Solidarity & Support – Loughborough UCU

8th January 2025

Week of Action on Palestinian Right to Education

In response to Birzeit University’s call for academics, activists, unions and solidarity groups to participate in the “Right to Education” Week of Action (November 23-30). Loughborough UCU (LUCU) organised an awareness-raising event amplifying the theme of “United Against Scholasticide”, highlighting Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s higher education infrastructure and community.

On November 28^th, colleagues and doctoral researcher members of LUCU based on the London campus hosted a stall from 10AM-4PM. Printed resources from Scholars Against the War on Palestine (SWAP), including its useful toolkit, were made available, alongside flyers from other solidarity organisations. These set out the definition of scholasticide and the devastating statistics regarding affected educational institutions, educators and students. LUCU’s new Palestinian Solidarity Working Group, formed in response to a successful member-raised motion to support Loughborough Action for Palestine Coalition, also created and distributed a leaflet in printed and digital versions, highlighting British universities’ potential complicity in the genocide through collaborative research and development partnerships with organisations enabling Israel’s occupation, colonialism and apartheid.

At the time of writing (2/12/2024), SWAP’s tracker for scholasticide notes the following:

All 11 Gazan universities have been bombed
5,213 students have been murdered
90,000 university students cannot attend university
8,691 students have been injured.
370 schools have been damaged or destroyed, leaving more than 620,000 students out of schools
At least 239 educators have been killed
60% of bookshops and libraries have been destroyed

The stall and stallholders were met with an overall curious and positive reception from both staff and students. On the same day, Loughborough Action for Palestine Coalition endorsed and attended a rally hosted by other university coalitions and solidarity groups to protest the University of London’s injunction to criminalise protests in support of the Boycott Divest and Sanctions movement on campus.

Dr Angela Martinez Dy, LUCU Equality Officer, commented: “The ongoing destruction by Israel’s military of Palestinian knowledge, evident in the targeting of educators and students in the ongoing war, is a concern for academia globally. It’s great to see LUCU members responding to Palestinian scholars’ leadership, drawing attention and raising awareness about scholasticide amongst the Loughborough Uni community, and encouraging people to take action.”

Please consider signing the petition here, and contact LUCU Equality Officer Angela Martinez Dy to join the working group and progress future actions.

Thanks go to Iman Khan and the LUCU Palestinian Solidarity Working Group for writing this update.

6th October 20236th October 2023

Response to transphobic statements in Rishi Sunak’s conference speech

Colleagues and Students,

You may be aware that Rishi Sunak made transphobic comments in his speech to the Tory conference this week, stating “we shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t. A man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense.” As an academic community we recognise that the Appeal to Common Sense is a logical fallacy employed in desperation when an assertion cannot be properly defended.

As the committees for Loughborough UCU branch, and the Staff LGBT+ Network, we would like to make absolutely clear that we condemn Rishi Sunak’s comments. We recognise that gender is a complex, multi-dimensional aspect of everyone’s identity, and is unique to each of us. To characterise the experience of being transgender as “being any sex [you] want” is a deliberate over-simplification and mis-representation designed to scapegoat a marginalised community for populist appeal. As is the suggestion that this group are “bullying” the majority. And while anti-trans sentiments are often portrayed as defending women, they are in fact propping up patriarchy and the disempowerment of women, by emphasising the idea that men and women are fundamentally and radically different. We support members and non-members of any gender identity; everyone is part of our community. We are also committed to playing a key role in shaping and delivering the University’s EDI agenda, which includes recognition, respect and support for all individuals in their gender identity.

If you are interested in learning more about the complexity and nuance of gender identity, we recommend the LGBT Awareness course available through Organisational Development and presented by LUCU Treasurer and LGBT+ Network Trans and Non-binary Lead, David Wilson, as well as their post on the University’s LGBT Blog Trans visibility as an act of resistance.

In solidarity

Loughborough UCU Committee

LGBT+ Staff Network Committee

20th February 202320th February 2023

UCU Rising Campaign Update

Pause in Strike Action

As you have probably already heard, due to the pressure created through your collective action and presence on picket lines, UCU have announced significant progress in negotiations with the employers in our HE pay and pension disputes. To allow ongoing negotiations to continue in a constructive environment UCU has agreed to pause strike action for the next two weeks. This means our scheduled pickets on the 22^nd February and 1^st March are suspended, as is all strike action until we recommence the pressure with our picket on the 16^th March. For this period, during the pause in strike action, ASOS remains in place and the branch will focus on the re-ballot. We are looking to reschedule teach-outs which were planned for the 22^nd Feb and the 1^st March, and will update you with more details on these when we have finalised the new plans. The planned Creative Writing Social/Teach-out on the 28^th February will still be taking place as it is outside of normal working hours.

