Teachout – Loughborough UCU

6th March 20236th March 2023

LUCU News – March 2023

We would like to thank Reps and members for their tremendous support for the action so far: our success is driven by your creativity, time, and energy!

An additional day of action has been called by the HEC for 15^th March in order to increase pressure on the employers during the ongoing talks. Upcoming strike dates, pickets and teach-outs as below:

Strike action date	Pickets	Teach-Outs
Wednesday 15 March	No picket	11am-12pm: Organising and Power – Rose Pesotta
Thursday 16 March	Lboro Picket: 8:30 – 10:30 Main Gate	11am -12pm: Memories of anti-racism
Friday 17 March	No picket	2pm-3:30pm: Organising for Power Workshop
Monday 20 March	Lboro Picket: 8:30 – 10:30 Main Gate	11am-12pm: Starting conversations about race and racism
Tuesday 21 March	No picket
Wednesday 22 March	No picket

Teach-Out Details: Please advertise the three of these events that are open to all students and colleagues.

The “Organising and Power” teach-out will be held online. Ruth Kinna will give a talk about Rose Pesotta (1896–1965), anarchist, feminist and labour organizer in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union: Teams link

The “Memories of anti-racism” teach-out is hybrid. Emily Keightley will introduce the Migrant Memory and Postcolonial Imagination exhibition at: Charnwood Arts (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. All are welcome to attend in person or via Teams link.

The “Organising for Power Workshop” will be held online. Alexandre Christoyannopoulos will lead the workshop introducing methods from the Organizing for Power training that some members attended last year, with time for discussion about how they could work within Loughborough UCU. This workshop is for LUCU members only, and you can attend via Teams link.

The “Starting conversations about race and racism” teach-out is hybrid. Denise Coles and Amanda Harrington will talk about how to start conversations about race and racism, with fellow workers and students, in meetings, corridors, formally and in informal exchanges. All are welcome to attend in person at: The Council Chambers, Loughborough Students Union, or via Zoom Link.

ASOS: We would also like to remind members that ASOS is ongoing.

GTVO

It is vital that the union returns a Yes vote to further action to give our negotiators the necessary mandate and leverage to succeed in discussions with UUK and UCEA. Your ballot must be received by 31 March, and the last safe posting date is 28 March. If you have not received a ballot, please contact UCU directly: replacement ballot request form.

Campaign Resources

Thanks to Saul Albert and Anthony Kevins we have some inspiring videos that showcase student support for our action. Please support UCU Rising by circulating these videos via your social media. We are very grateful to Saul and Anthony for creating these valuable resources. To see the videos on our various platforms please click the links: YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Twitter.

Local Strike Fund

We would like to acknowledge grateful receipt of a £100 donation from Leicester Workers Support Group, which will allow us to make another donation to the UCU Fighting Fund, directly benefitting our members in the coming months.

Local Negotiations

EDI: We are pleased to report that there will be direct union involvement on the new University EDI Operations Committee, led by the new PVC-EDI Charlotte Croffie. This recognises union members as a key stakeholder constituency, and our participation in the work of the committee will enable us to inform the direction and implementation of EDI initiatives. As this is not a space for negotiation, the three campus trade unions will rotate sending a delegate to serve for one year. There will be regular meetings with Unite and Unison to consolidate the unions’ perspective.

LUCU is currently in the process of expanding our representation on LUCU committee by seeking multiple equality officers. Our aim is to maximise our engagement with relevant university EDI projects and working groups and to prioritise aspects of EDI in line with national campaigns. We have expressions of interest from two members to stand for the following officer roles: Disability; Women & LGBTQ+. We are keen to hear from other members who may wish to join committee and lead on BAME. We would like to assure members that we recognise the importance of an intersectional approach to EDI, and we envision our EDI officers and other committee members working together to ensure our approach to EDI is aligned with best practice.

REF: LUCU will also continue to have a voice on the REF Code of Practice Working Group, which is chaired by the PVC for Research and Innovation. The group works to ensure the fair and transparent identification of staff and selection of outputs for REF. We ask that members feedback any issues of concern about the REF process in their schools so that they can be raised either at a working group meeting or ARSNC.

Professor Dan Parsons, PVC – Research and Innovation, attended ARSNC to discuss items we had put forward for discussion following concerns raised by our members about the internal review of REF outputs at school level, as well as grant capture and EDI. It was agreed that schools should ensure they approach the review with parity and transparency in mind; the process should be developmental in focus, and internal scores will not be used as a measure of performance during PDRs. The University also recognises the inherent biases in the grant process in terms of applicants with protected characteristics, and the PCV was keen to ensure that the University aims to mitigate as much as possible these external factors when, for example, considering applications for university fellowships and promotion.

Restructures: We have been in consultations with management about restructures in IT Services, the Research and Innovation Office, and the School of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering. We can report that no redundancies are planned, and where individual members have requested it, a caseworker has been assigned for support.

WAMS and Workload: Members have raised concerns about the timing of workload allocation, which, in some schools, has come too late for efficient planning of teaching and research. Steve Harris, Change Portfolio Manager & Process Improvement Lead, has agreed to review WAMS to explore how workload allocation can be managed in a timelier manner.

LUCU 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

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

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