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 1st and 9th of February.
This Week’s Picket
This week the branch has organised a picket on Lboro campus. It will take place on Thursday 16th 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 15th, Tues 21st, Thurs 23rd, Mon 27th & Tues 28th.
March: Thurs 2nd, Fri 17th, Tues 21st & Wed 22nd.
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