Take a look at some of the creative works our members have produced with students in support of the dispute, on our YouTube channel.

Re-ballot

It is now more important than ever that we deliver a massive yes vote in our upcoming re-ballot of members for both our pay and conditions, and USS disputes. This will allow our negotiators to keep the pressure on and will leave the option for a Marking and Assessment Boycott and/or further strike action if the dispute is not resolved. Ballot papers will start arriving from Wednesday 22^nd February. Please complete and return your ballot, and encourage others to do the same.

We’d really appreciate help with the get the vote out effort. If you volunteer you will be given a list of names and will be asked to call members on their list encouraging them to vote. Please let the branch know if you can help by responding to this email.

UCU will be hosting our union’s biggest ever UCU Live event on the eve of ballots dropping. Please join our general secretary Jo Grady at 19:30 on Tuesday 21^st February on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

LUCU Committee

17th February 202317th February 2023

Picket in Loughborough on Wednesday – 22nd Feb

Next Week’s Picket

For next week the branch has organised a picket on Lboro campus taking place on Wednesday 22^nd February. The picket will be at the Holywell Gate on Holywell Way (exact location) from 11:30am to 2pm. It will be followed by “Unions and the Media” an online teach-out from 2:30-5pm (Teams link). See the section on teach-outs at the end of this article for full details.

As always, we hope to see as many of you on the picket as possible. The longer the picket line, the shorter the dispute.

Future Picket Dates, Times & Locations

Strike Day	Picket Time	Picket Location
Wed 1st March	11:30-14:00	Holywell Gate
Thurs 16th March	8:30-10:30	Main Gate
Mon 20th March	8:30-10:30	Main Gate

Future London picket details will be communicated as and when they are arranged.

Although we are only picketing on the above dates, please remember that the following dates are also strike days.

February: Tues 21^st, Thurs 23^rd, Mon 27^th& Tues 28^th.

March: Thurs 2^nd, Fri 17^th, Tues 21^st & Wed 22^nd.

Resources for Staff

Please regularly check our website for updated versions of strike resources for staff such as out of office messages, email templates you can send to students or use on learn and slides for students.

Teach-Outs Updates

We’re delighted to announce a fourth teach-out on our schedule:

Mightier than the Sword? – a creative writing social at The Organ Grinder (4 Woodgate, Loughborough, LE11 2TY) on Tuesday February 28^th, 6-8pm. Upstairs in The Hayloft, Barbara Cooke and Kerry Featherstone will be serving up creative exercises that will amuse and entertain. All are welcome. The room has limited capacity so come early to avoid having to sit downstairs playing board games and wondering what everyone is up to!

Full details of the teach-out this coming Wednesday:

Unions and the Media, an online teach-out: Wednesday February 22nd, 2:30-5pm (Teams link) We will start with a Trade Unions 101 by Anthony Kevins: Is a trade union like a student union? Are strikes just protests? And why are strikes even a thing? In this brief introduction to trade unions, we’ll cover everything you ever wanted to know about collective bargaining but were too afraid to ask. Bring your questions! Then John Downey will present a talk entitled ‘What about the workers? How do news media frame unions and what we can do about it’ discussing unions, inequality, and media representation, including reflections on how UCU does self-mediation and how it is being represented in the current dispute.

A reminder of the rest of our scheduled teach-outs:

Organising and Power, an online teach-out: Wednesday 1st March, 2:30-5pm (Teams link)
Memories of anti-racism, a hybrid teach-out:Thursday 16th March, 11am-12 noon in-person and online (Teams link) Charnwood Arts (address: 27 Rectory Pl, Loughborough LE11 1UW)

LUCU Committee

15th February 20234th July 2023

Strike & Hardship Pay Details 2022-23

Updated – July 2023

We encourage you to make use of both the national and local (if appropriate) strike funds. For many of us this is a challenging time, financially, and we want to make sure you know you can claim for strike days where you have lost wages. Please see this video from UCU.

The national officers have authorised payments from the national Fighting Fund in support of members in the HE disputes which started on 24^th November 2022. Payments from the national scheme apply from your second strike day and currently up to a maximum of 20 days (maximum of 11 for action up to 1st May). In addition, as a branch, we have passed a motion to use our local strike fund to reimburse hourly-paid staff for the first day they strike and any later days which are not covered by the national fund. Please note the November, February and March dates are all considered a single set of actions meaning your “first day” of action (for which no payment is available from the national fund) is only counted once, not separately for each set of dates.

