Category: Strike Info

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Fight backs and picket line info

Email sent to members on Thursday 6th November 2025

Dear Members

I am sure you are all reeling with the list of degree suspensions announced yesterday (5 Nov) in staff intranet and puzzling on the rationale given, the lack of stake holder engagements (us or Heads of Schools) and the choices of degrees that makes us who we are: a global comprehensive higher education institution of excellence. We were called to a FN2 Workstreams meeting JNCC on Tuesday 4 Nov, where the Pro-VCs gave us the list of ear-marked degrees for suspension/closures from each Faculty. We were aghast at the choices, which included Music, Languages, Mental Health Nursing Programmes , ACS, Biosciences degrees, to name but a few. UEB will send this off to OFS (?) on Monday, and also will present to Council to approve, along with the Case for Strategic change (which will address reduction in  staff numbers) on November 24 and 25.  For the latter, please find below a link to an Open Letter from all staff that we will send to Council. Please Do sign. There has been significant interest by the media in the closure of degree programmes at UoN. Below is an article on the BBC and the Times Higher as well as BBC East Midlands Today have also been in touch. Watch that space.

BTW The business case for FN2 still is not ready we were told. It will be sent to us in Feb 2026. (So we have time yet to oppose). 

Meanwhile, we have been invited to a Dispute resolution Meeting next week, on 11 November 2025.  We will report back straight after, should management make an offer to settle the dispute. In any case, we will have a members meeting next Thursday, 13 November at 1 p.m. We will send the respective Zoom details closer to the time. 

In the meantime, we have scheduled a picket line on West Entrance on Monday 10th November, 8:30 to 11:30 am. Please do come, in large numbers, show our strength, our solidarity and our opposition to the proposed changes: both the suspensions and the planned shrinkage of schools from 26 to 10, including the speed of all this, given UEB wants it done and dusted by September 2026. There may be press, given the interest shown. The remainder of the fortnight for November has the normal IA. 

We also have a picket line on Tuesday 18 November, South Entrance.  We have already written to you about the picket line and rallies on 24 and 25 November, when Council will deliberate.  We will have external guests then, which will include the President of UCU.  

Until then, solidarity, do feed us your views via reps or branch email, so we can compile our own alternative business case.

Solidarity, 

Lopa (on behalf of branch committee).

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSemWcHUUGk36TNaSeT5nEY2z-HINgZhFBycV_imAj3-YUgqTA/viewform     Open letter for signing. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly9zwqvn53o

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/major-universities-facing-weeks-long-strikes-job-cuts-deepen

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Update of members meeting

Email sent on Friday 31st October 2025

Dear members,

Thanks so much to all of you who could make the meeting yesterday – it has been lovely to see so many people, and to get all your input. As this was a teaching week, we know a number of people were unable to attend. So we wanted to recap on some of the key topics covered.

Meetings with management

In the last week we have had multiple meetings with management. These have included ‘lessons learned from phase 1’ and several Joint Negotiation and Consultation Committee meetings on a range of issues. Next week we will also have a new workstream meeting to discuss Phase 2. Beyond this we are finalising the date for our next dispute resolution meeting with the VC. So we just want to emphasise we are doing all we can to find a resolution, including meeting with local MPs and the Student Union.

Pressure is working

The dispute resolution meeting is only possible because of you. Both your overwhelming rejection of the previous ‘offer’ from management and your continued action. We now know that the pressure is starting to bite and the reality of such significant disruption this semester is worrying them. In particular we are starting to see increasingly underhand and unprecedented methods to ‘mitigate’ the impacts of your action. This includes forms asking us to fill in which days we will be taking action in the future. Under no circumstances should you fill these in. Make no mistake this is all testament to the fact that our strategy is working.

Assessments and marking

In particular this attempted mitigation is around assessments and  we will be issuing updated FAQs on how to respond to requests from line managers, so do keep an eye out for this. Similarly, as marking starts to come in remember we are also on ASOS and look after yourself. Only mark within working hours, and if you receive a request to turn around specific marking more quickly ask explicitly what other tasks you should de-prioritise in order to get this done. Again, we will be updating our FAQs with specific marking advice soon.

