Author: essex

Please vote in the USS ballot.

 

When you have posted back your ballot paper, please email lcollins@essex.ac.uk  with ” I have voted” in the subject line so we know you’ve voted. Or take a photo of your envelope and tweet to us https://twitter.com/ucuessex (the VC follows our twitter feed so let’s show him how much support we have)

We’ll compare these responses to the members list and follow up if we don’t hear from you. That’s how important it is that you vote. Please encourage your UCU colleagues to vote

Closing date for the ballot is Friday 19 January 2018 so we are working to Tuesday 16 January 2018 as the last date for posting.

If you have not received a ballot paper, please check the address it has been sent to by logging into your contact details here https://ucu.custhelp.com/app/utils/login_form

There is no electronic ballot paper.  If you need a replacement ballot paper you can order a replacement here

If members are out of the country on sabbatical, tell us so you can be excluded from the ballot and thus won’t count towards the 50% turnout.

If you have any further queries please contact us, but don’t put “I have voted” in the subject line please, else we’ll get very confused.

Click here to read more about why we have to fight these proposals By law we need a turnout of 50% in order to take action against these cuts, so we won’t be able to do anything to protect your pension unless you vote YES for action.

Email to members from Sally Hunt, UCU General Secretary

Dear colleague

The USS ballot for industrial action begins this week, with papers going out on Wednesday and likely arriving towards the end of this week or early next.

Put simply: we need your vote

Since I wrote last week, my office has been inundated with messages of support, questions and campaign ideas. I have no doubt about the anger so many of you feel about  the employers’ proposal to remove future guaranteed pension benefits.

However we – every single one of us – need to work together to channel that anger into votes.

The law now requires at least a 50% turnout of members.  Even if there is a 100% vote for action to defend pensions, if we do not reach the 50% turnout figure we cannot take action.

Please don’t assume that this issue is such a no brainer that the union can do without your vote this time. We can’t!

At stake in this dispute is tens of thousands of pounds of your and colleagues’ retirement income.

Please, once you have voted, help us by encouraging others to vote. We need them too!

At stake is the future of our pension fund – will it be a guarantee of secure income in retirement or a lottery?

Please talk to colleagues not yet in UCU about joining, every new member adds strength to our position. 

At stake is not just the fight for a better deal for staff today, but for the next generation too.

In twenty years I have not seen a worse proposal tabled by your employers – one that will needlessly damage the retirements of thousands of individuals, leave USS benefits far behind those of school teachers and new university academics, and break the covenant between this and the next generation.

The proposal is all too typical of the leadership that exists in the sector.

They are adept at defending their own salaries and benefits but will do nothing unless pushed to defend yours.

So now we need to push.

Across UCU there is unity about the need to fight back.

One day strikes will not shift the employers. Only the threat of sustained strike action aimed at severely disrupting our universities will make a difference.

Please help us by playing your part.

When your ballot paper arrives, please use your vote and vote YES for action.

Sally Hunt
UCU general secretary

Essex UCU branch have launched an online petition about probation and the internal REF within University of Essex on the web:

http://speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/university-of-essex/

 

This is mainly of concern to academic staff given the issues, but we very much welcome any signatures also from non-academic staff in support. It is very important to secure the position of especially our junior colleagues on probation. The petition is self-explanatory.

It is an OPEN petition, meaning anyone who accesses the URL can sign it. Hence I will ask you importantly to PLEASE FILL IN YOUR Essex email and ask others to do the same. (The petition asks for names too so it is not a matter of anonymity.) This will allow us to track and count signatures from Essex.

 

Many thanks for your support

Essex UCU General Meeting & Open Meeting 7 Nov 2017

We will hold the General Meeting on Tuesday 7th November from 1-2pm in room NTC 1.03 within the North Teaching Centre (opposite the Tawney accommodation tower) at the Colchester campus. We are delighted that national UCU President Joanna De Groot will address this meeting. Topics on the agenda will include a USS pension update, gender pay, privatisation and casualisation.

