Birmingham Justice for Workers (UNISON, UCU, UBSW) – Joint student-staff meeting (2nd Oct, 1-2pm)
Following the success of our recent strike days & negotiations with University Management and ACAS (The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) we have decided to call a Joint Union members meetings on Wednesday 2nd October, 1.00pm (102 Biosciences) with Salma Yaqoob as guest speaker.
This will be a fantastic opportunity to hear from an activist who supports our strike & join in the conversation as we prepare for our next day of action. We will also have speakers from UCU discussing their ballot & campaigns and representatives from UBSW – the University of Birmingham Student Workers. The UBSW have also written a letter to the VC about the Worklink’s failure to pay wages on time & we will be working to support their campaign. The committee will update everyone on the latest developments & we look forward to seeing you all there, please encourage your colleagues to come along too!
Strike action 3rd October!
Your UNISON branch intends to go ahead with a day of Strike Action on Thursday 3rd October, pickets from 4.30am. To date the university senior management have failed to meet any of our demands and have not shown suitable willing to compromise or negotiate on key matters. Disappointingly & despite intervention by ACAS we are yet to see any indication that management truly appreciate and value the work that we do & until that changes we will continue to strike. It is really important that all members come onto campus and join the picket lines during strike days. Our power is in our numbers & it is only through collective action that we will be able to improve the working conditions for all staff.
Just in case you missed it, our strike action was featured in Birmingham Live! Photos, videos and comments of support & solidarity can also be found on our Facebook page and Twitter, please Like and share!
Strike fund still open!
Our strike fund is still open, both for donations and your claims. The claim form is attached – if you need advice on how to claim please let us know. We’d also strongly encourage you to share the below link as much as you can and encourage people you know and any friendly organisations to donate.
http://uobunison.org.uk/
Hardship Fund Claims:
The hardship fund is open to all striking members of staff, if you haven’t already please complete the attached form and drop it in to Lee in the Ashley building.
Strike Pay:
Under UNISON rules, when workers have taken 5 days or more of strike action they become eligible for “strike pay” from national union funds. This is normally at a rate of £25 per day, backdated to the first day of action but we will be asking if UNISON national office can cover the total sum that people have lost for the past two days instead.
As part of this, we need to confirm the names of all members who have taken action.
We will have your details if you have made a claim to the strike fund or if you’ve signed more than one register on the picket line.
Please could anyone else who has taken strike action as part of this dispute confirm this by replying to this email or by texting 07964926949.
We can then confirm the details of all those members eligible for strike pay to UNISON national office, who will then be in touch with further details.
Now we are eligible for strike pay we will be processing hardship claims next week slightly differently – if the amount deducted from September’s pay is greater than the amount you will get from UNISON nationally in strike pay, we will top this up for anyone who makes a hardship claim.
