Durham UCU

durhamucu.org.ukDurham UCU – The University and College Union at Durham University

Our branch committee's message regarding the tragic loss of Professor Jason Arday, our former colleague in Durham, can be read on the main page of our website.

Durham UCU reposted

Northumbria UCU Branch

@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social

👉 www.ucu-unn.org.uk/news/337-wor... @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social have put together a statement and resources about @northumbriauni.bsky.social's relationship with the world's largest arms manufacturer, @lockheedmartian.bsky.social. Have a look, please share, write to the uni, and your MP.

ucu-unn.org.ukIs it Worth It? Northumbria University and Lockheed Martin

Durham UCU reposted

Jamie Callahan

@profjamiec.bsky.social

Nothing says “We don’t care about our workers” more than derecognising their union and all agreements that had been negotiated with that union. #ucu

Durham UCU@ducu.bsky.social

Absolutely despicable behaviour from Brighton senior management. It's not exactly a secret how many uni managers hold their staff in contempt, but it's not often they make it *quite* so obvious as this.

University and College Union (UCU)@ucu.org.uk

University of Brighton management is threatening to tear up longstanding agreements protecting staff rights, working conditions and trade union recognition. UCU branch chair Ryan Burns explains what’s at stake and why members are fighting back.

And it's not just declaring they'll ignore an entire union going forward, though that's certainly bad enough. It's announcing previous agreements just won't be honoured any more. That's dictator shit. That's saying with your whole chest "We no longer see any value in our staff trusting our word".

I guess there's a perverse logic in lessening the blow of refusing to negotiate further by demonstrating all previous negotiation was in bad faith anyway, but still. If you despise your staff that much, just find a different damn job.

Durham UCU reposted

Universities are tearing apart the humanities, arts and social sciences. Courses are closing, jobs are disappearing, and students and staff are paying the price. At Exeter, 85% of proposed job cuts targeted these disciplines. We need university leaders who will defend education mot destroy it.

speakout.web.ucu.org.ukStand up for trade unions: Reinstate Professor David AndersonProfessor David Anderson, a senior elected representative of Aberdeen UCU, has been dismissed after 27 years’ service for sharing a document with staff in the constituency he was elected to represent,...

Imagining a world in which the kinds of action that get you immediately dismissed from a university are naked bigotry, or bullying people into breakdowns, or trying to sleep with students, rather than sharing documents management don't want to be shared.

Durham UCU reposted

Lincoln Branch of UCU

@uculincolnbranch.bsky.social

UCU members at the University of Lincoln have voted overwhelmingly to tell University managers - no more compulsory redundancies or face industrial action. A huge mandate to protect jobs, protect our programmes and support out students! @ucu.org.uk

Durham UCU reposted

Nottingham today. Everywhere tomorrow. 2,700 staff put at risk. 600+ jobs targeted. At least 48 courses facing closure. What happens here sets the template for the sector. Stand with Nottingham.

Durham UCU reposted

Duncan Hothersall

@dhothersall.bsky.social

For all that it's been barely reported in the UK press, it's still hard to understate the importance of the stance @labourunionsuk.bsky.social has taken on trans and non-binary rights this week. Every single trade union affiliated to the party of government has stood up and said we will not comply.

19 Sept

This is key: the "we will tell you when you are to appear before us" approach isn't even efficient; it ends up taking up more work and time than just mutually agreeing dates.

Jamie Callahan@profjamiec.bsky.social

After a similar round with HR, I once suggested we use a scheduler app like Doodle or W2M. I just got another email suggesting dates that wouldn’t work. It’s wildly inefficient for getting work done; it’s wildly efficient for running out the clock.

19 Sept

So why do it? As Jamie says, it runs down the clock - as well as extending the unpleasantness of the experience for the employee. The second is just a base powerplay: "We are too important to take any account of your needs". It's highlighting the power differential.

