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Fri 11 June 2021

The Friday email: 11 June 2021

11 June 2021

Hands off USS: pension justice for all

An amazing twenty thousand people have now used our USS modeller to see how employers' proposals would impact individual retirement benefits. It's clear that university workers are extremely concerned about the future of the scheme. To find out how your pension might be affected, just input your date of birth and salary details then share how the cuts impact you by tweeting the results with #NotTodayUUK. Please also complete the survey at the end which will help inform our negotiations with employers and USS.

#RebuildFE: ballot opens Monday

From Monday members in some colleges will be invited to vote in a ballot for industrial action in support of our #RebuildFE campaign. If your branch is included you will have received an email yesterday (Thursday) with the subject line 'UCU ballot opens next week'. For more than a decade further education (FE) has been neglected and underfunded. In order to take action to secure a better deal for staff we need to ensure a minimum 50% turnout so please vote and return your ballot paper in the prepaid envelope as soon as possible - the ballot closes on 14 July.

Support the prison education strike

Prison education staff took strike action on Thursday over Covid-19 health and safety concerns and lack of consultation with union representatives. Please show your support for Novus UCU prison education branch members by downloading this poster, photographing yourself with it and posting it on social media #PrisonEdStrike.

University of Liverpool: striking for jobs and vital Covid-19 research

Liverpool UCU fighting plans to sack staff in the faculty of health and life sciences have concluded an amazing three weeks of strikes over management's redundancy proposals. UCU members working to contracted hours and boycotting all voluntary activities will now extend this to a marking and assessment boycott from Friday 18 June. Please send messages of support to Anthony O'Hanlon.

UCU members fighting back

UCU branches across the UK are fighting to defend jobs and conditions and you can read our roundup of local disputes here including the campaign to save Evesham College and defending jobs at the University of Sussex.

Love our academic-related, professional services staff: more than just a lecturers' union

UCU has organised a month of events focussing on the work of academic-related and professional services staff, with a launch event on Tuesday 15 June at 1pm. You can find out more about the events, and register to participate here.

University of Leicester strike to save jobs

Members at University of Leicester stepped up the fight to defend the 26 jobs under threat, with three days strike action this week. Vibrant picket lines were supported by a mobile ad van spreading the message to #BoycottLeicester and support educators under threat. Please continue to boycott the university and support our colleagues.

Ask the lawyers: skilled worker visas, Tuesday 22 June, 1-2pm

Join us to hear from Bindmans lawyers about the recent changes to the UK immigration system, including the introduction of the skilled worker visa, and have your queries answered. Watch here and please submit advance questions here by Wednesday 16 June. 

EU settlement scheme: your questions answered

The 30 June deadline for applications to the EU settlement scheme (EUSS) is fast approaching. If you're an EU citizen and you haven't already applied, you can do so here. Got questions? Watch back our recent EUSS webinar with Bindmans lawyers here, or view our FAQ document.

'PGRs as employees': postgraduate researchers (PGR) manifesto launch 

We are holding another (on-line) event, as part of our 'PGRs as employees' campaign on Thursday 1 July. In the morning we'll be giving an update and launching our new PGR manifesto. In the afternoon we'll be exploring how to campaign and bargain for the manifesto at a local level. For more details and to register click here.

UCU NEC casual vacancies: call for nominations

Three casual vacancies exist on the national executive committee (NEC) (one FE UK-elected member; two FE geographically-elected members (south)) and nominations are now called for. Nominations must be received by 5.00pm on Friday 9 July 2021. Further information can be found here.

Last updated: 11 June 2021