redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Still early day's here really. But I think there will be areas where it is effective and causes some problems, and other areas where it has virtually no effect.
UCU - Pensions and Pay Disputes
- Thread starter SpackleFrog
- Start date
Benjamin F
Lost my faith in Nihilism
Same here. Some managers are leaning on staff, and trying to get non-union members to carry out the extra work. Others are not too concerned as they expect the impact to be minimal.
A plan in some Universities to break the strike is to award degrees even if the work has not been assessed, and on a no detriment basis, raise them afterwards if the degree would have been higher, but not lower them. A great way to undermine the integrity of degrees, and cast doubt on the validity of the whole 2023 degree cohort (see final line of the BBC report)
University marking boycott response an absolute disgrace, say students
Students fear Edinburgh's response to industrial action will mean months of work will go unread.
www.bbc.co.uk
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
Great to know that the union now thinks "Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants Ukraine to become a 'big Israel' - an armed, illiberal outpost of US imperialism" and that it will now "call for the government to stop arming Ukraine" .
The Leeds amendment to delete these bits from the STWC motion was defeated:
The Leeds amendment to delete these bits from the STWC motion was defeated:
‘It would be a betrayal to back down now’: university pay row reaches new level of acrimony
As the stalemate continues, union infighting has added a new dimension while universities are threatening to dock pay
things are still dragging on then, with no end in sight. or am I misreading this?
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Heard a reportback from someone who'd been to conference yesterday - my source was someone who works in a drama and performance department, which as they noted seems appropriate. Sounds like one censure motion against Grady was passed but it's a bit toothless, and another failed, which the leadership are taking as a win overall. Apparently almost no actual discussion of the MAB and what the strategy for the HE dispute is, which sounds...not great. Big sectional splits between the FE branches, who've not been pissed off by the handling of the HE dispute and so are much more supportive of the leadership, and the HE branches, and then within HE there's also a divide between those who are in USS, and so at least got something out of the pensions dispute, and the post-92 institutions who didn't even get that. Or that's what I've been told, anyway.
Miss-Shelf
I'll meet you further on up the road
Not having national feedback on the MAB really isn't great -its a big ask for members to take an indefinite action that has a massive negative effect on students and on lecturer -student relations. I'd like some feedback and an idea of strategy
The USS pensions /Post 1992's potential for a split needs addressing
The USS pensions /Post 1992's potential for a split needs addressing
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Hmmm, Wouldn't agree with all that.
Certainly not the sector splits, or the 'split' between pre- and post-92s. I'd saw the politics of branches are much more down to local factors. Some FE branches are very militant and UCUleft(ish) others aren't, same with post-92s.
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Fair enough, fwiw my source is someone working in a post-92 who I think has a fairly long-running grudge about the national union seeming to prioritise the redbricks. And I wasn't there and am not actually a UCU member myself so am not speaking with any personal authority. If it's true that there wasn't really any debate about how the MAB and the national strategy in general is going, that seems a bit poor?
Oh, also heard that there was various motions that were dropped off the bottom of the agenda due to a lack of time, which tended to be mostly equalities ones, which again does not sound great if my source is accurate.
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
There were not a lot of motions about where the dispute goes next - but it was decided to re-ballot members over the summer to (try) to ensure any mandate for action continues. I think much of the uncertainty about the MAB is that no one - union or employers - really has a good grasp of how effective it will be. And the challenge of how to escalate in the light of restrictive anti-union laws.
TBH HESC (the higher education only part) was a lot better than Congress, all motions were put, and it was generally constructive. Also while I'm not a huge fan of Justine Mercer, the (now) President, she chaired this meeting better than she has done previously and better than Congress was chaired.
As always there were far too many motions for Congress, and far too much time was spent both speaking to things that did not need to be spoken to and people bringing procedural motions (or what purported to be procedural motions), also the chairing of congress (by Janet Farrar) was generally pretty awful. So lots of motions did not get put to Congress, though the equalities motions did pretty well with only two falling off, it was the strategy & finance and recruitment & organising sections that fared the worst.
But even motions that did not get taken to the floor were remitted, sent to the NEC for debate and implementation, so they should not (in theory) vanish.
SpackleFrog
Smash showy bell-bottom pants and sporty haircuts
Of course, we're remitting them to the new NEC...
Hello again all.
Farrar's chairing was abysmal, but Grady dismissing all criticism as misogynistic bullying was something else.