University of Nottingham UCU branch

19 Sept

And this again goes back to the broader point we were making yesterday - it's extremely hard to believe university managers are prioritising their staff's best interests when they see reminding us they're in charge as more important than figuring out how we can work together.

Durham UCU reposted

@uonucu.bsky.social

With strike action set to begin in a week and a half, here is a quick overview of what is happening at your university, why it is happening, what UCU is doing about it, and how you can support us as we fight for the future of UoN. #UCU #UoN #UoNUCU #UniversityOfNotting #StopTheCuts #SaveHE

From an outside perspective, it sure sounds like management are hoping the money they end up paying in student appeals costs them less than the salaries of the people they needed to actually teach the courses.

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...But we'll NEVER KNOW, because the strategy has been one of total deception and stonewalling. Endlessly shifting management-speak claims in which the only reliable constant is that we'll be told that we're the problem for not being more grateful.

Put simply: if a university's management wants its staff to trust them, they need to (re)-earn that trust. They need to show their priorities are the staff they employ, and the students those staff teach.

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Sometimes it gets particularly brazen - members told they were losing 50% of their pay during the MAB because of how our actions were hurting students, while students were told the MAB wouldn't actually materially affect them.

It's an interesting thought experiment as to how staff and students would respond if UCEA were honest about what's going on - staff working conditions and student educational experiences are worsening across the board because of a spiralling financial crisis in the sector...

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And on the other side of things, staff are forced to work harder and harder every year, as staff numbers shrink and student numbers increase. And yet we're repeatedly told that there's no problem, that the people we lose weren't really needed...

...That any problems with stress and burnout are the HoDs problem (while refusing to give HoDs any additional resources), and that "new working practices" will magically appear any day now to solve the problem.

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This kind of thing is why we're always baffled when colleagues argue we need to be more understanding of the people in charge. Aren't we aware the sector is in flames? Aren't we just throwing peanuts at people genuinely doing their best in absolutely impossible circumstances?

And the answer is: look at what's actually going on. Our students are being repeatedly lied to. Fewer staff won't affect you, industrial actiom hasn't affected you, COVID hasn't affected you. The gaslighting of cohort after cohort, in the hopes appeals will cost less than actually addessing issues.

Durham UCU reposted

Dundee UCU

@ducuuo.bsky.social

No surrender until the University of Dundee rule out making colleagues compulsory redundant. Donate to our campaign as we seek crowdfund support for a Judicial Review of the governance decisions that led the University Court to approve staff and programme cuts www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/judicial-r...

ALWAYS read up on all disciplinary processes and policies in a job. And ALWAYS remember management may simply choose to ignore those processes and policies the instant they are inconvenient.

Randy@porchcryptid.bsky.social

I've read up on the companies arbitration process since in a previous job I was a union rep but I think my direct manager might just think I'm doing it to be a smartass.

"So why bother reading them, DUCU?" Because letting them know you know they're messing you about has value. Sometimes they'll back off. Sometimes it'll just add to the amount they'll offer you in an exchange for signing a NDA after they succeed in their constructive dismissal campaign against you.

This story shocked even us.

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It shouldn't have, of course. The number of stories we have of HR teams violating their own procedures to help senior staff bully their subordinates are as numerous as they are enraging. Bully-via-HR is rife in UK universities.

It went like this (shared with permission of the reporting colleague). "Can you make times X or Y this week?" "Not both of us, no." One week later: "Can you make times A or B this week?" "Not both of us, no." "Then we'll just have to proceed without your union rep present."

Durham UCU@ducu.bsky.social

This. This includes the tactic of being so inflexible with meeting dates that your caseworker can't attend (which we've seen reported elsewhere). Your legal rights trump their busy calendar and refusal to treat your own schedule with respect.

They didn't get away with it in the end, but the sheer brass neck of trying to force a colleague into abandoning their legal right rather than simply coordinating calendars is extremely telling about both that manager's arrogance, and their contempt for their staff.