Pay deductions and financial support

Pay deductions have now started to come through. Following incorrect deductions from the July action we have made sure these are now corrected, but do check your payslip just in case. We have also requested clear FAQs on how calculations are made and presented on pay slips as they can be quite confusing, and we will be seeking clarity on pension contributions. But again, if you have any concerns let us know. 

You can now claim from the national fighting fund, and you received info on our  local hardship support yesterday in an email from our Treasurer Tony Padilla.

National picture

The ballot is open for the national dispute. Do please vote in this and let your rep know when you have done so. If you have any photos of you posting your vote (ideally with dogs or/and babies included) send them our way! Following on from Jo Grady’s visit to our rally last week we have also been receiving more national coverage, and our wonderful Lopa and Jenny spoke last night at a UCU event ( https://www.youtube.com/live/NynAXduQCC8) with over 1300 attendees. Finally there is a national demo on the 12th November starting from Leicester train station at 11am. Members of the branch will be getting the train at 10.12 from town (or 10.18 from Beeston) so do please come along.

Strike plans

Finally, while we remain hopeful negotiations will be successful we need to be ready to carry out the next round of action in order to get the best deal we can. So to recap, we have the following strike action coming up.

10-14th November

17-21st November

24-25th November – Council days and mass pickets

1-5th December

8-12th December

The 24th and 25th of November are especially important as they are when Council will be signing off the Strategic Case for Change and other decisions for the Phase 2 restructure. So these are days where we expect all members to strike and attend picket lines and rallies. We will have the media and other speakers present. On the other weeks, we of course encourage you to strike on as many days as you can afford, but do continue to prioritise days where your absence will be disruptive. It remains important to threaten taking out whole modules wherever possible. 

Following feedback from members we will also be having weekly pickets to build solidarity and maintain collective morale. We will start with one of these on the 10th of November to get our action off with a bang. More details will follow soon.

As always, look after yourself and please do let us know if you have any questions or concerns about anything.

In solidarity as always,

Nick (on behalf of branch Committee)

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Members meeting 30 October!

Original email sent to members on Wednesday 22nd October. Please see original email for Zoom link.

Dear members,

Thank you for your continued action, support, and solidarity. We are writing with a few key updates which are below, but also wanted to mention that last week we met with Alex Norris the MP for Nottingham North and Kimberley to discuss the dispute. Alex was due to speak at an event on campus but cancelled when we approached him, and he was shocked to hear about the proposed restructuring and the loss of jobs so far – he was also saddened to hear how much things have changed since he was taught by Andreas as an undergraduate in 2003! Alex has promised to speak with the Vice Chancellor about this, and while we will continue to lobby other local MPs, please consider writing to your MP mentioning the scale of potential redundancies.

Rally with the UCU General Secretary Thursday 23rd

We are ending this round of rallies with a bang. We have a great lineup of speakers including Jo Grady, the UCU general secretary, tomorrow. She is coming to show her solidarity to us and to speak about the National dispute. As usual we will be meeting in the Trent Courtyard at 12.40 before marching to Portland Steps for the speeches. Do please come along, in your numbers and show your anger.

Submission of next block of industrial action to the VC

Notification of our next block of industrial action was served to the VC this morning by our regional officer. Following your overwhelming rejection management’s opening offer, and the clear majority support for prioritising action this term the University has been notified of strike action on the following dates:

Monday 10th November – Friday 14th November

Monday 17th November – Friday 21st November

Monday 24th November , Tuesday 25th November

Monday 1st December – Friday 5th December

Monday 8th December – Friday 12th December

On Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th of November we will have big pickets in major entrances, Rallies in the Courtyard, Invited external guests, and a media presence. These particular dates have been chosen with key council meetings on Phase 2 in mind. All of these actions gives us the capacity to exert significant pressure on management, from without and within. 

Having served management the notice of the action today,  we will be writing to them to discuss the implications of it for students and staff and to explore resolutions that can avoid the damage this action has the potential to create, to rethink shrinking size and shape ideology. 

Members’ meeting Thursday 30th October 3-4pm

To discuss this second phase of action, including additional picket line days in November and December and to inform on any potential negotiations with management we have called a members’ meeting for next Thursday at 3pm (link in original email). It has been fantastic to hear from so many of you in recent meetings, so do please come along.

Finally,  some of you will have started to receive your ballots for the national dispute. Please vote in this, and please let your rep know once you have. 