In order to receive a payment from the Fighting Fund members need to:

be paying subscriptions at the correct rate (if any subscription is payable) (check your registered income band in MyUCU)
have participated in official strike action for which officers have agreed to make funds available; and,
provide evidence of deduction from their salary or loss of earnings for strike action.

Payment is made:

in the sum of £50 for the second and subsequent days of strike action taken by the member earning £30,000 gross or more per annum (this is subject to a cap of 20 days. This will be kept under review); and,
in the sum of up to £75 for the second and subsequent days of strike action taken by the member earning less than £30,000 gross per annum (this is subject to a cap of 20 days. This will be kept under review).

Claiming from the Local Fighting Fund

Extra financial help is available from the local branch fighting fund for members who are either:

Hourly paid
Are facing immediate financial hardship as a direct result of strike action e.g. difficulty paying for essentials for themselves or their dependants.

The local fund will pay out for the first day of strike action, and any later days which are not covered by the national fund, which is currently capped at 11 days for the period up to May the 1^st.

We will also consider applications for MAB deductions where these are not covered by the national fund or where the shortfall still leaves you in immediate financial hardship.

To make a claim from the local fund, please send the following to our treasurer David Wilson:

Claims for loss of hourly earnings:

confirmation from your School or Department of the hours not worked due to striking
the number of hours missed and the hourly rate of pay you receive
your normal annual earnings (so that we can verify you are paying the correct subscription level and determine which level of payment you are eligible for)

Claims for financial hardship:

a list of days on which you have taken action
payslips showing total deductions (including those covered by the national fund)
your normal annual earnings (so that we can verify you are paying the correct subscription level and determine which level of payment you are eligible for)

Payments can be made up the normal daily maximum as above.

Note that due to national UCU rules, claims to the local fund must be made within 3 months of the deductions. We are seeking to change this to 12 months to match the national fighting fund rules.

Claiming from the National Strike Fund (all other claims)

Claims to the Fighting Fund in respect of all disputes can only be made once members receive payslips showing deductions for strike action. Please read the appropriate Guidance before making your application. The Higher Education Guidance can be found here.

Click here to make your application.

Donating to the National Fighting Fund

You can make a donation to the Fighting Fund here or by sending a cheque payable to UCU and marking the back of the cheque ‘donation to UCU fighting fund’. Please send cheques to UCU, Carlow Street, London NW1 7LH.

Donating to the Local Fighting Fund

You can make a donation to the local fighting fund via a bank transfer, please contact our treasurer, David Wilson, for more information.

LUCU Committee

14th February 202314th February 2023

Picket in Loughborough on Thursday – 16th Feb

Thanks again to everyone who was involved in the busy and engaging UCU rising pickets we held on the 1^st and 9^th of February.

This Week’s Picket

This week the branch has organised a picket on Lboro campus. It will take place on Thursday 16^th February. The picket will be at the Shirley Pearce Pedestrian Crossing (on Epinal Way – exact location) from 8:30am to 10:30am. We hope to see as many of you there as possible. The longer the picket line, the shorter the dispute.

Future Picket Dates, Times & Locations

Strike Day	Picket Time	Picket Location
Wed 22nd Feb	11:30-14:00	Holywell Gate
Wed 1st March	11:30-14:00	Holywell Gate
Thurs 16th March	8:30-10:30	Main Gate
Mon 20th March	8:30-10:30	Main Gate

Future London picket details will be communicated as and when they are arranged.

Although we are only picketing on the above dates, please remember that the following dates are also strike days.

February: Wed 15^th, Tues 21^st, Thurs 23^rd, Mon 27^th& Tues 28^th.

March: Thurs 2^nd, Fri 17^th, Tues 21^st & Wed 22^nd.

Reminder of Teach Outs

We now have three teach outs planned during this period of industrial action. Please advertise these events to your colleagues, students and anyone else who may be interested in joining us. We have linked a poster and would love if you can print out and put up around campus to encourage people to attend these events.

