Strike action is ON!!!

Next week will be the first of 4 weeks of striking from our members as we continue to say NO to the compulsory redundancies forced on us by the university for their poor financial choices.

#StopTheCuts #SaveHE

UCU has been fighting employers' efforts to make 100% pay deductions for Action Short of Strike legal through practice since 2019. We're not stopping now that our own UCU Senior Management is replicating the same worst practice.

Much solidarity to @uniteucu.bsky.social.

We call on Jo Grady and UCU SMT to: • Enter negotiations with Unite UCU without preconditions. • Stop the threat of punitive deductions for ASOS - this breaches UCU and TUC policy and only serves to undermine all of us, not least those UCU members currently involved in legal test cases against punitive deductions after taking lawful industrial action. Signed, 25 UCU branch committees (and counting)

Sometimes solutions are easy @drjogrady.bsky.social & @ucu.org.uk

Let’s sit down and talk without conditions or threats that damage everyone. It’s time to resolve this dispute.

Our statement, with support from the following branch committees:

Drafting a more extensive response, but for now we think that (1) @uniteucu.bsky.social rock [branch position, voted on in motions], (2) that this is no way of treating staff [union position, voted on in Congress], and (3) everyone should read this blog: uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/09/04/u...

This is disgusting. UCU - shame on you!

Jo Grady calling Queen Mary management "vindictive" for making deductions from UCU members taking action short of a strike: Jo Grady, UCU's general secretary, said Queen Mary's senior management had "launched a vindictive attack" on its members, "punishing them for taking part in lawful industrial action" and "cementing its reputation as the worst university employer in the UK" She said: "It is wrong to do this at any time and all the more deplorable as staff struggle to make ends meet in a cost of living crisis."

Screen shot of the article from The Guardian about Queen Mary ASOS deductions in which Jo Grady is quoted

🚨 Third consecutive vote for industrial action 🚨

✅ strike action: 76%
✅ action short of a strike (ASOS): 80%
✅ turnout: 77%

ASOS begins today with @ucu.org.uk threatening staff: "We'll deduct your wages."

Double standards and vindictive attacks undermine us all.

#ReclaimUCU

Why is our trade union emulating the worst behaviour of our employers towards UCU staff? How many of our letters, motions, attempts to bring motions from lay members pressing for resolution have been ignored now? Solidarity with all @uniteucu.bsky.social #UnionStrong #ReclaimUCU

Lmaooooooo

meme: a man with a mustache and glasses is speaking to a woman with platinum blond hair. "University managers keep pushing through restructures claiming it will make things cheaper" "well, did it work for those people?" asks the woman. "No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might but... but it might work for us"

The List in meme-format: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

Trade Dispute with Government UCU Congress delegates voted to support a national trade dispute with the government over the higher education funding crisis.

Moving towards a trade dispute with the Secretary of State for Education!

UCU Congress voted to support a national trade dispute with the government over the Higher Education funding crisis.

Motion & further info: lu.ma/a0vv0sjb?tk=...

JOIN to discuss next steps 3 June, 6pm: lu.ma/zs6bklhz

🧵

Thank you to all the amazing UCU branches who’ve been solid & vocal in supporting us. And huge #solidarity to those taking their own action.

UCU isn’t one person, it’s its branches, its activists & its members. We want to work for & support you; being unable to properly do so is beyond upsetting.

Dear Vice-chancellor, We are all aware of the news of the Supreme Court ruling of 16th April 2025, which declared that sex in the Equality Act 2010 refers to sex assigned at birth, regardless of whether the individual is trans or if they possess a Gender Recognition Certificate. The Statement issued to the House of Commons by Bridget Phillipson on 22nd April 2025 also stated that trans people must use single sex spaces that align with their sex assigned at birth. No mention or guidance has been given for intersex people/people with differences of sex development, for whom the sex written on their birth certificate may not match either their chromosomal or hormonal sex, or their gender appearance or identity. Further, both the Supreme Court judgement and the interim update provided by the Equality and Human Rights Commission allow for the exclusion of transmasculine people from female single sex spaces, leaving this group with the possibility of no facilities or service provision at all. It should be noted that the interim guidance does not represent law at this stage, although it is being presented through the media as having the legitimacy of a legal change.