In solidarity,

Lopa

(on behalf of branch committee).

Posted on

Strike update and links

Email sent to members on 25th July 2025

Dear members,

Thank you for going on strike yesterday and thank you to everyone who  attended yesterday’s pickets at West and North Entrance, whether that was for a few hours or all day. An especially big thank you to all those members who joined us that are new to the branch, to picketing or to striking in general! 

As well as being highly visible to anyone coming on to campus from 8am till 3pm, our strike was also covered by BBC East Midlands on the lunchtime and early evening news (see about 9 minutes in) and reported on by Nottingham Post/Nottinghamshire Live, as part of their ongoing coverage of Future Nottingham and our campaign against loss of livelihoods and compulsory redundancies. 

Thanks  for sending  messages of support, and to those who were unable to participate in yesterday’s strike thanks for donating to the local solidarity fund. If you have yet to donate to the fund, we are asking members who were unable to strike to donate 50% of a day’s salary to support members most in need. The account details are:

UCU Nottingham LA63 Hardship Fund

Account number: 20346359

Sort code: 60-83-01

Reference: “July 24th”

We are now in a period of live Action Short of A Strike (ASOS), please consult the guide on our branch website that answers common questions and outlines what this means in practice. Don’t forget to change your email signature and set up an automatic reply in order to maximise our impact! If any members do face salary deductions for participation in ASOS, remember that support from the local solidarity fund is available. Due to payroll cut off dates, any deductions the University does decide to apply for participating in industrial action will at the earliest come in August payslips. We will therefore share information about how to apply for financial support from the branch nearer to the time.

We have had a very busy week as a branch with Monday’s rally with Unison and Unite as the University Council made its decision on Phase 1 of Future Nottingham (lovely images on our website and social), Tuesday’s branch meeting and vote to continue with our strike action and action short of a strike, and of course yesterday’s strike action and pickets. This activism and action has ensured that our collective objection and opposition to how the University is treating staff through Phase 1 of Future Nottingham cannot be ignored and it lays down a marker that we will continue to oppose this approach as and when Phase 2 begins.

In solidarity and with best wishes,

Will and Lopa, on behalf of UoN UCU Branch Committee

Posted on

Industrial Action in July

Email sent to members on Thursday 10th July 2025

Dear Members

It was great to see you at the meeting yesterday (9/7/25). Unfortunately I could not tell you about ASOS plans or the date of a possible strike, until UCU had informed the VC. This has now happened.  Paraphrasing from the letter sent:

“The  industrial action will consist of:

* discontinuous strike action on 24 July 2025

* continuous action short of strike consisting of: 

     Not working beyond contractual obligations;

     Not covering for absent colleagues or unfilled posts;

    Not rescheduling or sharing materials from strike-affected sessions;

    Not performing voluntary or out-of-grade duties; 

    Not using personal devices for university work; 

    Not participating in graduation related activities; 

    No admin work related to REF, Course reviews, Future Nottingham, University rankings, Timetabling, Financial year end. 

Actions short of strike (as listed above) will begin on a continuous basis from 24 July 2025.

For the avoidance of doubt, this dispute will continue until such time as the dispute and any matters arising from the dispute… have been resolved to UCU’s satisfaction. In the event the dispute is not resolved to UCU’s satisfaction at the conclusion of the action identified in this letter, the union may notify you of further industrial action.”

Note, as discussed in our meeting yesterday, as a concession we will not be using ASOS for student recruitment events.       

The multiple meetings with management have made it abundantly clear that the only way to shift their position is to show our collective strength through industrial action. The power of a union lies in its unity, and we expect every member to take part. If you will be on holiday or on research leave during the strike period, we encourage you to donate to the hardship fund to support your colleagues.

We will be holding another members’ meeting shortly to discuss all of this in detail. We are preparing a set of FAQs to help members navigate Action Short of a Strike (ASOS), we will share soon. BC is planning ASOS Q&A sessions too.

We will circulate information about hardship support in due course.

And finally, we need to send a clear message to management: We will not accept compulsory redundancies.  So, join us at the rally on 21 July, and most importantly, join our collective fight by striking on 24 July, followed by ASOS.

Thanking you in advance. 

Yours

Lopa