Unions and the Media, an online teach-out: Wednesday February 22nd, 2:30-5pm (Teams link): We will start with a Trade Unions 101 by Anthony Kevins: Is a trade union like a student union? Are strikes just protests? And why are strikes even a thing? In this brief introduction to trade unions, we’ll cover everything you ever wanted to know about collective bargaining but were too afraid to ask. Bring your questions! Then John Downey will present a talk entitled ‘What about the workers? How do news media frame unions and what we can do about it’ discussing unions, inequality, and media representation, including reflections on how UCU does self-mediation and how it is being represented in the current dispute.

Organising and Power, an online teach-out: Wednesday 1st March, 2:30-5pm (Teams link): Ruth Kinna will give a talk (open to all staff and students) about Rose Pesotta (1896–1965), anarchist, feminist and labour organizer in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, then Alexandre Christoyannopoulos will lead a workshop (for LUCU members only) introducing methods from the Organizing for Power workshops that some members attended last year, with time for discussion about how they could work within Loughborough UCU.

Memories of anti-racism, a hybrid teach-out: Thursday 16th March, 11am-12 noon in-person and online (Teams link): Emily Keightley will introduce the Migrant Memory and Postcolonial Imagination exhibition at Charnwood Arts (address: 27 Rectory Pl, Loughborough LE11 1UW), and will talk about histories and memories of anti-racist protest and experiences of racism in Loughborough and East London.

Resources for Staff

Please regularly check our website for updated versions of strike resources for staff such as out of office messages, email templates you can send to students or use on learn and slides for students.

Branch TikTok

With the aim of reaching out to more students the branch has set up a TikTok account and started releasing videos on that platform. Please take a look and give the videos a like and, if you use TikTok, follow our profile. Click the links for videos: TikTok1 and TikTok2. More TikTok videos coming soon. We have also released the same videos on all our existing social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube ). Liking and sharing our social media posts helps boost awareness of the ucuRISING dispute and the issues we are facing, so all help with that is very much appreciated.

LUCU Committee

8th February 20238th February 2023

Pickets in Loughborough and London – 9th Feb

Thanks again to everyone who was involved in the busy and engaging UCU rising picket we held on the 1^st February, and also to those who came to the planning meeting that followed.

This Week’s Pickets

This week the branch has organised pickets on both Lboro and London campuses. Both will take place on Thursday 9^th February. The Loughborough picket will be at the Shirley Pearce Pedestrian Crossing (on Epinal Way – exact location) from 8:30am to 10:30am. The London picket will be at the main entrance of the London campus building from 9am – 11am. We hope to see as many of you there as possible. The longer the picket line, the shorter the dispute.

Future Picket Dates, Times & Locations

Strike Day	Picket Time	Picket Location
Thurs 16th Feb	8:30-10:30	Shirley Pearce Pedestrian Crossing
Wed 22nd Feb	11:30-14:00	Holywell Gate
Wed 1st March	11:30-14:00	Holywell Gate
Thurs 16th March	8:30-10:30	Main Gate
Mon 20th March	8:30-10:30	Main Gate

Future London picket details will be communicated as and when they are arranged.

Although we are only picketing on the above dates, please remember that the following dates are also strike days.

February: Fri 10^th, Tues 14^th, Wed 15^th, Tues 21^st, Thurs 23^rd, Mon 27^th& Tues 28^th.

March: Thurs 2^nd, Fri 17^th, Tues 21^st & Wed 22^nd.

Update on Teach Outs

We now have three teach outs planned during this period of industrial action, unfortunately the ones we had hoped to hold in the LSU building will now have to be on-line only due to no rooms being available. Please advertise these events to your colleagues, students and anyone else who may be interested in joining us.

Unions and the Media, an online teach-out: Wednesday February 22nd, 2:30-5pm (Teams link): We will start with a Trade Unions 101 by Anthony Kevins: Is a trade union like a student union? Are strikes just protests? And why are strikes even a thing? In this brief introduction to trade unions, we’ll cover everything you ever wanted to know about collective bargaining but were too afraid to ask. Bring your questions! Then John Downey will present a talk entitled ‘What about the workers? How do news media frame unions and what we can do about it’ discussing unions, inequality, and media representation, including reflections on how UCU does self-mediation and how it is being represented in the current dispute.

Resources for Staff

Please regularly check our website for updated versions of strike resources for staff such as out of office messages, email templates you can send to students or use on learn and slides for students.

LUCU Committee

3rd February 2023

UCU Rising Picket Dates and More

Firstly, thanks to all those who attended our picket on the 1^st February. It was great to see so many people out in support of the UCU Rising dispute. Following on from the picket we held a productive meeting to plan the rest of our action where many members contributed to an engaging discussion. It was really inspiring to see so many members getting involved and volunteering to take actions. A summary of the outcomes agreed by members at the meeting is below.

