UCU members at Capital City College Group (CCCG), London's largest further education college group, begin eight days of strike action today in their dispute over pay.
CCCG has already seen three days of strikes in what began as a national dispute over low pay and poor working conditions. With 60 colleges having settled with pay awards of up to 10% CCCG is an isolated employer and must settle the dispute.
Another dumb decision by UK government - annual earnings threshold for skilled overseas workers to come to UK to be raised to £38,700. Since pay rises have been below inflation for ~15 years, this rules out employing just about anyone from elsewhere, ever. So much for "excellence in science" https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04162-4 #science#immigration#postdoc#ucu
Half thinking of starting an #AcademicVenting hashtag here, about the dire, dire state of UK (global?) higher education. Sharing nuggets of senior management decisions, neoliberal language, and overall slow collapse.
Won’t work of course because most of us can’t risk honesty, but honestly: the everyday reality of what is happening deserves recording in all its depressing and damning detail. #Universities#AcademicChatter#neoliberalism
#AcademicVenting i attended yet another local #UCU emergency meeting today and just want to say that, if you work at a university that you do, despite everything, really love - because of your genuinely wonderful, brilliant students and colleagues - and if that institution is in real peril, for all the usual reasons that UK HE is crumbling - then that adds yet another layer of sadness and heaviness to your days. It’s not just fear of losing your job; it honestly is more.
#AcademicVenting It occurs to me that some of you might not know Goldsmiths - my university, now being decimated ⬆️.
So I want to tell you about #Goldsmiths. It is a unique, brilliant, important university. We combine arts, humanities and social sciences, producing amazing critical research, politics, practice.
I have the best colleagues and the best, best students. The fact that all this is being destroyed now is just 💔💔💔. Not just existential fear, much more.#UCU@ucu
@pvonhellermannn If only university VCs would have the collective backbone to petition government, but instead they seem perennially happy to rollover, cut jobs, degrade courses, reduce pay etc ... #ucu
#AcademicVenting I had not mentioned so far: Goldsmiths lectures and union are resisting redundancies in many ways, including a Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB). Senior Management have responded with highly punitive 50% salary deductions, for 2 months. So we are losing one month pay!!
This too is unbelievably stressful - in fact, is stressing me out more than anything at the moment (unappreciative teenage children for a start). Especially when you might still end up jobless. #UCU.
#AcademicVenting We now have a GoFundMe for our Goldsmiths #UCU hardship fund, due to 50% salary reductions for marking boycott. If you are in HE and in your union, perhaps you could ask your branch whether they could contribute? Feel awkward about saying this but: every donation welcome.
#AcademicVenting I haven't been writing much here as it's just been too stressful. We are now officially in Stage 2; none of the counterproposals, none of our objections during "collective consultation" made any difference; still planning to make over 130 of us redundant. But we are resisting! Students have occupied Deptford Town Hall! #NotADoneDeal#UCU@ucu
UCU has slammed the UK government's proposal to raise the earnings threshold for skilled worker visas. The increase, from £26,200 to £38,700, will affect many university and college staff, especially those early in their careers.
Coupled with proposals to cull the Shortage Occupation List, which contains a number of roles in higher education, the move will be massively detrimental to the sector's ability to recruit talent from across the globe.
We’ve called on Universities Superannuation Scheme Investment Management to ethically invest our members' pensions in companies that are not destroying the planet and not destroying human life.
UCU has vowed to fight devastating cuts at Staffordshire University after a consultation document was shared which puts over 100 jobs at near-immediate risk of redundancy. The cuts include up to 65 academic job losses and swingeing cuts to professional services staff.
The proposals cover academic job losses across the schools of justice, security and sustainability; health, science and well-being; digital technologies and the arts; plus the institute of education.
Staff at 11 colleges across England are on picket lines this morning as they begin three days of consecutive strike action over low pay and poor working conditions.
It's very disappointing some hold out college bosses have refused to give their staff the pay rise they deserve, given strikes have been called off at 32 colleges after pay offers at or above the 6.5% recommended by the employer body, the Association of Colleges.
Just had an emergency #UCU meetings at our university, after the “discovery” (best word - it suddenly tripled from previous figure) of an absolutely enormous deficit. The situation looks pretty dire, redundancies wise.
Discussing what union can do has left me yet again
angry about the complete lack of democracy in UK #Universities. They are really top-down, undemocratic institutions, and this is a major contributing factor to the mess #HE is in
@academicchatter Another result of the antidemocratic shenanigans by #UCU leadership: waiting until after the pensions 'victory' to reballot members meant that there was far less incentive for securely employed academics in pre-'92 institutions to return their ballots (for many such colleagues, the primary concern was #pensions).
Once again throwing the post-92, junior & precarious colleagues who are the most engaged union members under the bus.
UCU has written to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) calling on it to reverse its decision to suspend its advisory board on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within 48 hours.
If it refuses to do so, the union will call on its members to resign from voluntary positions with the funding body.