Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #UCUstrikesback

Vicky Blake UCU President Elect (Zenscara)

@zenscara

Mini 'explainer' thread #UCUstrikes: how will @UCU decide re offers?

Understandably members have a lot of Qs about this!

Key point: We're negotiating intensely hard over proposals. Significant progress is being driven by the strength of our (historic!) industrial action! /1

[Interlude to note once again it's a disgrace that it takes industrial action - esp on this scale - to be heard on issues of basic decency...
And how ✊truly epic, determined + creative ✊ @UCU members are...
#UCUStrikes work!]
/2

NB Proposals are not formal offers, though proposal documents may *become* offers.

UCU negotiators have made proposals we believe could resolve both disputes. Employers could resolve both #UCUStrikes with decent offers

🚨NOTE it'll be *members* who *decide* on any offer(s)
/3

Read 12 tweets

Ingrid H. Kvangraven

@ingridharvold

Strike day 9 and still going strong at the picket line ✊✊☀️☀️ #UCUstrikesback #UCUstrike

The rally at Hes Hall was particularly musical today. Great lead singing by @israblack, but I feel like the rest of us (esp me) should practice at home before the next rally 🤭🎤👩‍🎤🎶 #UCUstrikesback

https://twitter.com/UcuYork/status/1235502081122934784?s=19

Oh dear, it was filmed 🤭🤭 💪💪

https://twitter.com/UcuYork/status/1235542719927390208?s=19

Read 3 tweets

Prof Fiona de Londras

@fdelond

Incurred an embarrassingly-middle-class tennis injury yesterday which means standing/walking for hours is not an option today and so I will miss out, again, on standing on the picket line with my colleagues this morning as part of #UCUstrike #UCUstrikesback

It might seem strange to be sad about missing out on standing in the cold for four hours, but picket lines are energising and empowering places. First of all we are together, and being together and caring about each other is, fundamentally, what this action is about.

I know I have a I fantastic job & v generous terms and conditions, but I know that my working life is partly built on and partly produces precarity for others esp. 'buy ins' to cover my buyouts. The least I can do is show up & support the claim that it doesn't have to be this way

Read 7 tweets

UCU

@ucu

•Russell Group "must show leadership" on casualisation to avoid reputational damage
•Casual contracts affect students’ learning & health of staff
•Russell Group at odds with its own negotiators over how to deal with problems & resolve #UCUStrikes
ucu.org.uk/article/10676/…

Jo Grady said: 'This shows how divided universities are when it comes to dealing with the issues at the heart of the strikes. It looks like it is fear of reputational damage, rather than concern for staff or students, that has prompted universities to act on casualisation.

'Our message to all university vice-chancellors is simple: speak out. Make it clear to the people negotiating on your behalf that you want them to do more to deal with the key issues in these disputes.' #UCUStrikesBack #UCUStrike #FourFights

Read 3 tweets

UCU

@ucu

Today is Work Your Proper Hours Day – the day when the average person would start to get paid if they did all their unpaid overtime hours at the start of the year.
tuc.org.uk/news/workers-u…
1/5

Teachers and education professionals put in the most unpaid overtime of any profession except for chief executives – working a whopping 11.9 hours each week for free.
tuc.org.uk/news/workers-u…
2/5

UCU’s own research has shown that staff in both further and higher education work more than 50 hours per week on average:
ucu.org.uk/media/8196/Exe…
3/5

Read 5 tweets

Prof Fiona de Londras

@fdelond

While my colleagues are freezing on picket lines, today I'm giving a career 'masterclass' @ANU_Law
For the 1st time my 'career timeline' incl life events like relationship breakdown + health crises cos work is part of life & life is part of work & these stories are intertwined

@ANU_Law It's not fair for us, as 'senior' people to present our career trajectories in these 'masterclasses' as if life and work weren't the same thing. Sometime work has been my refuge; sometimes it has given way so I can get well and feel the heaviness of navigating life

@ANU_Law There are no right answers, no perfect trajectories, no silver bullets to 'balance'. There is just life, and luck, and love and sadness and success and failure and learning from both. To build a better academy we need to embrace this. #UCUstrikesback

Read 3 tweets

Birmingham UCU

@BirminghamUCU

Thank you to @RLong_Bailey for taking the time to record a message of solidarity to our striking members. #Solidarity #UoBStrikes #UCUStrikesBack #UCUStrikes

Thanks also to @UniteWestMids members for donating to our strike fund. Your generosity will allowi our low paid and precarious members to continue the fight for pay, pensions and fair working conditions! ✊gofundme.com/f/birmingham-u… #Solidarity #UoBStrike #UCUStrikesBack #UCUStrike

@UniteWestMids Special thank you to @bcu_ucu activist @illdoitanyway for making this happen 😺. Amazing solidarity between UCU branches

Read 3 tweets

UCU

@ucu

UCU GS @DrJoGrady has emailed members about negotiations in the #FourFights dispute. Here is the text of the email and a short summary thread #UCUstrike #UCUstrikesback

ucu.org.uk/article/10661/…

UCU negotiators are meeting the employer representative UCEA today for further talks - but we need to see significantly more movement than employers have promised so far.

