University of Nottingham

Welcome to what we hope will be a daily summary of strike action over the course of the next eight days (unless the employers see sense, in which case we — and our students — can return early from the picket lines). Today’s entry comes from Dr. Matt Green, UoN UCU Branch President.

The day began dark, wet and determined as the first intrepid picketers arrived at their stations. By 8:30, banners were up, placards mounted and “UCU Official Picket” armbands were on. Numbers soon rose and by the time ITV Central rolled up at University Park West Entrance we’d reached hundreds of staff and students spread across ten picket lines on four campuses.

The weather was grim but the mood was jubilant and (carbon neutral) braziers were ablaze thanks in part to the generous donation of Notts TUC.

For anyone anxious about the effect of the strike on students, it was inspiring to see the level of student support. Considerable contingents of students gathered at University Park West with a view to spreading out to other pickets in the coming days. With visits from local parliamentary candidates and journalists, it was wonderful to have student voices represented so fully.

Refreshments were abundant, keeping spirits elevated, and picketers were further buoyed up by the support of passing motorists honking and waving in support. There were impromptu debates on pressing political issues, chanting and several other musical interludes.

After interviews with more journalists and exciting news of a packed ‘teach out’ tomorrow (including strike histories, uni life hacks and picket-line dancing lessons), the picket lines wound down for the day between 10:30 and 11:30. Then it was off for lunch and a busy afternoon.

At 1:30pm, a substantial group of picketers, made their way to the Beeston Rylands’ Community Centre, where Jeremy Corbyn and Broxtowe PLP candidate Greg Marshall saluted the grit, determination and moral purpose of UCU members taking a stand against the attacks on HE. Clips of their speeches can be heard here and here.

After that, it was off to BBC Radio Nottingham to discuss the strike with Carson Wishart and fill in some misconceptions planted by a previous interviewee. The broadcast is available here and the segment starts at 1:19:00.

Finally, as darkness blanketed the streets it was time to head home with fond memories and a renewed faith in the power of solidarity.

Till tomorrow, good night and good luck.

Please see and share our petition to halt plans for foundational IT services at the University of Nottingham: https://speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/halt-outsourcing-plans-at-the-university-of-nottingham/

On 8 October, the University of Nottingham council supported UEB’s recommendation to outsource foundational IT services to an external company. ‘Foundational IT services’ are likely to include service desk, campus IT support (in person desk side support, AV support, student support), Windows and Linux administrators, data centre operations, HPC and network teams. The definition of what is ‘in scope’ might change over the next 12 months, but we estimate that about 125, or 50%, of information service (IS) staff will be confronted with redundancy or transfer to external contractors. The remaining IS staff will be restructured to fit the new model.

In light of the recent experience with Project Transform and the outsourcing of Campus Solutions to Infosys, we have no reason to believe that this new wave of outsourcing will be managed any better or is even necessary. The ongoing problems with Campus Solutions should be resolved first before even considering any further changes to the systems that feed into it. IS staff are still heavily involved in patching up the failures of Infosys, further outsourcing might well bring the institution to a halt.