Loughborough UCU

Tag: Industrial Action

  • Solidarity with University of Nottingham UCU

    You may have seen in the past few months notable politicians and chief executives concern about what the University of Nottingham is proposing. This will see closures of some nursing, ending music degrees and will leave East Midlands with no provision of degrees in modern languages. On top of this, and despite evidence of extreme workload pressures, the plan is to pile even more work on anyone who remains. 

    This week Nottingham University branch are starting their extended industrial action in defence of the hundreds of jobs at risk and these course closures. UCU has worked with lots of supporters to put forward alternate plans showing a real financial alternative seeing no job or course losses. Alas the University have deemed the alternative is not viable and are pressing ahead with their destructive plans. The University Council are making their decision whether to go with the senior leaders’ proposals on 1st October. 

    It is appreciated that you are likely to be in work but equally you may have some time to spare or know of others who may be able to help.

    Nottingham University members will be striking on 30th September and 1st October and again from 5th October up to mid-December. Your support would be greatly appreciated. 

    On 30th September at 12 noon, supporters are asked to assemble at the Portland Building steps to pick up leaflets about the rally to hand out around the campus. This rally is to demonstrate to Council how widespread the plans are opposed. 

    On 1st October pickets will be on the line (main gates)  from 8.30 and moving to the rally at 12 O Clock outside Trent Building.

    If you can spare any time to either help with the leafleting, attending the rally or dropping by to give solidarity on the picket line please do so.

    Details of further pickets and rallies will be out soon. 

  • Strike Ballot and Feedback from Branch Delegates Meeting

    As you read earlier this month in the email from Jo Grady, UCU did not get over the 50% turnout threshold for strike action.  Though of the 39% who did vote, around 70% were in favour of action.  We were pleased that this email recognised weakness in the strategic direction provided, which reflects the comments we heard from members locally.

    Feedback from our members consultation meeting was shared with national representatives at the recent Branch Delegates meeting, and echoed the concerns of many other branches.  The need for a more comprehensive and well-communicated strategy was the key message, alongside the more immediate threats to jobs.  We are hopeful that this will influence future direction.

    It’s clear that the current situation, with below-inflation pay deals since 2012, cannot be allowed to continue.  The majority of our members should be receiving between twenty and thirty thousand pounds a year more in their pay, and the tax thresholds should be un-frozen to allow more of this to be taken home.  But locally and nationally UCU also recognise that the financial environment in the sector is already fragile, and many colleagues across the country have already taken weeks of strike action this year to defend jobs.  Sector finances are intolerable and so is the impact on staff – exacerbated in many cases by local decision-making and wasteful spending.

    As a branch we are pushing for a more long-term strategy on how to improve our conditions.  We have made a productive step in this direction already, passing a motion in support of much-needed tax reform in support of campaigns by the likes of Gary Stevenson and Zack Polanski who are getting this on the political agenda.  This motion authorises us to take a motion to our next national congress where we hope to make this core UCU policy.  We hope that by influencing these macroeconomic factors, we can help create the conditions in which public sector finances can be restored and education properly funded, removing the excuses for our insulting pay deals.

    Since 2008 the narrative “there’s no more money” has become burned into the culture.  Yet during that time the economy has grown and the wealth of those at the top has grown enormously.  Unless the government take steps to redistribute wealth and improve the lives of ordinary people it looks very likely they will hand the country to the far right.  We must all unite to stop that future from happening.

    An action we can all do to increase our successes, locally and nationally, is to speak to people around us about these problems and the importance of strong unions in enabling us to take collective action.  Why not invite a colleague to join us today?  We also encourage members to show solidarity and support to branches in dispute to save jobs, whether through donations, attending pickets and rallies, or sending messages of support.

  • Member Consultation on Outcome of Ballot

    Member Consultation on Outcome of Ballot

    We invite all our members to an online meeting to discuss the outcome of the “We Are the University” ballot, which is due to be announced on Monday 1st December.

    Date: Tuesday 2nd December
    Time: 12:00–12:50pm
    Location: Online via MS Teams

    The purpose of this meeting is to gauge members’ views on the ballot result, and the next steps the union should take. Your input will be vital in shaping the branch’s position, which will be fed upwards to our national negotiators and HE Committee next Thursday.