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Any UCU members on here know what’s happening with the Unite UCU Branch? The rumour is that the UCU is seeking to undermine its recognition agreement. The Branch have said;
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Not in the loop here but can ask around when I get a chance, my immediate kneejerk reaction was that the whole Unison/NEU shambles has left me very unsympathetic to unions complaining about poaching, but looking around a bit it looks like the branch had just declared a dispute about two organisers being made redundant:
So it does seem like this might be an attempt to get a yellow union in to undermine an active dispute, rather than an ineffective one complaining about their members going elsewhere. Would be good to know what the other union is.
SpackleFrog
Smash showy bell-bottom pants and sporty haircuts
The senior officials (ie the very well paid ones, nationally and most of the Regional Officials) have lost control of the Unite branch, and they've set up a scab branch under GMB in response. Word is Grady wants to negotiate with them instead, which I suppose sounds pretty on brand for her.
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Yeah, was on a call today where someone confirmed similar. I was very close to saying something like "ah, as soon as I heard it involved sweetheart deals to undermine another recognised union I did wonder if the GMB would be involved", but then remembered we also had a GMB rep on the call just as I was about to open my mouth.
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Thanks SpackleFrog : that confirms what I’d heard as well: a senior management take over of the staff union. And yes, no prizes for guessing the vehicle of choice is the fucking GMB
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
There is a bit of a history of the UCU staff union acting in bonkers/antidemocratic ways, tbf:
libcom.org
That Jo Grady who was quoted in that article talking about the importance of UCU members being able to democratically hold their leadership to account sounds great, I wonder what she's doing now?
Union officials walk out - against their own members
Officials of the education union UCU have downed tools and walked out - from their own annual congress.
That Jo Grady who was quoted in that article talking about the importance of UCU members being able to democratically hold their leadership to account sounds great, I wonder what she's doing now?
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
New PDF giving an update on what's up with the MAB:
notesfrombelow.org
If the UCU leadership are opting to not go ahead with strikes at the start of the new academic year in September, when they could hopefully be co-ordinated with a greater number of Unison branches, that's a bit shit.
The University Worker: 7th July 2023
by The University Worker // Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory
notesfrombelow.org
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Tasty new PDF hot off the press:
notesfrombelow.org
As mentioned elsewhere, Unison branches at:
Now have mandates, along with the 9 who've already been striking.
The University Worker: 4th August 2023
by The University Worker // Where next after the MAB?
notesfrombelow.org
As mentioned elsewhere, Unison branches at:
| Arts University Bournemouth |
| City University |
| Glasgow Caledonian University |
| Glasgow School of Art |
| Leeds Trinity University |
| Plymouth Marjon University (University of St Mark & St John) |
| Solent University |
| University Of Brighton |
| University Of Chichester |
| University of Dundee |
| University of Glasgow |
| University of Gloucestershire |
| University of the West of England |
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Lord Camomile
Yipchaa!
Ohhhh, boy.
lazythursday
Well-Known Member
People really pissed off at the whole thing at my uni. The perceived failure of the MAB, and now what is widely viewed as a really badly timed strike. I'm 'academic related' and don't have anything to do with students, but those that do say that striking in this week just really fucks things up for staff rather than the university management.
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
I'm really pissed off at the 'Grand Old Duke of York' approach that Grady has taken. That's all I'm going to say for the time being.
PursuedByBears
Go stick your head in a pig
Same here. The next round doesn't even coincide with our Intro Week, it's a pointless gesture in the summer vacation
lazythursday
Well-Known Member
It does coincide with ours - colleagues feel it will fuck so much introductory stuff up it will cause a world of pain for students and staff moving forward. There is talk locally of a motion for the local branch to opt out of strike. Our uni has been particularly punitive with mab deductions, we've had local strike action as well so people taking the hit on more strike days right now is pretty painful too.Same here. The next round doesn't even coincide with our Intro Week, it's a pointless gesture in the summer vacation
Lord Camomile
Yipchaa!
In UNISON, we actually found the start of the academic year a little tricky, as not only do different unis have their induction/welcome weeks at different times, but even different depts. in the same uni don't have the same busy spikes (e.g. in libraries, we're actually still relatively quiet during welcome weeks, and our spike usually comes in the weeks after, once they've actually started classes).
Are there any similar issues with finding the most impactful time to take action at the start of the year for UCU members?
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Some more thoughts from the Notes from Below crowd:
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