Any motions for this General Meeting to be sent to the Secretary secretary@ucumail.essex.ac.uk to arrive by 5pm on Wednesday 1st November. An email will be sent to all members on Thursday 2nd November with details of all motions received by the deadline.
Any amendments to these motions must be sent to the Secretary by 5pm Friday 3rd November. A full agenda for the GM will be sent to all members on Monday 6th November.

Then we intend to immediately follow the GM with an Open Meeting. Joanna will stay, committee members will be present and there will be an opportunity for any university staff member to come and join us for an informal discussion about the GM business or any aspect of union activities. We’re trying to make this a more “approachable” hour following the formalities of the GM. Please pass this message along to your colleagues and do assure them that anybody can come, ask any question and just find out more about us. All welcome from 2.15pm -3.15pm (still in NTC 1.03). Tea, coffee & cake will be available within this hour.

** update 2 Oct 2017**

phd students who teach/GTAs can join UCU for free by phoning on 0333 207 0719 from Monday 2 October. Our online portal www.ucu.org.uk/join   will open for free membership from Thursday 5 October. We are doing it this way to make sure we pick up any issues in the first set of new applications before we go fully online.

Existing members who believe they are entitled to free membership will receive individual instructions by email this week.

—————————————————–

The future of the profession: GTAs get free UCU membership

From 1 October 2017 all phd students who teach can apply for free membership ie GTAs. Contact Essex UCU if you have further queries.

https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/8916/Future-of-the-profession-free-membership-FAQ

 

13 September 2017 

Dear University and College Union members at Essex

Please remember to cast your vote on the 1.7% final pay offer from our employers.  A link to your e-ballot was emailed to you on 4 July.   The deadline is Friday 28 July.

This vote is not a ballot for industrial action–it is a consultative ballot to help decide the way forward.  But given the new trade union legislation, it is more important than ever that as many members as possible vote.

If cannot find your ballot link, you can request a new one at:

https://yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/hereplacement

Thanks to all who attended today’s AGM. A  new branch committee was formed including new branch President, Cathy Crawford

see also branch meetings page

This is the Agenda for the UCU’s AGM which is  on Tues 27 June 2017 in room 2N2.4.16
on the ground floor of the SSRC building, Colchester campus. (Access the SSRC via the bridge from the NW corner of square 2. Go through the double doors, turn slightly left, passing the stairs and the lift into the open area. The door to the room will be in front of you)

Please note that nominations to the roles are now closed. Committee members can however be co-opted onto the committee.

——-

Essex UCU Annual General Meeting

Tuesday 27th June 2017 at 13:00

Room 2N2.4.16 (SSRC)

 

Agenda

 

1. Welcome & apologies
2. President’s Report
3. Treasurer’s Report
4. Motion 1:(proposed by the local committee)

Local subscriptions for our branch have not increased since 2012. We have been slowly decreasing our reserves but now must try to ensure we meet our forecast expenditure. Without this increase we will need to cut our branch administrator’s hours. With this in mind we propose that local subscriptions be amended as follows:

• F0: for salaries which are £60,000 and above should increase to from £3.00 to £5.00
• F1: for salaries which are £40,000 to £59,999 should increase from £3.00 to £4.50
• F2: for salaries which are £30,000 to £39,999 should increase from £2.00 to £3.50
• F3: for salaries which are £20,000 to £29,999 should increase from £2.00 to £3.25
• F4: for salaries which are £10,000 to £19,999 should increase from £1.00 to £2.50
• F5: for salaries which are £5,000 to £9,999 should increase from £1.00 to £1.50
• F6: for salaries below £5,000 and Retired bands remain at nil

 

1. Secretary’s report
2. Congress representatives’ report
3. Election of officers, ordinary members of the committee and congress representatives. Approval of dep rep list
4. AOB