Loughborough UCU

Tag: Solidarity

  • Expanding Palestine Solidarity Working Group to Demilitarisation Working Group 

    Written by LUCU Palestine Solidarity Working Group 

    Based on a branch motion passed in Oct 2024, LUCU has run a Palestine Solidarity Working Group that includes members from both campuses as well as committee members. We have made a strong effort to raise awareness about the ongoing genocide and occupation and crucially, to make it possible to speak about and organise in support of Palestine without fear of reprisals at Loughborough University.   

    Since then, the working group has done the following: 

    • Repeatedly pushed the University to re-assess its projects with potential links to breaches of international law, war crimes and genocide against the Palestinians, as it did with links to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine  
    • Sought clarity from the University that students would not be penalised for boycotting “mandatory” careers fairs with military presence 
    • Advocated for the rights of students to protest and to protect their identities, given concerns around political targeting of migrants 
    • Offered to mediate a meeting between University leaders and members of the REACH network and Loughborough Action for Palestine 
    • Held a Demilitarise Education hybrid workshop at the London campus on 13th November 2024 [I can ask for the dED slides if we can link here] 
    • Held two talks by Prof Ali Bilgic: ‘Contextualising the Conflict: A Brief History of the Middle East’ 8 July 2026 & ‘When The World Looked Away’ 3 March 2026 
    • Screened Maha Haj’s 2024 Upshot and Mohammed Bakri’s Jenin Jenin (2002) for Palestine Cinema Day 2025 at LUL – 4th November 2025, in collaboration with Filmlab Palestine / Palestine Cinema Days 2025 

    Working group members agree that they have fulfilled, to the extent possible, the aims of the initial motion in creating solidarity for Palestine among staff and students and supporting student rights to free speech and protest. We feel that the appropriate next step is to expand the remit of the working group to broader efforts against university militarisation. Key aims/actions would be to:  

    • Review Loughborough’s relationship to the UK and any foreign military entities, whether through research, funding, or teaching    
    • Request information on Loughborough’s plans to try and join the Defence Universities Alliance  
    • Work against further defence/military alliances and work to de-militarise the university’s existing relationships  
    • Create resources for education on the relationship between militarisation in education and capitalist interests within the UK that affect staff and students  
    • Explore, and make visible, contradictions between Loughborough’s ethical standards in academic research, and commitment to sustainability, with militarisation   
    • Ensure all forms of military aggression are reviewed on an equitable basis (e.g. breaking ties with Russia vs. with Israel)   
    • Invite Demilitarise Education (dED) for a workshop available to LUCU members and non-members  

    We remain committed to taking action in support of Palestine when our members identify relevant opportunities to do so. We will continue to work to transform the culture of silence around the occupation and genocide and keep Palestine on the agenda at Loughborough. 

    If you would like to get involved in this work, please contact the branch via ucu@lboro.ac.uk

  • LUCU Weekly Restructure Update Meeting – For All Members

    Following the announcement of proposals on the forthcoming Professional Services restructure, we are inviting all branch members to a series of meetings to provide updates, discuss developments, and gather your views.

    These meetings are an important space for us to come together as a union, to support colleagues who may be directly affected, share information, and collectively explore alternative proposals to reduce costs and protect jobs.

    All meetings will take place online via MS Teams, from 13:00–13:50 on the following dates:

    • Friday 22 May
    • Wednesday 27 May
    • Friday 5 June
    • Wednesday 10 June

    These meetings are open to all members. We strongly encourage attendance from colleagues who may be directly affected, as well as those not currently at risk. Your presence and solidarity matter. Members have been emailed a link to join the meetings, if you can’t find the link please get in touch with the branch by emailing ucu@lboro.ac.uk.

    If you have ideas or suggestions for alternative ways to make savings that could help mitigate redundancies, please come along and share them. Your expertise and insight are vital during this consultation period.

    This is a moment where collective action and unity can make a real difference. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

  • LUCU Weekly Restructure Update Meeting – For All Members

    Following the announcement of proposals on the forthcoming Professional Services restructure, we are inviting all branch members to a series of meetings to provide updates, discuss developments, and gather your views.

    These meetings are an important space for us to come together as a union, to support colleagues who may be directly affected, share information, and collectively explore alternative proposals to reduce costs and protect jobs.

    All meetings will take place online via MS Teams, from 13:00–13:50 on the following dates:

    • Friday 22 May
    • Wednesday 27 May
    • Friday 5 June
    • Wednesday 10 June

    These meetings are open to all members. We strongly encourage attendance from colleagues who may be directly affected, as well as those not currently at risk. Your presence and solidarity matter. Members have been emailed a link to join the meetings, if you can’t find the link please get in touch with the branch by emailing ucu@lboro.ac.uk.

