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Call for Action and Strike Info

Email sent to members on Wednesday 23rd July 2025. Minor edits have been made from the original.

Dear Members,

It was excellent to see nearly 200 of you at our meeting, and thank you to everyone who spoke – whether on mic or via the chat. It was fantastic to hear your energy, care and solidarity.

This email is to provide a summary of where things stand for our branch and dispute, and information about our upcoming strike action, our plans for pickets tomorrow, and action short of a strike.

There is a lot of information to summarise here, so it is inevitably quite long – please use the headings to guide you and please do read to the end. 

Meeting summary and next steps 

At our branch meeting yesterday afternoon, we discussed our plans for strike action tomorrow (Thursday 24th) and Action Short of a Strike in the light of the latest news on Phase 1 of Future Nottingham.

A running theme was the widespread discontent, anger is a better word, over the running of Phase 1 and the ongoing refusal to rule out even at this late stage the use of compulsory redundancy. 

A vote was held and the meeting decided to continue with the strike action and ASOS called two weeks ago. 

The call for solidarity with our APM members, friends and colleagues from the meeting was loud and clear. As was the recognition that this is an opportunity to demonstrate our resolve and strength of feeling ahead of Phase 2 in the autumn. We look forward to seeing all who can join us on the picket lines!

Participation in the strike

When it comes to industrial action, all members are expected to participate as part of the collective responsibility that comes with union membership. 

However, if you have accepted a VR offer (please see advice from UCU regional office below), are on annual leave, research leave, field research or attending a conference on the day of the strike and cannot take part, we strongly encourage you to show solidarity with your friends and colleagues by donating 50% of your day’s salary to the hardship fund:

UCU Nottingham LA63 Hardship Fund
Account number: 20346359
Sort code: 60-83-01

For both strike action and ASOS, line managers are likely to ask staff to declare participation in advance. Some have already asked this in all staff emails. Please remember however that we are required to declare participation after returning to work, not in advance. If in doubt, talk to your department rep or contact the branch committee. 

Picketing – let us know you’re coming!

As our strike day on Thursday takes place on a day of graduation ceremonies, with cars arriving and leaving campus much of the day. West and North entrances of University Park will be especially busy – and our dispute can be made highly visible. 

Therefore, we will hold a picket at University Park West Entrance from 8am until 3pm. (The Beeston roundabout.) We ask that you join us for a few hours, if you are able to, as part of your strike action. Please let us know when you are coming by using this form. This will help us plan for tomorrow!

We have a number of signs, leaflets, arm bands, and UCU branded paraphernalia, but essential to any picket are the placards picketers make and bring! Whistles, drums, maracas, vuvuzelas, and pots to bang are all welcome too – as are any snacks you want to share! 

ASOS fundamentals

For guidance and frequently asked questions about ASOS, please see the ASOS Fundamentals page of our branch website noted in last week’s newsletter. We are updating this as people ask new questions, so do ask your reps or the branch committee!

New to industrial action or to picketing?

A ‘picketing for beginners guide’ has been added to the branch website.

Our branch was last out on strike in 2023. Many of you will be experienced in HE industrial disputes, pickets and ASOS from the USS and Four Fights campaigns. Many of you will also be new to the branch or to participating in strike action. The first thing to know is that our picket lines, in contrast to how they may be portrayed in the media and in pop culture, are friendly places. 

While we protest and call attention to the serious failings of our employer, picket lines are places of positivity. We stand in solidarity with colleagues we would not ordinarily speak to and feel part of an academic community. Whether it is philosophical discussions on what the university should be, picket line dogs, honks of solidarity, kids starting their union training early, there is loads of excitement to be had. So join us for however long you are able! 

In that spirit, we recognise that picket lines are not equally accessible to all. Whether that is because you have caring responsibilities, are a disabled member of the union, or otherwise face barriers. No member of the branch should ever feel they are the lesser when their strike action does not include picketing. As long as you withdraw your labour for the day, you are making an important contribution! Feel free to reach out to fellow members to feel some solidarity as you strike away from campus, or reach out to someone you know can’t be there.

Regional UCU advice for staff taking VR

We have received advice from UCU regional legal advisors that members who have a voluntary redundancy agreement agreed or signed off may put their settlement agreement at risk if they strike. We therefore recommend that those members do not strike, but contribute to the strike fund instead (details above). If you are in this position and wish to visit the pickets on the day to talk with colleagues and express support, know you are welcome. 

Workload pressures 

APM members in our meeting made it clear that the loss of colleagues through VR is already causing significant workload issues and work-related stress. The branch workload group will be organising a meeting soon for APM members to discuss how to record this impact and hold the university to account to ensure that staff wellbeing is protected. 

Closing reflections: Solidarity with APM is Solidarity to all

The actions of the University in recent months have seen many new members join our Branch at Nottingham. All members are important to our action and having the backs of our administrative, library, and IT colleagues is vital. Whilst research and teaching staff constitute the majority of UCU members, APM staff are essential to the university – and across all job grades APM staff have been targeted first (and will be targeted again). Phase 2 is coming soon and our academic colleagues will need our action again. 

