Please do not reply to this newsletter, as your email will bounce. Contact your Departmental Rep or uonucubranch@gmail.com if you need any assistance.
Dear members,
This Thursday, 26th June is the last safe posting date for our current ballot. Make sure you vote, vote YES, and tell your Departmental Rep when you have. Our opposition to the chaos created by management is only as strong as our mandate. Encourage members in your department to vote.
Read on for the following topics:
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- Open meetings on Future Nottingham and developing a counter proposal
- The struggle for the language centre continues
- Know your rights
- Workload campaign update
- Open meetings on Future Nottingham
- UoN UCU at Trans Pride
- Branch Committee meeting summary
- Protect University jobs here and across the country
- Local and national campaigning
- Joining link and further information
Open meetings on Future Nottingham and developing a counter proposal
Thank you to the approximately 1,500 people who have attended one of our open meetings discussing Future Nottingham from a trade union perspective in the last month.
Most recently, open meetings took place in the Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences, Social Sciences, and Engineering. With earlier meetings held in Arts, Sciences, and two non-faculty events for all staff. Thanks also to our colleagues in Unison and Unite for making these a successful inter-union project.
The frustration of staff with Future Nottingham has been evident at these meetings; as has the solidarity and care for colleagues and students that so many staff make central to their working lives. Comments, questions and suggestions for possible elements of a counter-proposal were raised and discussed.
Following these meetings, the branch secretary Nick Clare has emailed members to ask for your thoughts on the University’s proposals for restructuring numerous business units. See email re:‘Finalising the Phase 1 counterproposal.’
Please email the redundancy working group (REDACTED) directly as soon as possible this week with any contributions or reflections you would like considered as part of UoN UCU’s counterproposal.
The struggle for the language centre continues
On Wednesday 18th June approximately 200 staff, students, and members of the community attended an enthusiastic and impassioned rally to say NO to the catastrophic cuts to the Language Centre. During the rally UCU members and Language Centre staff presented the open letter with over 1,100 signatories to University management. We will continue to fight against this unnecessary and shortsighted decision. Click here for ways to stand in solidarity with your colleagues.
Michaela Collord spoke to BBC on behalf of the branch and the anti-casualisation network, joined by staff at the Language Centre affected by these cuts. Listen here from 1:40.
Know your rights
We are aware that some members have been told that they ‘can’t complain about students’. We are lucky that the majority of our students are a delight to work with. However, there are rare times when unfortunately we may be on the receiving end of disrespectful, harassing and bullying behaviours from students. In these instances, please refer to the university’s Student conduct – The University of Nottingham, which allows for disrespectful behaviours to be challenged in a formal way. Additionally, on some courses this can be addressed through Fitness To Practice processes.
Workload campaign update
Two members of the Workload Campaign are now on the university’s JNCC (Joint Negotiation and Consultation Committee) Workload and Work-Related Stress Task and Finish group, which has its first meeting on Monday 7th July. We are aiming to achieve the following within the Task and Finish Group:
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- An ongoing commitment to limiting workloads to a 100% maximum across the university
- Establishing working groups within each Business Unit to monitor for potential ‘shrinkflation’ of workload within Workload Models, and ensure Workload Models are reviewed annually in transparent and co-created ways.
- Ensuring that all Business Units have Workload Models (e.g. Engineering and other schools don’t currently have one) for EDI and equity purposes.
- Ensuring that there are transparent workload adjustments for carers and disabled colleagues.
- Re-working the Organisational Stress Risk Assessment, so that it reflects key issues from our members.
- Ensuring all Business Units have completed Business Unit Stress Risk Assessments, together with their union reps, for transparency and equality purposes.
- Ensuring the ongoing review and updating of all Business Unit Stress Risk Assessments for employer accountability.
We would love to get your feedback on the Organisational Stress Risk Assessment. Please read through the document (noting that we were NOT involved in its draft), and email REDACTED with any comments and suggestions of how it needs to be revised so that it fully reflects our experiences and needs. We will take your ideas and suggestions to the first meeting. Thanks so much for your input.