    If you have ideas or suggestions for alternative ways to make savings that could help mitigate redundancies, please come along and share them. Your expertise and insight are vital during this consultation period.

    This is a moment where collective action and unity can make a real difference. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

  • LUCU Weekly Restructure Update Meeting – For All Members

    Following the announcement of proposals on the forthcoming Professional Services restructure, we are inviting all branch members to a series of meetings to provide updates, discuss developments, and gather your views.

    These meetings are an important space for us to come together as a union, to support colleagues who may be directly affected, share information, and collectively explore alternative proposals to reduce costs and protect jobs.

    All meetings will take place online via MS Teams, from 13:00–13:50 on the following dates:

    • Friday 22 May
    • Wednesday 27 May
    • Friday 5 June
    • Wednesday 10 June

    These meetings are open to all members. We strongly encourage attendance from colleagues who may be directly affected, as well as those not currently at risk. Your presence and solidarity matter. Members have been emailed a link to join the meetings, if you can’t find the link please get in touch with the branch by emailing ucu@lboro.ac.uk.

    If you have ideas or suggestions for alternative ways to make savings that could help mitigate redundancies, please come along and share them. Your expertise and insight are vital during this consultation period.

    This is a moment where collective action and unity can make a real difference. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

  • LUCU Weekly Restructure Update Meeting – For All Members

    Following the announcement of proposals on the forthcoming Professional Services restructure, we are inviting all branch members to a series of meetings to provide updates, discuss developments, and gather your views.

    These meetings are an important space for us to come together as a union, to support colleagues who may be directly affected, share information, and collectively explore alternative proposals to reduce costs and protect jobs.

    All meetings will take place online via MS Teams, from 13:00–13:50 on the following dates:

    • Friday 22 May
    • Wednesday 27 May
    • Friday 5 June
    • Wednesday 10 June

    These meetings are open to all members. We strongly encourage attendance from colleagues who may be directly affected, as well as those not currently at risk. Your presence and solidarity matter. Members have been emailed a link to join the meetings, if you can’t find the link please get in touch with the branch by emailing ucu@lboro.ac.uk.

    If you have ideas or suggestions for alternative ways to make savings that could help mitigate redundancies, please come along and share them. Your expertise and insight are vital during this consultation period.

    This is a moment where collective action and unity can make a real difference. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

  • A Time for Collective Action and Solidarity

    This week university management will announce their proposals for cuts to Professional Services.  As discussed by the Vice Chancelor last week, the approach taken at some universities is to officially place hundreds of staff at risk of redundancy, creating anxiety and uncertainty for many.  Loughborough is taking a more targeted approach, having made specific decisions about areas where they feel cuts can be made.  As a result, in the next few days, the vast majority of us will be breathing a sigh of relief as we discover that our jobs are not in the firing line.

    It is crucial, and fundamental to the core values of trade unions, that we do not turn away from the situation and leave small number of our colleagues and friends feeling isolated and afraid.  We must remain united – they must be supported by the union.

    In an age where everything from your entertainment to your toilet roll can be a subscription service where a monthly fee is exchanged for a product dropped into your lap, we must remember that a union is not the same thing.  I, as branch Chair, am not the union.  The Loughborough UCU committee is not the union.  Jo Grady is not the union. You are the union.  We are the union.  Netflix didn’t bring us pensions, the weekend or safe workplaces.  Collective union action brought us those things.  A subscription service can’t support our colleagues.  We can.

    It is UCU policy to always oppose redundancies and to seek other options.  This week we will enter a period of at least 30 days’ consultation on the restructure proposals.  This means we have a month to work together to consider and propose alternatives, which management must take seriously.  You are the experts in your areas of work.  If there are ways you think money can be saved that could help protect jobs then share them.

    As well as the branch General Meeting on Wednesday we will be organising regular meetings both in departments and for all members to talk about what’s happening, provide support, and share alternative proposals that we can take to management. 

    We’re all overwhelmed by bad situations we can do little about.  With this situation we can all make a big difference. Let’s stay engaged and work together.

  • Challenging the Far Right: Rebuilding Solidarity Training

    Challenging the Far Right: Rebuilding Solidarity – 25, 26, June 2026, In Person, Quorn Loughborough, National residential course

    Rebuilding Solidarity is a new course for UCU Reps and activists which will help participants to address and challenge far right narratives with knowledge and confidence, both in the workplace and wider community settings. Rebuilding Solidarity is being delivered in partnership with the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) and will include a wide range of contributors including academics and activists.

    Please note: Applications for this course will close at 12 noon on Monday, 15, June, 2026. This is to allow all logistic, accommodation, adjustments and requirements to take place in good time. Application post the cut off date risk not being considered.