For now, it is therefore essential that we stand together – at the picket line tomorrow if you are able – to make the biggest impression we can on management, and to show our solidarity with our dear APM colleagues. Together we are a formidable force.

Looking forward to seeing you on the picket lines!

In solidarity,

Will Patterson (Picket Lead) and Lopa Leach 

(On behalf of branch committee).

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Today’s Emergency UCU Meeting 4.00

Email sent to members on Tuesday 22nd July 2025. The text has been slightly modified for flow on this website.


Dear members,

Don’t forget todays Emergency Members Meeting at 4:00 today. Zoom link below.


It was a pleasure to see so many of you yesterday afternoon at our joint rally with Unison and Unite in the Trent Courtyard in opposition to compulsory redundancies.  As we listened to our colleagues from UCU and our sister unions, and local supporters speak, the University Council met to decide whether or not Phase 1 of Future Nottingham would involve compulsory redundancies. This afternoon, the Vice Chancellor has written to UCU, Unison and Unite as the three campus unions to summarise yesterday’s decision by Council. Information has now also been put on the staff intranet about this.
In short, we have been informed that more staff have applied for, been offered and accepted voluntary redundancy settlements than the target stated in April.

This is in itself a significant loss to the University community in terms of knowledge, expertise, and experience – not to mention the loss of friends and comrades. Made all the more impactful following the hundreds of colleagues departing through MARS last year. 

However, there is also sufficient vagueness in the VC’s email about the status of compulsory redundancies in Phase 1 that we, and other campus unions, have asked for clarification on this vital point and others. 

Any clarification that is received prior to our meeting at 4pm will, of course, be something that we as a branch we must take into consideration. It is worth emphasising again that, as at every stage of our dispute, it is within the University’s power to de-escalate this situation.
Our Extraordinary Brach meeting at 4pm (Zoom link below) has three agenda items:

  • [1] Our campaign against compulsory redundancies, discussing the implication of Council’s decision for our strategy.

We have a strike day scheduled this Thursday and action short of a strike (ASOS) beginning on Friday. In the meeting, we will share the updates from management on the status of compulsory redundancies in Phase 1 and discuss as a collective  our next steps.  Part of this discussion will be summarising a planned approach to organising picket lines, so that we can ensure maximum visibility of our dispute to graduation related traffic arriving/exiting campus. We also want to hear your ideas for action, ASOS and for raising money for our local solidarity fund. (Details for donations:  UCU Nottingham LA63 Hardship Fund, Account number: 20346359, Sort code: 60-83-01)

  • [2] The updated Grievance Procedure. 

This updated procedure was negotiated with the University through a Joint Negotiation and Consultation Committee (JNCC) sub group which Branch Committee members attend For this procedure to be adopted by the University as a whole, it must be approved by UCU UoN members, so please do read this document with care.

  • [3] Motion to further the campaign for a formal dispute with the Secretary of State for Education over funding of HE. 

The text of the motion is available on the University Rank and File webpages. This follows on from a motion approved at our AGM on 30th April ahead of the UCU National Congress. We will take this follow-up motion if time permits.
Zoom details:

Topic: Emergency members meeting

Time: Jul 22, 2025 16:00 London

Join Zoom Meeting.

Meeting ID: 856 3593 9225

Passcode: 210176


In solidarity,

Kitty on behalf of Branch Committee

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HSE takes action on our workload and work-related stress concerns

Email sent to members on Monday 7th July 2025

Dear members,

We are pleased to share some very positive news from our workload campaign.

Following our formal report to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regarding the University’s failure to meet its legal duties on work-related stress prevention, the HSE has issued a letter to the Vice-Chancellor confirming that our concerns warrant further scrutiny.

The HSE has requested a formal response from the University by 8 August 2025, asking them to demonstrate:

  • That suitable and sufficient stress risk assessments have been carried out;
  • That effective control measures are in place and being monitored;
  • That there has been appropriate consultation with staff.

This intervention by the HSE is a significant milestone. It confirms that our evidence of excessive workloads, under-resourcing, lack of consultation, and failure to comply with legal duties is being taken seriously at a national level. This is particularly timely, as Future Nottingham redundancies will inevitably lead to even higher, unsustainable workloads  

Please find the HSE’s letter attached for your information.

We will continue to push for meaningful changes that support the health, safety, and dignity of all staff. Thank you for your support in making this possible.

In solidarity,
UCU Workload Group

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Redundancy campaign blog – Language centre closures: a sign of things to come

Email sent to members on Friday 27th June

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 put the example of management’s decision to close the Language Centre’s popular evening class programme into context as part of the wider job losses across UoN. Remember, we face the loss of many hundreds of valued APM colleagues leaving soon via the Future Nottingham Phase 1 VR programme conducted under the threat of Compulsory Redundancies (3900+ ‘at risk’ letters) but with little clarity of the real case for job losses. In this context, the Language Centre losses come hard on the heels of the suspension of American and Canadian Studies – both harbingers of the wider destruction expected to come in Phase 2. Further details about our campaign can be found on our webpages, via the redundancy campaign tab.

