9th and 10th February,
• 14th, 15th and 16th February.

Bradford University UCU LA Committee has agreed that pickets will be held on:

• Thursday 9th and Friday 10th February from 8:30am until 10:30am.
• Tuesday 14th and Thursday 16th February from 8:30am until 10:30am.

A branch Extraordinary General Meeting will be held at:

• 1:00pm on Wednesday 15th February.

Please look out for invitations to this online meeting in due course.

Over the last decade members’ pay has been eroded by 25% due to inflation.   This is a situation that simply cannot be considered sustainable.

The latest ‘improved’ pay offer of 5% was unsurprisingly rejected by 80.4% of members in a recent e-ballot, meaning that the fight for realistic workloads, security of employment, equality of remuneration, and a fair deal on pay continues.

You can read the full statement on the ballot from UCU here

For full details of the latest pay offer which was presented to negotiators on 25th January, together with a statement from the General Secretary and the response by the Joint Trade Unions, go to UCU – Employers fall well short with new offer.