UCU negotiators have set out clear, reasonable targets for UCEA to improve the offer they made in January:

🔘Each institution needs time-bound, public action plans/agreements on workload, equality and job security
🔘Action plans should be implemented in collaboration with unions

Read 7 tweets

Prof Fiona de Londras

@fdelond

Just home from day 8 of #UCUStrikesBack. Tomorrow we return to work. As someone who loves my job I really am looking forward to it, but I hope I can work with awesome @bhamlaw colleagues to hold on to some of the energy, love, anger, dreaming & imagination of the last eight days.

@bhamlaw Teach outs have reminded us of teaching as we wish it could be; interest driven, innovative (incl improvisational human rights acting from @megkatcampbell & @btcwarwick),small-ish group, interactive and passionate. So many students attended &, I think, loved this approach.

@bhamlaw @megkatcampbell @btcwarwick On the picket lines I learned so much about my colleagues in @bhamlaw and beyond; we discovered shared interests, spoke about our research, proposed new and better futures, planned and plotted collaborations. Time gave us space to connect and to imagine.

Read 7 tweets

Dr Katherine Weikert

@kateweikert

I've hesitated telling my #PrecarityStory because it's tied up in my immigration story, and as I am still not secure there I have a lot of anxiety. But in honour of the #UCUStrikesBack @ucu, in solidarity with my colleagues, this is mine. 1/

I came over in 2010 with a student visa and a scholarship for my PhD. I'd hoped to finish and return but rapidly realised the job market wouldn't allow it. At the time you could get a one-year extension on a student visa for work experience if timed perfectly. 2/

I vivaed in Sept 2013 with minor corrections. This was crucial because finishing without corrections meant I couldn't apply for a visa extension because of timing, and my funding had run out if I'd had moderate/major. So I aimed to finish with minor for the sake of my visa. 3/

Read 28 tweets

Durham Casuals

@Durhamcasuals

A long #precaritystory incoming for the last day of the #UCUStrikesBack
.
"I’ve been teaching in different departments at Durham for 13 years. Twice I've had contracts F/T for 9 months, the next P/T for 9 months, despite a very similar workload."

"Right now I’m on the usual 'you are not an employee, the University does not guarantee work for you, you are not entitled to sick pay' contract. I am teaching across six different modules, including tutorials, lectures and seminars, at undergraduate and postgraduate level."

"I’m supervising dissertation students. I’m covering the teaching of a permanent member of staff; I applied for that exact job a couple of years ago and wasn’t shortlisted. I give lectures and seminars on the same courses as full-time professors."

Read 4 tweets

Precarious Uni

@PrecariousUni

“I’m one of these preciously-employed postdocs. I’ve always been on short term, 1 year/6 month contracts. My current one ends next year but might be extended further, I won’t find out until about a month before it ends. 1/4 #UCUstrike #UCUStrikesBack #PrecarityStory

“I’ve never taken a holiday, and I’m carrying an entire research programme by myself. I need to work because there’s no one else to do it but me. 2/4 #UCUstrike

“My salary just covers my rent and leaves me with £1 a day leftover to live on. I managed to get some summer teaching and A level tutoring to keep my head above water but I’m always tired, and I’m falling behind my research. 3/4 #UCUstrike

Read 4 tweets

Precarious Uni

@PrecariousUni

“After completing my PhD, I was employed as a fixed-term lecturer. I was frequently asked (well, told) to do more teaching than I was actually contracted to do, without any additional remuneration. 1/4 #UCUstrike #UCUStrikesBack

“On one occasion, my senior colleague told me that I would be teaching a whole extra module just days before the start of term — a module that they were supposed to teach. 2/4

“I also experienced what I would describe as bullying; sadly, I had no choice but to accept it, because I needed the job and needed my employer to write me good references. 3/4

Read 4 tweets

Emma Moore

@SociolingEm

The #UCUstrikes are about pensions, yes, but they’re also about pay inequality. So I’m taking a deep breath & sharing this. In 2017, I was turned down for promotion by the University’s Executive, despite being unanimously supported by my School & my Faculty. This is what happened

The feedback said I was “a strong person” but “there had not been opportunity to evidence achievement”. I was informally told it was because I hadn’t had a grant since 2012. I had a £200K grant that ran 2012-2015 (av. funding in my field is c.£9K per year).

I went on maternity leave in 2015. I returned and submitted 4 grant apps; published in the highest ranking journal in my entire field; had 3 new externally-funded PhD students. I was working 3 days a week.

My feedback also said that I’d shown insufficient leadership.