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This also applies to phone calls with senior management figures, which can also be used as a strategy to avoid witnesses/a paper trail.

Durham UCU reposted

15 Sept

The rain didn’t stop us. Today we stood proud against the University of Brighton’s outrageous threat to derecognise UCU. We will not let our members’ rights be trampled on. Like and share to stand with our members and send management a message: BACK DOWN.

Durham UCU reposted

14 Sept

UCU members at Brighton University face the threat of derecognition. We have called an emergency rally tomorrow at 1:15pm. It would be amazing to see as many #TUC26 delegates as possible in attendance. 58-67 Grand Parade, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN2 0JY

Durham UCU reposted

covucu.bsky.social

@covucu.bsky.social

11 Sept

Another "achievement" for Coventry University: noted as an example of subsidiarisation meaning they're no longer required to provide gender pay gap figures across most of its entities. #ucu

Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social

Universities are not obliged to report to Hesa salary details of staff employed by wholly owned companies, leading to fears of misleading figures. Juliette Rowsell reports #edusky #AcademicSky #highered https://ow.ly/JXHO50ZM2pC

youtube.comThe Hives - Hate to Say I Told You So (Official Music Video)YouTube video by thehivestv

11 Sept

Simon Usherwood@simonusherwood.bsky.social

Um. OK. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

giftarticle.ft.comUK universities fail to win over ReformUniversity leaders have spent months on a charm offensive aimed at gaining the support of the populist rightwing party

11 Sept

It needs to be stressed that unis playing nice with the Far Right isn't just a doomed endeavour. It's one with actual consequences for students & staff. We're made to feel less respected, less valued, less *safe*. We see excellent colleagues resign over capitulations to the "free speech" of bigots.

Durham UCU reposted

heraldscotland.comUnion says university solutions should not 'exploit' staffUniversity union leadership has backed calls to reform the sector’s funding model, while saying that sustainability should not be allowed to…

7 Sept

Staff cannot be made to pay for Scotland’s university funding crisis. No more job cuts. No more rising workloads. No more insecurity. Universities need proper public funding and a future that values the people who make them work. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2652345...

Durham UCU reposted

Abdul El-Sayed

@abdulelsayed.bsky.social

7 Sept

The labor movement gave us weekends, 8 hour work days, and ensured that our kids can go to school rather than work. Honored to fight for unions every day. Happy Labor Day to all those who have fought for a fairer economy in the richest country in the world.

thecourier.co.ukEXCLUSIVE: Dundee University under watchdog supervision over information failuresThe Scottish Information Commissioner has opened an intervention against the crisis-hit institution.

4 Sept

Sometimes, I idly wonder how much better off this sector would be, if all the time university managers pour into hiding the ways they're not doing what they know they should be doing, went instead into doing what they know they should be doing.

Dundee UCU@ducuuo.bsky.social

Link to The Courier article that exposed the University of Dundee being under a level 2 intervention for not complying with Freedom of Information law. www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politics/...

The UCU branch at De Montfort University Leicester

4 Sept

"I would simply not regularly make decisions that then have to be hidden at all costs from the people who work for me."

Durham UCU reposted

@ucudmu.bsky.social

3 Sept

Solidarity with colleagues working the @ucu-ulster.bsky.social open day, whilst facing 450 redundancies. Anyone in the area, please stop by at 10am!

Durham UCU reposted

covucu.bsky.social

@covucu.bsky.social

3 Sept

Dear University Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award? For CU’s VC? The university with the huge deficit, collapsing student numbers, hundreds of redundancies and 2,788 staff transferred to subsidiaries over 3 years? That Coventry? Right. Interesting award criteria you have there. Best, The staff

Durham UCU reposted

Natacha

@natacha.bsky.social

2 Sept

I have now been on strike for three months. This is the first time Goldsmiths UCU has had to start the new academic year with a strike. But I am proud of my colleagues for their action in protecting a great university.