    Course content:

    Participants will be able to:

    • understand who is being drawn to the far right, what their key concerns are, where opportunities for relationship-building lay and solidarity exist. The course will use analysis and modelling undertaken around and since the 13 September 2025 ‘Unite the Kingdom’ demonstration in London and more recently, including the upcoming local and devolved authority elections
    • be able to identify the importance of a multi-layered approach to tackling divisive ideas, including the role of dialogue, education and community organising
    • know and describe the real causes of insecure work and housing, following an interactive session with an economist from SOAS University of London on the economic foundations of insecurity in Britain and how false narratives distract from structural causes of inequality
    • be able to challenge a range of myths related to migration, including identifying the key role these falsehoods play in dividing our communities and how social media works to maximise this
    • build skills and confidence in reframing these issues to promote solidarity, through dialogue and conversations in work and in communities
    • identify the specific role and function trade unions can play in providing alternative explanations for social and economic failings and offering a more hopeful future build on unity

    Rebuilding Solidarity is being delivered in partnership with the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) and will include a wide range of contributors including academics and activists.

    This course is not a lecture and will require some participation from all attendees.

    More info and to register: https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/13777/Challenging-the-Far-Right-Rebuilding-Solidarity—25-26-June-2026-In-Person-Quorn-Loughborough-National-residential-course

  • Challenging the Far Right: Rebuilding Solidarity

    Challenging the Far Right: Rebuilding Solidarity – 25, 26, June 2026, In Person, Quorn Loughborough, National residential course

    Rebuilding Solidarity is a new course for UCU Reps and activists which will help participants to address and challenge far right narratives with knowledge and confidence, both in the workplace and wider community settings. Rebuilding Solidarity is being delivered in partnership with the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) and will include a wide range of contributors including academics and activists.

    Please note: Applications for this course will close at 12 noon on Monday, 15, June, 2026. This is to allow all logistic, accommodation, adjustments and requirements to take place in good time. Application post the cut off date risk not being considered.

    Course content:

    Participants will be able to:

    • understand who is being drawn to the far right, what their key concerns are, where opportunities for relationship-building lay and solidarity exist. The course will use analysis and modelling undertaken around and since the 13 September 2025 ‘Unite the Kingdom’ demonstration in London and more recently, including the upcoming local and devolved authority elections
    • be able to identify the importance of a multi-layered approach to tackling divisive ideas, including the role of dialogue, education and community organising
    • know and describe the real causes of insecure work and housing, following an interactive session with an economist from SOAS University of London on the economic foundations of insecurity in Britain and how false narratives distract from structural causes of inequality
    • be able to challenge a range of myths related to migration, including identifying the key role these falsehoods play in dividing our communities and how social media works to maximise this
    • build skills and confidence in reframing these issues to promote solidarity, through dialogue and conversations in work and in communities
    • identify the specific role and function trade unions can play in providing alternative explanations for social and economic failings and offering a more hopeful future build on unity

    Rebuilding Solidarity is being delivered in partnership with the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) and will include a wide range of contributors including academics and activists.

    This course is not a lecture and will require some participation from all attendees.

    More info and to register: https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/13777/Challenging-the-Far-Right-Rebuilding-Solidarity—25-26-June-2026-In-Person-Quorn-Loughborough-National-residential-course

  • Message of Solidarity with Transgender Women

    In recent weeks, several major organisations have decided to exclude transgender women from accessing their spaces and attending their events (including The Women’s Institute, The Girl Guides and Labour’s Women’s conference). This marks a radical reversal of previously established inclusive practices in these organisations and constitutes worrying precedents.

    The Women’s Institute began welcoming trans women in the 1970s and made their inclusion official in 2015.  Melissa Green, chief executive of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes commented that the organisation made it with the “utmost regret and sadness,” adding it had “no choice” but to exclude trans women from its membership.  It is alleged that legal challenges funded by J.K. Rowling’s “Women’s Fund”, from a small minority of members, forced the change.

    We are aware of how disconcerting this is for all the transgender members of our community, and their allies, as it is disconcerting to us as well. UCU has condemned the trans-exclusionary moves by the Supreme Court and EHRC.

    We stand in solidarity with transgender women and the transgender community generally. We are committed to working with university management to mitigate the impact of legislative changes to ensure our work and learning community remain inclusive for trans people. Please feel free to contact LUCU Equality Officer Angela Martinez Dy with any specific queries. She is committed to prioritising member engagement and raising concerns about forthcoming changes either individually or collectively. 

  • Solidarity with Coventry UCU

    We’re writing to ask for your support for colleagues at Coventry University, who are currently facing a serious and deeply troubling escalation of attacks on job security and sector-wide standards. Coventry UCU has reached out to branches across the country to highlight their situation and to ask for our help in amplifying a national UCU vote of no confidence in their Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Latham CBE.