The closing of the Language Centre evening programme – A sign of things to come

Out of the blue in May, UoN management announced that it was no longer going to engage colleagues on casual contracts at the University’s Language Centre. This goes hand in hand with closing the Centre’s popular evening language classes programme; popular with UoN staff and students and popular with people from across Nottinghamshire. 

Over twenty UoN colleagues on casual contracts will lose their jobs as a result of this decision. Some of them have worked for the university for several years, in some cases even more than a decade. Enthusiastically committed to their work and students, they have been employed on scandalously precarious contracts. Now they are seen as disposable and simply dumped. HR has not even contacted these colleagues individually to inform them about the decision. 

The financial justification for the closure of the evening programme has been completely baffling. The Director and Deputy Director of the Language Centre were initially told by the FPVC, Jeremy Gregory, that the evening programme was returning revenue to the university. While it would cost the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies £147k to host the programme – a sum in itself highly questionable and certainly not the result of employees on casual contracts being paid high salaries – it would bring in £167k and thus generate a surplus of £20k for UoN. 

Nevertheless, in an email of 16 June, the VC wrote to the branch that ‘When you take into account the central charges of around £200,000 towards the wider costs of running the university, which all schools and faculties pay, then this activity is actually running at a deficit of £180,000 a year, which is not a sustainable position.’ How is it possible that an evening class programme, which already costs the hosting School £147k incurs another charge of £200k for central charges? Charges for what precisely? 

UCU questioned these figures. If the central charges are £200k, does this imply that closing the evening programme would directly result in savings of £200,000? How would these savings materialise in concrete terms? Will there be cuts in related admin positions? Will buildings be closed earlier in the evening to save on heating, electricity, building attendants?  

In a further clarification, the VC asserted that, and here we quote at length as the statement is significant–and telling:

‘In terms of methodology, the £200k central cost allocation for evening classes is a percentage share of the overall CLAS allocation based on student FTE. It is a proportionate allocation of the costs that all revenue generating activity needs to cover, and is not a variable activity-based calculation, nor is it intended to be. The expectation is not that the full £200k will disappear entirely if the programme is closed, but there will be variable costs associated with evening classes that are estates or centrally linked (e.g. utility usage) but we have no way of specifically identifying them to get to an activity-based cost allocation’. 

The final line, in bold, – is a damning admission of how financial figures are manufactured. This is not about savings. This is about justifying the closing of programmes and related redundancies. What’s more, this manufacturing of figures, and related closure, will likely end up costing the University as a whole.

To clarify, pointing to a notional £200,000 allocation of central costs—yet without identifying which of those costs would actually be saved–severely undermines the credibility of the savings claim. If the central costs remain largely unchanged regardless of whether the programme runs, then attributing them to a specific income-generating activity creates a misleading financial narrative. There is also a wider structural concern. If central costs are fixed and not reduced, then closing programmes simply redistributes those costs across fewer remaining units, making them appear increasingly unviable in turn. This is precisely the kind of downward financial spiral that many in the sector have warned against, where internal cost allocation mechanisms create the illusion of unsustainability and prompt further unjustified cuts.

In other words, the closure of the Language Centre evening programme is like shutting down a lemonade stand because you’ve averaged the rent of an entire shopping mall across all shops—even though the stand operates rent-free on the pavement. Closing it eliminates a profitable stream of income without cutting any real costs. Unless central charges are meaningfully reduced, programme closures of this kind simply shrink the income base while preserving structural expenditure. This not only risks reputational damage and weakened community ties—it actively undermines financial sustainability.

All told, the closure of Language Centre programmes clearly reveals three worrying points. First, management has no problems with treating colleagues poorly. Second, financial figures are made up by management as they go along, always massaged in a way to justify programme closures and redundancies. Third, this approach will make UoN’s financial situation worse.

If the Language Centre evening programme can be closed like this, the closure of any other UoN unit can be justified in similar ways. As we have maintained all along, Nobody is safe! And neither are UoN’s finances.

But we are not powerless, thanks to everyone who voted in the ballot, sending a powerful message to management that we are ready to take action if needed. Collectively we can avoid compulsory redundancies!

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Finalising the Phase 1 counterproposal

Email sent to members on Tuesday 24th June

Dear colleagues,

We are currently putting the final touches to a UCU counterproposal that will be submitted to University management as part of the phase one consultation on Friday 4 July.

As part of this process, we want to ensure that no key points are missed. If you have any important thoughts or suggestions regarding the proposed restructuring of any of the affected business units—particularly Research & Knowledge Exchange (RKE), Libraries, External Relations, CARO, Governance & Assurance, Estates & Facilities, Finance, HR, DTS, the Academic Registrars’ Office, or PPSC—we would very much welcome your input.

Please email this redundancy working group (rwguonucu@gmail.com) directly as soon as possible this week with any contributions or reflections you would like considered as part of the counterproposal.

Many thanks for your continued engagement and support.

Nick (branch secretary) on behalf of the branch committee