The ruling and guidance contradict current practice at the University, which allows all staff and students to use the gendered spaces that are most appropriate to them. This right has been enshrined in law since the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 and further elaborated in the Equality Act 2010. These Acts remain law despite the recent developments. This ruling is in direct contradiction to the basic human rights and dignity of trans, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, intersex, and other gender-diverse staff and students and is likely to lead to a rise in discrimination, harassment, and hate crimes against these groups. Following a large UCU member meeting that discussed this issue and strongly passed a motion in favour of protecting transgender staff and students, I am writing to you today to express our concerns regarding the position of trans and nonbinary staff at the University. The provision of support services currently available for trans, nonbinary and LGBTQ+ staff is noted and appreciated.

However, the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling is considerable and has predictably unleashed a torrent of negative tabloid comment, hate-speech and personal harassment against trans and nonbinary people in our society. There is also some evidence of this being reflected at the University, based upon reports we are getting. One example involves signage for gender-neutral toilets being furtively removed, and then removed again despite having been replaced. (This has been reported and is being investigated). In this very difficult climate, it is clear that trans and nonbinary staff need public support from their employer that signals a zero-tolerance policy regarding this type of discrimination, bullying and harassment behaviour. An immediate problem these staff now face, is that of the toilet, shower and changing spaces available and accessible for them at work. A clear and unambiguous statement from the University, signalling its commitment to maintaining rights of access and use of these spaces based upon the individual’s self-identified gender, is urgently needed at this time.

Further to this, we urge the University to develop and publish trans-inclusive staff policies that will protect gender-diverse staff at work as a matter of urgency, to maintain the University as a place of support, safety and inclusivity for trans and nonbinary staff.

Please see our letter to the VC following the Supreme Court ruling on gender definition

Hello, Midgley! Real good pup! @strikedawgs.bsky.social helps keep us sane.

Jamie speaking to the picketers and supporters at the Durham UCU strike rally, the branch banner in the background.

Rally time! Jamie lays it out!

Full solidarity with UCU staff on strike with Unite. As branch officers we massively rely on their knowledge and support. Please listen to the democratic decision of your members and resolve the dispute now @uniteucu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

A safe and professional workplace is what we *all* should expect but especially union employees. Our Liverpool branch motions supporting Unite workers have all passed unanimously. We all support you and are dismayed this hasn’t been resolved yet @ucu.org.uk

Solidarity with @uniteucu.bsky.social members striking today. ✊✊✊✊

@ucu.org.uk I am ashamed of my union's treatment of its staff. Please settle fairly and decently now. It's long, long overdue.
@uniteucu.bsky.social

@ucu.org.uk — evidence that members back our UCU staff on strike @uniteucu.bsky.social

@uniteucu.bsky.social 💪✊️

“I feel more and more disheartened, depressed and stressed by working for UCU. I am trying to just get on and do my job in as professional a manner as I can. However, this is increasingly difficult... The current working ‘atmosphere’ is dire and makes me feel huge doubt and uncertainty. This has severely negatively impacted my motivation and my job satisfaction in addition to my levels of stress.”

“Whilst off work sick for a protracted period, dosed up with pain medications and immobile I was sent an email advising that my white colleague (also off sick) was to be sent flowers and well wishes in a card from our team. Nothing was sent to me from the team and it felt like as a black colleague you weren't seen, your pain wasn't seen and you weren’t cared for.”

“[I’m] Ashamed I work for an employer who has such double standards in the way they have treated employees compared to what they say to members… UCU has been very vocal about Trans and Non-Binary issues that affect UCU members and many UCU staff have worked really hard on policy and training – so why should UCU management be stalling over this for employees?”