    You can add your name to the vote here:
    https://speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/vote-of-no-confidence-in-the-vice-chancellor-at-coventry-university/

    Staff at Coventry are presently resisting compulsory redundancies and a sharp acceleration of subsidiarisation, a model that fragments the workforce, bypasses sector agreements, and threatens to hollow out stable, secure academic and professional roles. If allowed to take hold, these practices risk setting precedents that could spread across the UK higher education sector – undermining pay, conditions, and governance far beyond Coventry alone.

    This vote of no confidence is an important opportunity for members across UCU to demonstrate that we reject these damaging approaches to university management. A strong response from branches nationwide will help send a clear signal that such governance failures are unacceptable and that the sector will not stand by while staff protections are dismantled.

    We encourage all Lboro UCU members to take a moment to add your name to the vote and to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with colleagues at Coventry. Their fight is not only about the future of their institution – it has implications for all of us.

    Please add your name if you can, and share the link with colleagues who may also wish to support.

  • CPD Course: Allyship and Solidarity

    Lboro UCU branch has re-scheduled an online CPD workshop, open to all LU staff. Masters and PhD students at LU are also welcome to attend the session. The Allyship and Solidarity CPD workshop will now take place online on Tuesday 11th November from 12 noon – 1:30pm. Please come along and invite your colleagues (including those who may not be UCU members) to join us.

    “Allyship” has its roots firmly within the LGBT community and has more recently been a live discussion within the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. But how can real allies truly support each other? And how can we build that support into organisations that will help us realise the dreams of equality that we all yearn for.

    If you are fed up with seeing tokenistic gestures of solidarity on social media and want to explore what genuine and meaningful allyship looks like, at work and in your trade union, please join us.

    The full aims of the interactive workshop are to:

    • Know what we mean by “allyship”
    • Understand why allyship and solidarity is essential now
    • Understand the difference between meaningful allyship and performative allyship
    • Explore how we can build structures that allow us to support each other.

    The taught sessions usually last for about 60 minutes, after which time we take 15-20 minutes to discuss the issues raised with a UCU official, depending on availability. The total time commitment will be around an hour and a half. The Allyship and solidarity workshops are designed to be more interactive than most in order to help you discuss the issues and to find new allies of your own.

    Sign up to the training here and please share this link with any other staff at Lboro who may be interested in coming along – https://cpd.web.ucu.org.uk/events/allyship-and-solidarity-loughborough-2/.

    Upon signing up you should receive an email including an outlook calendar invite and a link to join the session within 3 working days. If you have not received this within a week of signing up, please contact ucu@lboro.ac.uk and we will make sure it comes through.

  • LUCU Opposes the Far Right  

    The racist nationalism on display in London over the past weekend is deeply worrying and unacceptable. The LUCU Equality Officer and Committee extend our concern and solidarity to members who have been negatively affected by the far-right demonstration, and who fear or are experiencing racist abuse on the streets.  

    We recognise these actions, alongside the nationwide St George’s and Union flag display campaign, as part of an international backlash against the progressive, inclusive politics of race that has gained ground in recent years. Anti-migrant, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic sentiment is now brazenly espoused by racist leaders globally, creating an extremely hostile and threatening climate for racialised and immigrant communities.  

    We are here to help and support members in navigating these difficult times, which are particularly challenging when the police, to whom crimes are normally reported, may not be trusted by some, due to a history of institutional racism. We must therefore rely more heavily on community support and alternative reporting mechanisms for safety.  

    We encourage everyone to look out for one another, urge white British allies to actively speak up against racist behaviour, and suggest racially minoritised people take extra care in public spaces and maintain regular check-ins with trusted contacts. The Bay Area Transformative Justice pod mapping technique may be a useful tool for helping think through who you can trust and rely on in your community. 

    If you need immediate mental health support, the Education Support Partnership runs a 24/7 helpline. Do not hesitate to report any hate crimes that you may witness or experience on StopHateUK and/or the LU reporting portal. Our casework team, as well as the REACH Network and International Staff Group are additional possible sources of solidarity and support.  

    We urge everyone affected by these issues to stay engaged with anti-racist advocacy organisations such as Stand Up To Racism, the Runnymede Trust, and StopHateUK. You can also join public conversations about how to combat the rising tide of racism, such as this upcoming webinar,‘How to Turn the Tide on the Racial Backlash Against EDI (DEI)’ (25 Sept, free). 

    The LUCU Equality Officer and Committee will continue monitoring the situation and are available to meet with members who would like to discuss collective ways to address the current moment.