Author: essex

Tomorrow, 8 March,  is International Women’s Day

Please see our branch leaflet ♯Mind the Gap leaflet which highlights the work UCU are doing to remove the gender pay gap. As a branch we want International Women’s Day 2018 to be the day on which men and women take a stand, to say that together we mind. We ♯Mind the Gap.

See also the national webpage -which highlights the Women’s Charter, the gender pay campaign and other work. https://www.ucu.org.uk/iwd

See also the national IWD website https://www.internationalwomensday.com/

 

 

Apologies….I’ve been far too snowed under to post a  daily update. Got new members signing up at an unprecedented rate, picket rotas to organise….which is all great….but…anyway enough apologising…this is what’s been going on:

Monday: fab day on picket lines: cake, profound discussions and punk music! Talks started with UUK at Acas…but UUK said they weren’t ready to discuss our proposals as yet ??!! Talks were adjourned.

Then Monday night, there was a twitter U-turn by UUK who decided to tell random twitter-users  that they were happy to meet UCU the next day.

Tuesday: hoorah, UUK did turn up to Acas talks. Picket lines still fabulously happy. Massive numbers today. Some amazing friendships being made and bonds developing across the university #onebigfamily Then we all went for post-picket pancakes.

Wednesday: another strong turn out to chat with prospective students at the applicant day visits. Plus Randy Banks, former branch president came to say hello and proffer his wisdom. And our first dog came to picket with us. Strikes continue, Acas talks continue…..we still want this resolves as soon as possible. Students are being fantastic: supporting us, holding craftivism eves to make new banners which they wave with enthusiasm on the picket lines. Essex SU are bringing us coffees and looking for ways to support us. It’s actually been an amazing experience: the branch is growing in strength but organically in ways we never dreamed of.

ok, enough profound thoughts….got to replenish picket box stocks!! 😉

See all the photos on our photo gallery page

Dear Essex UCU members,
Please come to your termly General Meeting of the Essex UCU branch to be held tomorrow, Friday 2 March 2018 (non-strike day) at 12pm till 1pm, in 2N2.4.16, SSRC building, at the Colchester campus.

The agenda will be:

1. Welcome & apologies
2. President’s report
3. There were no motions put forward for submitting to national Congress. However we have accepted this motion for the branch:

“International Women’s Day motion : The University of Essex branch of UCU deplores the gendered and racialised pay gap in Higher Education and recognises that this pay gap feeds into pension inequality in retirement. In recognition of International Women’s Day, UCU Essex branch will designate the March 8 USS strike day as a day in which issues that affect women and non-binary people, especially people of colour, will be highlighted. In addition, the University of Essex branch of UCU will make their strike action on 8 March focused on issues of gender and HE, and join the actions of the Women’s Strike on International Women’s Day in order to bring together staff and students around these issues”

Submitted by Nicholas Beuret

4. Industrial action update:  update and discussion on how to proceed/ what has worked & what might be better
5. AOB (please alert us to any items at the beginning of the meeting so we don’t run out of time to raise)

If there were any comments or amendments to the motion, please send them to ucu-secretary@ucumail.essex.ac.uk as soon as possible, else this can be amended in tomorrow’s meeting.

PLEASE NOTE: if the weather deteriorates again, we may postpone this meeting. Please only travel in if it is safe to do so. I’ll email tomorrow morning if the meeting will not go ahead and put an update on twitter @UCUEssex /branch website www.ucu.essex.ac.uk/branch-meetings/

Please come along and support Essex UCU.
Paul Siddall, Essex UCU Branch Secretary

We know there’s a serious point to this striking….but we had some fun in the snow today too. After a few scary journeys onto campus, we decided to enjoy this picket line malarkey.

 

Don’t know why this has posted sideways. Too cold to sort at the mo.

Massive turnout on the picket lines despite the weather (did I say it had snowed?!). Massive thanks to all. Proud of the way this branch is responding to this industrial action.

 

Don’t forget -Asos tomorrow & Friday.

UCU finally met UUK today.
UCU put forward a comprehensive set of proposals to resolve the dispute.
You can read more about these proposals here.
The employers’ response to our proposals was to, at last, agree to go to ACAS in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
A welcome development.

But the strikes remain on.

Essex SU have issued a new message of support today following their meeting with the Deputy VC

https://www.essexstudent.com/news/article/6001/Strike-Update/

We are very appreciative of their support #solidarity

It snowed today. But not only did all the pickets on the rota show up, but extras did too. That’s how strongly we feel about defending our pensions. Photos on photo gallery page.

We’ll back to face the snow again tomorrow! There’s a Visit Day tomorrow, so we’ll have longer picket hours. Wrap up warm but do come and join us.

Later in the day it was announced that UUK have agreed at long last to go into talks with UCU via Acas. A welcome development. However strikes remain on.

 

And today the snow came. But as many pickets as ever turned out. We had visitors from the local trades council, Unite & our UCU Regional Office.

UUK may be pretending that they want to talk, but until they actually wish to negotiate and reverse their decision to radically worsen our pensions, we will continue to strike.

Today’s photos are on the Photo Gallery page

 

It was a tad chilly on the picket lines today. But the picketers remained cheery and determined to do whatever it takes to defend their pensions.

Later in the day, UUK said they would talk with UCU on Tuesday but  “talks would not re-open the Joint Negotiating Committee decision made on 23 January”.

Not sure what will be discussed then because that decision is the very reason staff are on strike.

Strikes remain on Mon, Tues & Wed next week.

Essex UCU would like to thank everyone: staff, students & visitors who came out to help or support the picket lines today. We’re delighted with how it all went. There are photos…but tbh we’re exhausted now. I’ll add some over the weekend here. In the meantime, follow our twitter feed to check how our strike is going/see photos @UCUEssex