Durham UCU

Reset the "days since Birmingham Uni management make the news for all the wrong reasons" counter, lads.

400 lives uprooted by a single email.

This student puts the impact of the cuts into reality.

Join the march this Sunday: 1pm, Pier Hill → Broadway.

Sometimes solidarity is getting up slightly earlier and taking a weird route to work so you can post your industrial action ballot.

Primal Scream - Come Together (Official Video) YouTube video by PrimalScreamVEVO

Today's @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social picket line jam - the title says it all: 'Come Together'. We do, and we will, until the fight for pay and pensions justice is won. Bring pen and paper for picket line quiz today too! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUjW...

🥁📯🐶😍👉Huge @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social picket lines @northumbriauni.bsky.social today - with more strike dates announced (16, 17, 25, 26, 27 March and 20-24 April). Expect more drums, dogs, and righteous indignation @andylong6.bsky.social @georgeclarke.bsky.social @chionwurah.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Durham University staff start industrial action in workload row Durham University says the action, which could last for six months, is

It's ASOS time, everyone! We regularly hear from colleagues that they're working, to use a technical term, "silly hours"; way beyond what could be considered reasonable. It wasn't our first choice to end that via action short of strike, but it was clear SOMETHING needed to be done, so here we are.

When will the UK government wake up to the wholesale destruction of HE that's happening?
This affects towns and cites across the UK, our businesses, the NHS, schools, young people, our global standing, everything! Higher Education, Universities, contribute over £265 BILLION to the economy.

DUCU pub social in the Half Moon RIGHT NOW!

Some picket snaps from last week courtesy of @neunion.bsky.social members! More to come next week!

BUCU Members - Did you know you’re entitled to reasonable paid time off and proper facilities to carry out any union role and attend UCU training? Despite what your manager or HR might tell you - this is the law.

Here is @ducu.bsky.social ‘s analysis of management’s most recent response to our request to negotiate. Management took extra time to deliver us a response that was a flat and unequivocal “no, we will negotiate NOTHING with you.”

durhamucu.org.uk/ducus-analys...

Durham University staff start industrial action in workload row Durham University says the action, which could last for six months, is

Reading the news today & came across this. To be CRYSTAL CLEAR, @ducu.bsky.social has REPEATEDLY raised workload problems to management and offered potential solutions for negotiation. In EVERY instance, management has refused to negotiate. “No” is not negotiation. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

About to start our rally outside the Palatine Centre. Come along for solidarity and chanting! Let the employer know we're not going to keep working more hours than we're paid for, and the hundreds of staff lost to "voluntary severance" are not forgotten!

@ucu.org.uk @ucucommons.org @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ducu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @unisoninhe.bsky.social @tucneyh.bsky.social @danhollandnews.bsky.social @timeshighered.bsky.social @chroniclelive.co.uk @josephinecumbo.bsky.social @neunion.bsky.social @bylinesnetwork.co.uk

Hopefully this makes a difference 🤞

Image description: Graph of median pay relative to 2018 adjusted for inflation shows it decreasing almost every year to 2025, where it is nearly 10% lower than in 2018. Picture of Unison, Unite, and UCU union members on picket lines with banners.

We can win a better pay offer in 2026!
We've suffered a 9% pay cut in real terms since 2018.

Management imposed another real-terms cut last year - insisting that a 2% increase was all they could afford - and then refused to negotiate with the unions. 2026 pay negotiations begin in April.

Ric gets it! In this case, he's got the importance of voting in the current round of UCU elections. The ballot closes 5pm next Monday, so get those envelopes in your nearest slotted red tube!*

*Slotted red boxes also available.

Read our statement on the announcement of 200 jobs to be lost at the University of Dundee.

“DUCU believes that the timing of exits proposed in the VS scheme will cause massive disruption at a very sensitive time…when exams, marking, & processing of grades are taking place.

sites.dundee.ac.uk/ducu/

Anthony Adams rubbing hands together meme with the text "when your branch announces an industrial action ballot will open on march 2nd"

After a massive turn out in the indicative ballot, we're moving to make it formal.

On March 2nd, our formal ballot for another round of industrial action against Future Nottingham, compulsory redundancies, and course closures opens. If you are a member, make sure you vote! Let your voice be heard!

Across the UK, UCU branches are fighting job cuts and compulsory redundancies at Stirling, Aberdeen, Heriot-Watt, Essex, Solent, Leicester, Nottingham and London Met. Same story: cuts, overwork, and attacks on education. We stand with every branch in dispute.
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(Even this is far too kind - the problem was clearly building, and many people at less lofty levels kept regularly saying so.)

New report on The State of Geography in UK Higher Education UK universities are facing a financial crisis, with over 40% of institutions experiencing deficits. Others will likely face similar challenges.

Shout out for the learned societies keeping a beady eye on the state of the disciplines that university senior managers are so swiftly dismantling. Keep an eye on the state of UK university Geography with the help of the @rgs.org 's new report, published this week.

UK unis: we need to pay mid-six figure salaries to the people in charge, because it is imperative we get the best and brightest to lead us.

Also UK unis: It isn't reasonable to expect us to do anything to solve any of our problems, or even to check whether a new problem might be brewing.

Join UCU Why join UCU? Over 120,000 of your colleagues have chosen to belong to UCU - the largest union and most effective voice for people like you working in post-school education.

Join the University and Colleges Union branch at the University of Dundee today.

Our strike action and lobbying was a major factor in securing additional funding for the University.

We consistently protect our members and ask for redundancies to be ruled out.

Join now - www.ucu.org.uk/join

Solidarity to colleagues at the University of Aberdeen for getting a mandate for industrial action.

So. Much. NOOOOOOIIIIIISSSSSEEEEEE! (Because so much anger and solidarity.)

It says a lot about the state of UK universities that @birminghamucu.bsky.social have had to negotiate over "recognition that union reps should not face detriment for union work".
It also tells us that all who work in unis need to be in a union.
#JoinAUnion
#heartunionsweek ❤️unions

@ucu.org.uk @georgeclarke.bsky.social @andylong6.bsky.social @ucucommons.org @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ducu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @tuc.org.uk @unison.org.uk

a man says " the line must be drawn here " Alt: Captain Picard in the movie Star Trek First Contact says in an overly dramatic way " the line must be drawn here, this far, no further "

They took my desk, now they want my pension, well NO:

(On strike today and tomorrow, off to join @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social picket line outside the law school, itll be cold and wet but sometimes you have to stand up and be counted.)

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degrees

Job cuts and campus closures anywhere threaten post-16 education everywhere.
Solidarity with staff and students at Essex fighting job losses and the closure of Southend campus – including 7 days of strike action from today.