UoN UCU at Trans Pride
On Saturday, members joined thousands of others to march through the city at Nottingham Trans Pride holding high our branch’s banner. Following the march there was a series of speakers from various local organisations including our committee member and department rep Ella Guerin, who shared our commitment as a union to enabling transgender, non-binary and intersex workers and students to live with respect and dignity.
Branch Committee meeting summary
Your Branch Committee met on Wednesday 18th June and discussed:
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- An update on our current ballot and ‘get the vote out’ work,
- The campaign to support casualised staff at the Language Centre,
- Planning for Faculty Open Meetings Meetings on Future Nottingham in Engineering, Medicine and Health Sciences, and Social Sciences.
- The branch’s ongoing affiliation to and support for Nottingham Citizens,
- The dispute between UCU head office and staff represented by Unite (see open letter below).
The Branch Committee meets weekly. If you would like Committee to discuss a particular topic please email the details to: uonucubranch@gmail.com
During the ballot period the Departmental Reps are also meeting weekly to discuss progress and challenges in their areas.
Protect University jobs here and across the country
Our dispute is about workers at the University of Nottingham being threatened with redundancies, our Alternate Financial Strategy 2.0 lays out how decisions by management have led to this. We can also see the threat of redundancy is commonplace for many workers in Universities across the UK. Our strength here as a Union is in our collective solidarity within our branch and in extending it to other UCU branches and HE workers.
Please find details and petitions/letters to sign to support staff at UoN and across the country using the links below:
Local and national campaigning
Open letter to UCU Trustees and National Executive Committee
There is an ongoing dispute between employees at UCU head office represented by Unite and UCU as an employer. In June 2024, a branch meeting of UoN UCU passed a motion expressing solidarity with Unite UCU and calling for swift resolution to the dispute.
As the dispute continues, the branch committee has agreed to share with members and ask them to sign this open letter, which calls on UCU Trustees and elected members of the National Executive Committee to examine the handling of this dispute.
Call on Nottinghamshire County Council to divest from apartheid
Nottingham Palestine Solidarity Campaign is leading a movement to demand Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) divests its Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) from companies and organisations complicit in the genocide in Palestine. Currently the LGPS holds £170 million in shares in genocide-complicit companies. In line with the branch’s BDS motion and solidarity with Palestine motion the branch has given official support to the campaign.
We encourage all members resident in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County to sign the petition here.
A People’s History of the Farmers’ Movement in India, 2020-21
In 2020 a monumental uprising of India’s agrarian base unfolded in response to contentious farm laws. The Farmers’ Movement was a year-long protest that ended in December 2021 with the passage of the Farm Laws Repeal Bill by the Indian Parliament. The Movement is a testament to the power of collective resistance that offers a roadmap for future struggles.
In this talk, Professor Singh will discuss the Farmers’ Movement, looking at the socio-political dynamics, cultural nuances and wider solidarity that the protest generated across India and amongst the Indian diaspora.
This talk is supported by the Department of History’s ‘Rupture, Revolution, and Crisis’ theme and will take place tomorrow, Wednesday 25th June, 2-3.30pm, Lenton Grove, A18.
60 Years of the Tricontinental Conference: Context, Impact, Legacy, and Future
Parvathi Kumaraswami, an academic at the University is crowdfunding for travel grants for scholars, artists and activists from the Global South to attend the above January 2026 conference at the University of Havana. This will celebrate the original event and prioritize contributions from the Global South and stimulate important debates about the original event and its relevance to anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and decolonisation.
Please consider making a donation if you’re able. More information and donation link here.
Report anti-trans discrimination
Have you been questioned, stopped or challenged using a single-sex space? Fill in this form to help TransActual advocate on this issue at a national level.
Joining link and further information
Remember to pass on the online joining link to your colleagues.
Having trouble at work? Please log a case with our large, competent casework team!
Need to talk to your Departmental Rep? Find the full list of UoN UCU reps here. If you are interested in becoming a departmental rep, get in touch!
Struggling with your mental health or wellbeing? UCU members get free access to confidential support service educationsupport.org.uk who can be called 24/7 on 08000 562 561.
Yours sincerely,
L Scott Blankenship and Will Paterson-Bassett, Branch Communications Officers, on behalf of UoN UCU Branch Committee
Branch website: https://uonucu.org/