At the end of April 2020, the Faculty of Arts announced that it was cutting all postgraduate teaching opportunities from its 2020/21 budget, and since then the Faculty of Social Sciences has followed suit. In some departments, it is standard for teaching posts to only be offered to final year PhDs; colleagues who have gone through a year-long unpaid training programme and interview process, only now to be facing no chance of getting this essential career experience. We are clear that these cuts are a choice; the UCU has recently learned that the combined cost of cutting PGR teaching in both Faculties could be recovered with money to spare, if the University simply stopped running one of its managerial training programmes for a year.
Continue reading “UoN Must Save Our PGR Teachers”Stories from the picket line
Thank you all for your incredible solidarity over the 14 days of the strike. With your teach-outs, baked goods, music, conversations, and picketing in the rain / hail/ wind/ occasional sunshine, we have stood together and have made our voices heard.
We continue to fight the dispute, but as a committee we are massively impressed and inspired by the support and determination of our branch members over the last few months.
Check out this video made by Sophie Chester-Nash, ‘Stories from the picket line’
And this video made by Mark Jago to mark our branch’s celebration of International Women’s Day, ‘Striking is a feminist issue’
POSTPONED: Rally at Jubilee, Friday 13th March
Our end-of-strike rally will be postponed until the risks posed by coronavirus have abated. The decision of whether or not to continue with pickets has been devolved to the Branch and these will proceed as planned, though individual members are encouraged to use their judgment before joining a picket line. In particular, if you have a cough that is persistent or new, or have a temperature of 37.8 degrees or higher, please follow the Chief Medical Officer’s advice and stay at home for at least seven days.
The decision of whether or not to proceed with picketing has not been taken lightly, but collectively we have been through heck of a lot over these past four weeks and it is important that we are able, as much as individual circumstance allows, to come together on the picket line for the last day of strike action. It is also important for us to publicly mark our strike action given that the University remains open.
On being the #runningpicket, the #knittingpicket and an APM UCU member: Strike Diary Entry, March 9, 2020
Today’s entry comes from Lisa Rull, Specialist Study Support Tutor (Disabilities)
When the dates came around for this current period of strike action, I knew what I wanted to do. With a half marathon coming up, I wanted to use some of the time to get miles on my legs in daylight. As a crafting addict, I also wanted to get a few extra rows on my knitting projects! Activism and craftivism!
I started the strike as the #knittingpicket on West Gate on Thursday 20 February – this worked well until the skies opened (imperfectly timed for the rally and speeches!) and along with all those there I became a #soggypicket. I decided the next day would be running so I headed out taking a long route from home to North Gate, then East Gate and South Gate and West Gate. What I have loved about visiting the different picket lines is getting to say hello and chat to colleagues, students and fellow striking staff with whom I might never normally get chance to converse. So far across my various picket runs and walks I’ve clocked up approximately 45.5 km (28.2 miles). I know that distance could take me to Sutton Bonington and back, but apologies to SB I’ve not made it to you along the country roads! (I’ve been to all the other gates, including KMC and the three at Jubilee). I’ve interspersed being #runningpicket with both #knittingpicket days and also much needed rest days.
I’ve learnt through hard experience that I need to listen to my body and my mind and take care of both. (Cancer does that to you). Our #fourfights strike action is at the heart of how being a UCU member supports me to do this, even when my work at the University makes that so difficult. We need to break the gender pay gap, address inequality, make workloads manageable, challenge casualisation and precarity, and seek fair pay for all. It is also key to our #USS strike action for fair pensions. We have paid into it. It is deferred pay. We deserve it.
We’ve broken ourselves with our labour for University, and we don’t want to see it disappear at the point we need it most. We need our next generation of staff to have the opportunity for a fair pension, not one subjected to active destruction tactics by USS and UUK, whose valuations and resulting rising contributions are making it impossible for our precarious colleagues to join (pension or rent is not a choice anyone should have to make).
I’ve been around University of Nottingham since early 2000, first as a PhD student and then for the last 16 and a half years working to support the learning of disabled students at UoN. Although I teach, mostly but not exclusively 1-1, I’m therefore in the slightly odd position of being APM but involved in teaching; am part of professional services, but intimately involved with the learning experience of our students.
This is a #notjustlecturers strike but the challenges of taking strike action from within Student Services should not be underestimated. So many staff have been on the frontline of the chaos wrought by Project Transform and its ongoing effects on our colleagues and students. I want my colleagues to join UCU and support the union in challenging the way HE has behaved in recent years (and thank you to those who have).
There is a better way. Solidarity to all, for all!
Teach-outs and events this week: 9 – 13 March
Monday 9th March
Rally for International Women’s Day (IWD)
South Entrance Picket, 10.30am. All other pickets will pack up around 10. There will be short speeches and we’ll be filming a short video to highlight our feminist strike. Please bring ideas/make signs in response to ‘This IWD I’m calling on the UoN to…” [equal pay/an end to casualisation/fair pensions] etc.
Teachout: Casualisation and the University
Join the University of Nottingham Anti-Casualisation campaign group for an open discussion on how outsourcing and precarious working conditions are affecting many of us across campus, and how we can organise to fight against it!
1 – 3 pm. Dunkirk Community Centre, Montpelier Road NG7 2JW
Tuesday 10th March
Poetry Reading: Peter Gizzi, Sarah Hayden, and Alan Baker
Acclaimed US poet Peter Gizzi reads his latest work, alongside two poets based in Nottinghamshire, Sarah Hayden and Alan Baker.
7pm, Five Leaves Bookshop, 14a Long Row W, NG1 2DH
Event is free for striking UCU members. Otherwise £4/£2 students. Admission includes refreshments.
Wednesday 11th March
Teachout: ‘Black Holes and Extra Dimensions’ Antonio Padilla, School of Physics
and Astronomy
10am, South Entrance Picket
Thursday 12th March
Teachout: ‘Don’t follow your passion! Creative work, self-exploitation, and dangerous myths’ Leora Hadas, School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies
10am, North Entrance Picket
Friday 13th March
POSTPONED! RALLY AT JUBILEE Derby Rd Picket, 11am
Bring your noisemakers and placards! A march will start from West Picket, picking up other pickets on our way to Jubilee. Estimated timings:
10.00 West Picket; South Picket 10.20; North Picket 10.40; arriving Jubilee Derby Road 11.00