Dear Members,
In addition to all the horrible events happening in the world, from brutal suppression of student protests in Bangladesh and continued genocide in Gaza, we have now been witnessing ongoing far-right riots, shocking scenes of racist, anti-migrant and Islamophobic rallies in the UK, including Nottingham. There is further notice of such events being planned here for this week. These events affect us all. It impacts directly members, the wider university community and especially staff and students from Muslim, migrant and racialised backgrounds who have to travel to work by public transport. Those with children are concerned about the risks and exposure of their loved ones to racial abuse.
We have written to the university about our concerns. We have asked them to communicate their support for staff and students, including access to wellbeing services, adjustments to working patterns and authorisation of approval of work from home requests (given these are health and safety issues) until the situation has calmed down. We will keep you informed about their response. We can send you the links to various university support resources if they don’t. In the meantime, do reach out to your colleagues, write to your teams and overseas PGR expressing your concern and support.
As you know, the branch has participated in the Unity Rally co-sponsored by the local TUC in which we stood firm against racism and fascism this Saturday. This was very well attended with inspiring talks and amazing posters! Here is a link to pics . We will let you know about further rallies if and when they are organised. It is important for us as a trade union to show our support for and solidarity with migrant and minority workers. We must not abandon public spaces to the far right.
Please feel free to contact us, or your reps on any of the issues above and how we can help. We will be writing to you mid-September (HR promises to provide the data to us then) with our overview on MARS, final numbers, hopefully broken down according to Faculties/Schools, how much UoN has managed to reduce debt by, and how we challenge any increase in workloads.
In solidarity.
Lopa, UoN UCU President (on behalf of the Branch Committee)