Category: UCU

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Members’ meeting next Wednesday 9th July at 1pm

Email sent to members on Wednesday 2nd July

Dear all,

I am writing to invite you to a members’ meeting next Wednesday 9th July at 1pm. You will have received the fantastic news from Lopa earlier this week that we sailed past the 50% threshold for industrial action. 63% of you voted, so thanks to all of you who did, and as always to our reps, committee members, and branch administrator for helping get the vote out once more. Thanks also to those who came to the open meetings in very large numbers, and to the Faculty Meetings for faculty specific Q and As. The successful results have been sent to the VC and already now reported in the BBC.

We are meeting with the University Team (VC, DVC, CPO et al), on the 7th of July where they will update us on the outcome of Phase 1 in relation to compulsory redundancies. We will use this members’ meeting to feed back on that and discuss our next steps in light of that outcome.

We are also close to finalising our Phase 1 ‘counterproposal’ as part of the consultation process. Thanks to everyone who has fed into this and those who have helped pull it together. It is a really impressive document that we will share with you all on Friday once we have submitted it to the University. Again, we can discuss this in more detail on the 9th.

The Zoom link for the meeting is below.

In solidarity as always

Nick (branch secretary)

UCU UoN is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: UoN UCU member meeting

Time: Jul 9, 2025 13:00 London

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81876860467?pwd=v07GkuDfetb3dAANmqABSYBTjDiPBa.1

Meeting ID: 818 7686 0467

Passcode: 104007

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Industrial Action Ballot result

Email sent to members on Monday 30th June

Dear Members

The ballot results are in! (Came just before 2pm). Re: Trade dispute: failure to resolve issues regarding job security. I am delighted to let you know, a resounding majority of you voted Yes!  (72.21% said yes to IA consisting of strike action, 84.12% said Yes to Action short of a Strike action). 

We have informed the Vice -Chancellor. 

Thank you for your resounding endorsement. Thank you for caring about the huge job losses of APM colleagues in Phase 1 and what may follow for academics and APM in Phase 2. 

More information to follow  on how,, what modes we take, and the VC’s reactions soon.

I just had to let you know! Enjoy the rest of this very hot summer’s day. 

Full solidarity and grateful thanks,

Lopa

On behalf of committee and Reps.

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Redundancy campaign blog: discussions with management

Email sent to members on Monday 19th June 2025

As part of our fight to protect jobs at the University of Nottingham, we will be sending regular emails outlining various aspects of our campaign. Today, we focus on current discussions between UCU and UoN management over Future Nottingham. Remember, further details about our campaign can be found on our webpages, via the redundancy campaign tab.

Chaos reigns supreme

Over recent weeks and months, members of the UCU committee have been in regular meetings with management over Future Nottingham cuts and restructuring including high-level general meetings as well as more focused meetings on different Chapters of current APM restructuring and redundancies. 

Management argues that it is committed to sharing information, which in turn would allow UCU to work on alternative proposals. In practice, however, information is often incomplete, incorrect or simply not provided. This reflects the generally chaotic situation with redundancies at the moment. Numerous colleagues are being told that they are at risk of redundancy, then they are told that they are safe, before being put yet again into another redundancy pool. 

Despite insufficient information, the committee is working hard on developing an alternative proposal to management’s Future Nottingham. We are clear, we will not accept compulsory redundancies. 

Several developments have become clear in our meetings with management. First, despite the current chaos around redundancy pools, management pushes on regardless with restructuring. This also includes first discussions and a timeline about future redundancies of academics and technicians in the Autumn. As we have always maintained, nobody is safe!

Second, the big elephant in the room is management’s future savings target. Their objective is to generate a surplus of 5 per cent, i.e. £40m in 2025/2026. Historically, however, UoN surplus was somewhere in the area between 3 and 4 per cent in normal years. Increasing this to 5 per cent already puts undue pressure on finances in times of general uncertainty. Moreover, does this indicate that management simply continues with its faulty financial strategy? As we argued in our Alternative Financial Strategy 2.0, imposing cuts on essential activities to generate large surpluses for infrastructure investment has resulted in regular financial crises in the past. When is management going to learn the lessons from past mistakes?

To be clear, the UCU committee will continue to resist restructuring and job cuts in our meetings with management. What has become, however, abundantly clear is that words alone will not be enough to make management see sense. Only sustained and hard-hitting industrial action will ultimately ensure a better future for staff, students and UoN as a whole. Make sure that you vote in the current ballot!

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Summary of members meeting 2nd June 2025

A very well attended and active members meeting was held yesterday afternoon, Monday 2nd June. Many thanks to everyone who made the time to attend. The meeting discussed Branch Committee updates and members questions, comments and views on: 

Phase 1 of Future Nottingham

The release last week of flawed and incomplete ‘pooling’ information for APM colleagues, and Branch Committee participation in consultations to date with updates from Lopa Leach as President, Nick Clare as Secretary, and Andrew Armstrong as APM Officer were discussed.

The Branch Committee was categorical that the large size of some pools was not at the request of trade unions, despite statements suggesting or stating otherwise in university communications.  

The widespread and well-founded frustration of members was evident throughout the meeting, with members highlighting the need to translate frustration into solidarity across job families within the Union and across the University as a whole. 

Apparent inconsistencies and poor communications from the University were highlighted, including the failure to publish FAQs with ‘pooling’ information last week, the seemingly changing and ambiguous position of School-based APM staff between phases 1 and 2, that concerns about UniCore data used to inform this process have been raised repeatedly, and the inclusion of externally funded roles in the ‘pools’. 

The ballot for strike action and action short of a strike

Andreas, as Vice President, underlined that as this is a local dispute we are in a position to decide our own strategy and develop tactics tailored to how our workplace functions that are as hard-hitting as possible, thus heightening our chances of success. 

The importance of a strong ballot turnout and the key role of ASOS were emphasised by several speakers and in the chat discussion. 

Recent wins at Sheffield, Dundee and Cardiff were noted as examples where high ballot turnouts and commitment to taking action protected jobs. 

That our goal in balloting for – and potentially taking – strike action is to prevent compulsory redundancies was underlined. The need to challenge the University to adopt a more sustainable financial model in the longer term, as articulated in the Alternate Financial Strategy 2.0, was also underscored. 

Next steps and actions

The key next step for all members is to vote then let your department rep know when you have posted your ballot! 

Any member who wishes to join the ‘get out the vote’ work, especially in an area without a UCU representative, is invited to email the branch: uonucubranch@gmail.com.

The meeting also heard a call from Tony Padilla as Treasurer for proposals of fundraising activities to support the branch solidarity and hardship fund. As with prior disputes, the fund will be used to support members in the event of industrial action. If you have a proposal for fundraising activities, please contact the branch.

If you wish to make a one-off or recurring donation to the fund, please use the details here.