    A calendar invite, including the Teams link to join the meeting, has been sent to all members (attached to the email advertising this meeting).

    We strongly encourage all members to attend and contribute to this important discussion.

  • We Are The University Ballot

    Have you noticed how much smaller your slice of the wealth pie is, despite the pie growing?  In 2005, UK GDP was just over 2 trillion.  The latest figure, for 2023, was over 2 and a half trillion.  That is an extra five hundred billion pounds every year generated in the UK every year. An extra seven thousand pounds per year for every adult and child in the UK. And yet we’ve been told for so many years “there’s no money”.

    We were told that the financial crisis wasn’t the right time to ask for more.

    We were told that austerity wasn’t the right time to ask for more.

    We were told that the pandemic wasn’t the right time to ask for more.

    We’ve been waiting for the right time for the best part of 20 years.  We’ve been waiting for the good times to return, so that we can finally be allowed to ask for more.

    “The good times” aren’t coming back, because the good times never went away.  Many people have been getting richer and richer through that whole period.  But we haven’t.

    There’s no lack of money.  There’s a lack of fairness.

    Our work has been growing the pie this whole time.  But even though the pie has been growing, you’ve been given less pie.  Not just a smaller share of the bigger pie but less actual pie.

    Many of us probably hoped that an incoming Labour government would end the decline in the sector and begin the restoration of our pay.  It’s clear that this is not their intention.  But unless we’re holding out hope that a Reform government will be more generous, then the time to act is now. 

    The money is there.  Vote YES for action.

    If you’ve already voted but haven’t yet let UCU know, please complete this short form to do so.

    Please note that text messages you may have received from UCU about the ballot are genuine and not junk.

    Key Dates

    •             Sunday 23 November 2025 (23:59): replacement ballot request form closes

    •             Wednesday 26 November 2025: last ‘safe’ date to post the ballot

    •             Friday 28 November 2025 (17:00): ballot closes.

    UCU, Unite and Unison members at LU are balloting over pay at the same time.

  • What would you do with another £20,000 a year?

    UCU will soon be balloting for industrial action over the latest insulting deal on our pay and conditions.  Every year these below-inflation pay deals reduce the value of your wage a little. But have you looked back to see how much we’ve lost over time? There are different ways to calculate this, but if you uprate 2005 wages with inflation, you see most of our members should be getting between £20,000 and £30,000 more every year in their pay.

    We know that now might not feel like a great time to ask for more. But we’ve been told it’s not the right time to ask for more for a very long time. There was the financial crisis. There was austerity. There was the pandemic.  We had to be patient and wait for the return of “the good times”. Meanwhile, the economy has grown, prices have risen, and millionaires and billionaires have rapidly increased their wealth while the rest of us have tightened and tightened our belts. Not forgetting how much your workload has increased.

    The “good time to ask” isn’t coming next year. Or the year after that. It’s certainly not coming in five years, or ten years, under a Reform government. The fact is that the good times never went away – for the super-rich. We’ve just been locked out of them. And it’s time to start changing that.

    We need members to get involved with branch activity around the ballot. Speaking to members and non-members about how much they’re owed. Helping to get the vote out. And helping everyone to understand that without pushing back, the trend will just continue down. We can’t afford not to be in a union, and we can’t afford not to stop this decline.

    To get involved, contact Branch Organiser Callum Salfield at ucu@lboro.ac.uk

    The ballot is expected to open on Monday 20 October and close on Friday 28 November (5pm). For more information on the ballot, see this page on the UCU website.

  • Pay and Conditions Consultative Strike Ballot

    Please use your vote

    Members will have seen recent communications from UCU about the results of this year’s pay negotiations and the subsequent consultative ballot on our attitude towards possible strike action. 

    The outcome of this indicative ballot will steer UCU strategy on whether to issue a formal strike ballot, so it is crucial that the results reflect the preferences of the membership as a whole. 

    Please take 1 minute to indicate your position using the link in the email titled “IMPORTANT: UCU higher education pay and working conditions consultative ballot”, which arrived on Monday the 21st. The ballot closes on the 15th of August.