Targeted Picketing

It was agreed that we would target picketing to 6 days (one per week of the strike action), please attend as many of these pickets as you can. As always friends, family and supporters are more than welcome on our pickets:

Strike Day	Picket Time	Picket Location
Thurs 9th Feb	8:30-10:30	Shirley Pearce Pedestrian Crossing
Thurs 16th Feb	8:30-10:30	Shirley Pearce Pedestrian Crossing
Wed 22nd Feb	11:30-14:00	Holywell Gate
Wed 1st March	11:30-14:00	Holywell Gate
Thurs 16th March	8:30-10:30	Main Gate
Mon 20th March	8:30-10:30	Main Gate

London picket details will be communicated in due course.

Although we are only picketing on the above dates, please remember that the following dates are also strike days.

February: Fri 10^th, Tues 14^th, Wed 15^th, Tues 21^st, Thurs 23^rd, Mon 27^th& Tues 28^th.

March: Thurs 2^nd, Fri 17^th, Tues 21^st & Wed 22^nd.

Teach Outs

We have also had several people volunteer to host Teach Out sessions. We hope these sessions will be hybrid meetings and will confirm details nearer the time. Anyone else interested in hosting a teach out session on any of the strike days please get in touch with the branch. Presently this is our plan:

22^nd Feb at 2:30pm at the LSU (tbc) – Two members will host a teach out on the subject of Unions and the Media.
16^th March at 11am at Charnwood Arts (tbc) – A member will host a teach out on Colonialism and Anti-racism – followed by a members meeting.

Resources for Staff

Please regularly check our website for updated versions of strike resources for staff such as out of office messages, email templates you can send to students or use on learn and slides for students.

LUCU Committee

1st March 2022

Strike Pay – How to Claim from the Fighting Funds

The national officers have authorised payments from the national Fighting Fund in support of members in the HE disputes (USS and Four Fights) which started on 1 December 2021. Payments from the national scheme apply from your second strike day and currently up to a maximum of 11 days. In addition, as a branch, we have passed a motion to use our local strike fund to reimburse hourly-paid staff for the first day they strike up to the same daily maximum. Please note the December, February and March dates are all considered a single set of actions meaning your “first day” of action (for which no payment is available from the national fund) is only counted once, not separately for each set of dates.

In order to make a claim to the Fighting Fund you need to:

be paying subscriptions at the correct rate (if any subscription is payable);
have participated in official strike action and lost pay for this
provide evidence of deduction from your salary or loss of earnings for strike action.

Claiming from the Local Strike Fund (hourly paid staff, day 1 claims)

Please send the following to our treasurer David Wilson – D.Wilson@lboro.ac.uk

confirmation from your School or Department of the hours not worked due to striking
the number of hours missed and the hourly rate of pay you receive

Claiming from the National Strike Fund (all other claims)

If you are in a position where you can go without making a claim or you feel able to claim for a lesser amount please consider doing so in order that we can prioritise those whose loss of pay may cause particular hardship. The Fund will be able to support more members for longer if you can contribute in this way.

Click here to make your application.

Donating to the National Fighting Fund

LUCU Committee

23rd February 202223rd February 2022

Teach Out & Picket Details for Week 3

Teach-out: Creating Racial Dialogue
You are invited to attend a Teach-out: Creating Racial Dialogue, hosted by Angela Martinez Dy on Monday 28^th February from 10:30am – 11:30am, online via MS Teams. The teach out is open to all Loughborough University staff & students and builds on the previous work of “Building the Anti-Racist Classroom” & Collective Anti Racist Efforts (CARE) training. Please register here before Sunday 4pm to receive the link to join: https://lboro.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/event-registration-teach-out.

Please share this invite with other staff/students you think may like to attend.

Picket Details – Week 3

Thanks, again, to everyone for their efforts on the picket line so far. We wanted to remind you of the picket arrangements for next week when we will be striking over Four Fights dispute. Strike days for week three are Monday 28^th Feb, Tuesday 1^st March & Wednesday 2^nd March.

Picket times and locations remain the same 8am – 11am daily at the main gate of the Loughborough Campus (unless you’ve agreed to attend another gate – contact M.A.Gibson@lboro.ac.uk ). London based colleagues, please keep an eye on our social media accounts for details of further London Campus pickets. Well done to all for your solidarity so far, let’s keep the pressure on and force employers back to the table.

LUCU Committee