Read 9 tweets

UCU

@ucu

Statement following meeting with employers over #USS pensions:
“The solid support for the strikes is having an impact and we want to thank members for their continued efforts. At today’s meeting we pushed the demands set out in last week’s letter. #UCUStrike #UCUStrikesBack 1/

"If we are going to move forward, we need vice-chancellors to do more than just acknowledge members’ anger on picket line visits. #UCUStrike #UCUStrikesBack 2/

"Vice-chancellors need to speak out and press their negotiators to come back to the table with meaningful actions that can actually resolve the dispute. #UCUStrike #UCUStrikesBack 3/

Read 4 tweets

Paul Kirby

@PaulCinnam0n

Things I have learned about UniTemps, "the university owned temporary staffing service" that in several places employs teaching staff (including PhD students acting as teaching assistants) who are barred from participating in strike action. #UCUstrike #UCUStrikesBack

UniTemps is a spin-off company born at the University of Warwick that claims to have paid almost £42 million in wages last year, with most of its activity concentrated through franchise branches in the UK (e.g. in Manchester, Nottingham, and London).

unitemps.com/about-us

UniTemps is the main focus of 'Warwick University Enterprises Limited', which according to Company House filings grew its business by 20% in 2017-18 and generated a profit of £761,763 before tax.

Read 16 tweets

Tyler Denmead

@td287

PEDAGOGY OF THE PICKET LINE 202: FOR LECTURERS NEW TO STRIKING. Lecturers sometimes write courses that they wish were available when they were students. I wish this course was on offer before I joined a picket line for the 1st time in 2018. @ucu @CambridgeUCU #UCUStrikesBack

The prerequisite thread for this thread is PEDAGOGY OF THE PICKET LINE 101: FOR STUDENTS NEW TO STRIKING. In that thread, I presented the picket line as physical + symbolic, as well as pedagogic + performative. What do these concepts mean for lecturers?

https://twitter.com/td287/status/1199403469377064960?s=20

Let’s start with the physical + symbolic. This part should not be too hard. Get physical + be symbolic! A picket line cannot make visible the collective withdrawal of labour without picketers being visible collectively. Once you commit to striking, commit to picketing.

Read 19 tweets

Precarious Uni

@PrecariousUni

“I passed my viva 7 years ago. Since then I have had over ten fixed term contracts of varying lengths and pay. The best (and worst) contracts were ones where I was paid a decent wage for a decent amount of time (3 contracts over 5 years at the same uni). 1/13 #UCUstrike

“The downside of this was that I became invested in my students, colleagues, institution. You have developed friendships, started to establish academic networks, provided modules that students love, started to supervise PhD students, then your contract is no longer renewed. 2/13

“Or you are asked to do it all again with modules you know nothing about and more good collegial ‘citizenship’ work is the expectation. After five years of this I was literally hollowed out and stretched so thin, I had nothing left to give. 3/13 #UCUstrike

Read 13 tweets

UCU

@ucu

UCU has today written to @USSEmployers setting out some areas where we want them to commit to meaningful action. You can read the full letter here ucu.org.uk/media/10631/UC… #UCUStrike #UCUStrikesBack #USS 1/

@USSEmployers The letter sets out the validity of the 8% basic member contribution rate established in the scheme rules #UCUStrike #UCUStrikesBack #USS 2/

@USSEmployers It explains the need for jointly agreed standards for engagement with stakeholders by USS, especially by the USS Chief Executive. #UCUStrike #UCUStrikesBack #USS 3/

Read 6 tweets

Precarious@KentUni

@UoK_Precariat

#PrecarityStory #snapshotsinPrecarity #UCUStrikesBack Precarity is -- When HR forgets to pay you (which, weirdly, happens a lot), YOU have to apply for ‘an advance’ even though the payment error was their fault. All the burden is on you, not the other way around. 1/n

When HR underpays you, you have to live on not enough money for the next month. Or months, because sometimes it happens again. But the flexibility is great: you can work in 2010, go away, live your life, come back in 2018 with another degree and more experience
2/n

and get paid *exactly* the same amount for your hourly work. Which means getting paid less in real wages, of course, and that's not even counting the work you do for free. 3/n

Read 6 tweets

Ingrid H. Kvangraven

@ingridharvold

In the midst of the #UCUStrikesBack it's worth remembering that our struggle against the neoliberal academy is global.

@ramakumarr unpacks the evolution of the neoliberal uni across US, UK & India, and notes its effects on critical thinking and education. studentstruggle.in/neoliberalism-…

@ramakumarr He concludes:

"We do not need our Professors as academic entrepreneurs. We want them as creators of knowledge.

We do not want knowledge as a form of venture capital or be the source of instant profit. We want knowledge to be public, free, rational and for the people....

...We do not want the morality of the market in our universities. We want the political sovereignty of critical thinking in our universities.

Let us join hands to strengthen this struggle to save higher education."

✊

Read 3 tweets

Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #UCUstrikesback

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Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #UCUstrikesback

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