When, some months ago,  we first posted our members’ testimonies - lived experiences of working for UCU - our employer’s only response was a demand they be removed. No contrition, shame or concern for their staff: just an anger we’d shared them.

#UniteVoices

uniteucu.wordpress.com/campaign-cam...

Image promoting our strike rally on 12-1pm on 1 May outside UCU head office in London.

📣 May Day Rally 📣

We remain on strike. With our employer continuing to refuse to meet for talks, join our strike rally on Thursday 1 May, 12-1pm outside UCU head office, Carlow Street, London.

All welcome to show your support for making UCU a safe & professional workplace.

#ThriveNotSurvive

Photo of a picket outside UCU Liverpool office. UCU staff are holding red Unite flags and are supported by UCU branch members also holding flags

I’m not in town today but so glad to see my @ucu.org.uk comrades out on the picket line in support of the UCU staff- incl our own administrator!- on strike with @unitetheunion.bsky.social

Our branch calls for UCU Head Office to meet the staff demands and end this dispute. Solidarity Unite! ✊

Dear Jo, I am writing on behalf of the University of Liverpool and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine UCU regarding the current dispute between UCU staff (members of Unite) and UCU as their employer. We have been following the dispute closely and we are supportive of the Unite members and see their issues as legitimate and serious. The fact that these longstanding issues involve bullying, and the unequal treatment of black staff is especially dismaying. These behaviours undermine the core principles of what trade unions are built on and have caused reputational harm to UCU within the wider trade union movement. The support provided by UCU staff is vital to the normal functioning of local branches. In particular, the support, advice, and commitment we have received in our current dispute from regional officers and other staff has been exemplary. Along with many other branches currently in dispute, we urgently need these staff to be able to do their work in conditions that are equal, fair, and reasonable. We urge senior managers in UCU to remain in talks with Unite and to resolve this dispute as a matter of urgency, in the spirit of good faith, solidarity and the union values we all share. Mark O’Brien, Branch President

A group of people stood outside ucu Liverpool University office waving red Unite the Union flags in front of the University of Liverpool ucu banner which has the pink ucu logo and a blue silhouette of the Liverpool skyline

A group of people stood outside ucu Liverpool University office waving red Unite the Union flags in front of the University of Liverpool ucu banner which has the pink ucu logo and a blue silhouette of the Liverpool skyline

We unequivocally support UCU staff on strike today! They have been so supportive, knowledgeable and hard working for our branch over the years. We can always count on them to have our backs. It's time to have theirs. Read our branch statement to Jo Grady the GS too. It's time to resolve this dispute

👇

whatthetrans.com/compilation-...

Megathread of pro-trans petitions on Parliament’s petition website. If Labour suddenly gets hit with debates for a bunch of pro-trans petitions, maybe they’ll realise this issue isn’t going away and they’ve fucked up.

I’ll add more as I find them.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...

A graphic of a trans rights flag (white centre horizontal stripe with light pink stripes on both sides and light blue stripes both sides of that) saying 'ucu supports trans rights. Trans men are men trans women are women and non binary people exist

University of Liverpool / LSTM UCU support trans people unequivocally. Solidarity to trans and non-binary people everywhere. We are working now on how best to support or trans and nb members 🙏🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

This is so far from what working for a trade union should look like, don't you agree @drjogrady.bsky.social Time this dispute between @ucu.org.uk and its staff was resolved.

How to Have a Trade Dispute Over Funding In Higher Education · Zoom · Luma A cross-branch UCU online meeting in support of a trade dispute with the Secretary of State for Education over the current funding model. Supported by: Queen…

​HE is in crisis. Join an online cross branch @ucu.org.uk meeting 10 April 6-7:30pm BST to develop a strategy for a dispute with Sec of State for Ed to tackle funding @qmucu.bsky.social @goldsmithsucu.bsky.social @ucuessex.bsky.social @ducu.bsky.social @kclucu.bsky.social lu.ma/a0vv0sjb?tk=Av7h7B