    Branch Meeting

    We will be holding an online General Meeting to discuss the issue on Wednesday the 13th of August at 1pm. This will help the branch committee to understand the feeling in the branch, as well as giving us all an opportunity to discuss, and ask questions about, the situation and its implications.

    Please use the link emailed to members on 25th July to join the meeting at 1pm on the 13th August.

  • UCU Members Get Results!

    Image credit Aisling O’Beirn – https://aislingobeirn.com/ – @aislingbeirn

    Congratulations to all our members both locally and nationally who contributed to industrial action, forcing our employers to reverse pensions cuts. Your commitment has not gone unnoticed by other members of staff, who have expressed their thanks. This has been a big win for all university employees who hold USS pensions – but it would not have been achieved without our committed members, both here at Loughborough and across the sector. Go to the USS Modeller to see how much better off you’ll be following the restoration of our benefits. 😊 

    Without a committed membership, we have no strength! Our next push is to build on this win by increasing our numbers. So, let’s make a noise about our success! Members talking to colleagues not yet unionised is the most effective way we can recruit. We’d appreciate it if every member would speak to at least three colleagues to encourage them to join us, using this link: join.ucu.org.uk. You can also help spread word of our win and encourage membership by liking and sharing/retweeting these social media posts: Twitter/X and Facebook. The more members we have, the more we can achieve! 

  • Solidarity with Brighton UCU

    Kevin Biderman, a UCU rep at Brighton University, joined us on Friday 15 September to talk about the threat of redundancy at his institution and about the actions his members are taking in support both of their jobs and of high-quality student provision at Brighton. A summary of Kevin’s talk is below:

    In May, Brighton University proposed 130 redundancies, saying it wanted to save £7.3m – but while also spending £50m on building projects. The University is planning to grow student numbers, potentially causing massive workload issues for the remaining staff.  Hundreds of students have been marching, calling for the VC’s resignation, and they have staged a sit in in the VC’s office. Students at Brighton are joining UCU in asking for zero redundancies, sharing the belief that the planned job cuts are a choice, not a necessity. The VC lost a vote of no confidence, with 94% of staff and students voting against them. The UCU branch held a ballot over 2 weeks, resulting in a 61% turnout and a 90% vote for local strike action in October. UCU has grey-listed Brighton – encouraging members not to apply for jobs there or engage in any collaborative projects. Brighton has deducted 100% of pay for involvement in the MAB and has said it will do the same during the upcoming strike. Brighton UCU has a strike fund which so far has received close to £100k in donations, but it needs more.

    What can you do to help colleagues at Brighton UCU?

    1. You can sign the petition in support of zero redundancies at Brighton University, here.
    2. You are encouraged to make supportive posts on social media. 
    3. Brighton UCU would really appreciate further donations to their strike fund, here.

  • Update on UCU Rising Disputes

    Local Survey Results

    The results of the LUCU branch UCU Rising consultation survey are listed below:

    QuestionYesNo
    Do you support moving forward in negotiations with UCEA based on the terms of reference agreed at ACAS?68%7%
    Do you support UCU members being formally consulted over the commitments that have been agreed with UUK to restore benefits and lower pension contributions?89%1%
    Do you support UCU members being formally consulted on the proposals that have been agreed with UCEA on pay, ending zero-hour contracts, workloads, casualisation and closing equality pay gaps?77%6%
    If members vote for industrial action in the re-ballot, do you support beginning a Marking & Assessment Boycott over the pay and conditions dispute from w/b 17 April?51%28%
    If members vote for industrial action in the re-ballot, do you support beginning a Marking & Assessment Boycott over the USS cuts imposed in April 2022 from w/b 17 April?44%35%

    Overall, it’s clear that there is strong support among LUCU members for further consultation and action, though there are some differing opinions on specific tactics. Please note abstentions are not listed above.

    Branch Delegates Meeting (BDM) held on 29th March

    The results of the national survey were the main topic of discussion. Mary Brewer, LUCU’s branch delegate, voted in line with your views as expressed in the local survey. Mary was given opportunity to speak and reported the main themes captured through your discursive feedback:

    • Members’ have felt confused and uninformed
    • Members feel that their voices were not heard by the Higher Education Committee (HEC)
    • Central communications have been poor
    • Members found the questions asked in the national surveys to be unclear and difficult to respond to

    Our feedback was in line with that of many other branches and assurances were given that the feedback raised will be taken into account as the union moves forward in its efforts to represent its members effectively.

    Results of UCU Rising Re-ballots

    In the re-ballots for UCU’s pay and conditions and USS pensions disputes, our union has achieved resounding YES votes to continuing action, surpassing the anti-union turnout threshold in both disputes. The ballot results are:

    BallotTurnoutYes to Strike ActionYes to ASOS
    Pay & Conditions56.41%85.65%89.92%
    USS (Pensions)58.40%89.05%91.61%

    UCU has made history as the first education union in the UK to win multiple national ballots. Full results of the ballots can be found here. Negotiations will continue and notice of a national marking and assessment boycott will be served to employers later this month. Well done to everyone who voted in this ballot, helping UCU get over the line and empowering our negotiators. Very special thanks to our Get The Vote Out volunteers for their hard work.

    What’s Next?

    The LUCU committee will call a branch General Meeting as soon as we know more from the HEC about further action.


    LUCU Committee

  • Tripartite statement regarding industrial disputes

    24 March 2023

    Loughborough University, Loughborough UCU and Loughborough Students’ Union have been meeting regularly during the current industrial disputes to explore what is at issue and to consider how progress might be made.

    While our perspectives are diverse, the collaborative way of working that we have developed has enabled us to address effectively and constructively those issues which have a local dimension. We have also discussed what is at stake nationally.

    Our position on the several strands of the disputes is summarised here:

    • Pensions. We believe that an evidence-based valuation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) should be completed as soon as possible. This assessment of the scheme’s assets and liabilities, and its future performance, should be ‘moderately prudent’. Any positive adjustments resulting from this new valuation should prioritise the improvement of members’ benefits over reductions to employer /employee contribution rates from their current levels. We welcome the recent developments in relation to this.
    • Pay. We acknowledge that this is the most challenging of the current issues. The regulated undergraduate student fee that is universities’ most significant income stream has barely changed in a decade – and it remains frozen during this period of high inflation when institutions’ costs, such as energy, have increased sharply. The income of university staff has lagged similarly in this time, with a series of below-inflation pay awards – and current high prices are undoubtedly having a significant impact on staff, too. While the 2023 pay award has been implemented, we remain mindful of staff’s situation. We also join other voices in encouraging a longer-term review of the university funding model (a review that should be creative and not focus only on raising students’ fees).
    • Working conditions (pay inequality, casualisation, workload). We recognise that addressing these questions is crucial to the well-being and sustainability of the sector. Universities must offer a fair, decent and healthy working environment to all. At Loughborough, while further work remains to be done, good progress is being made on these fronts – and we encourage employers and unions at all HE institutions to tackle pay gaps, casualised contracts and high workloads in a similar spirit of partnership.

    We do not underestimate the complexities of these multiple issues and the challenges involved in finding fair outcomes. However, it is crucial that lasting resolutions are achieved, so as to prevent further disruption to the lives of both staff and students.

    We strongly encourage all those involved in the disputes to continue working toward our shared goal: student and staff satisfaction in a Higher Education sector fit for everyone.

    Loughborough University
    Loughborough UCU
    Loughborough Students’ Union  

  • Urgent Survey on UCU Rising Disputes

    We have just received word from National UCU that they will be sending all members a survey this afternoon to ask for views on the proposals to settle the disputes with UCEA and UUK. We are told that the survey will close in approximately 48 hours, on Friday 17th March. We recommend completing the survey before Friday as no end time was stated.

    For more information on the proposals please see here: www.ucu.org.uk/12834

    If you have not received your ballot within the next hour, first search ‘yoursay’ in your inbox and junk and if you still cannot find the email, please contact UCU here.

    LUCU Committee

  • 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 22nd February and 1st March are suspended, as is all strike action until we recommence the pressure with our picket on the 16th 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 22nd Feb and the 1st 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 28th 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 22nd 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 21st February on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. 

    LUCU Committee