The trade union representing support staff and academic-related staff on campus. The union is as strong as the links between its members.
It’s payday at the University of Birmingham today. While the VC must’ve received his one-off bonus of £80,000 today, casual student workers are still waiting to be paid for work done 3 months ago. The reality of being a casual worker at the University of Birmingham – you don’t get paid for work done 3 […]
Continue ReadingThese two days will include protests in Birmingham – keep an eye on our updates for more information. Also, if you’ve organised protests in Birmingham yourself, we’d appreciate your advice/support. The motion passed at our members’ meeting on the 22nd of August reads: Strike action and pay, equality and working conditions dispute […]
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We are concerned about the way in which senior managers at both the University of Birmingham and at its subsidiary company, Edgbaston Park Hotel are treating staff. Their refusal to meaningfully negotiate with the unions and the constant erosion of pay, working conditions, and equality on campus are having a devastating and very real impact […]
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Seven Labour Party MPs have written a letter to VC David Eastwood, urging him to address our demands for fair pay, equality and improved working conditions. We note that the VC has failed to respond to our member’s letter that challenges him to live on low pay for a month. He has also failed to respond […]
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As we’ve detailed previously, a member of support staff working at the University wrote a letter to the VC challenging him to live on the same salary for a month, and highlighting how hard it was to live on the pay the University offers its lowest paid staff. After sharing the letter and asking for […]
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The letter can be read and signed here uobunison.org.uk/challenge (the page also includes a video of 12 members reading it out). On Thursday afternoon (1st of August 2019), members of UNISON University of Birmingham branch went to VC David Eastwood’s office to hand-deliver the challenge letter addressed to him and the rest of senior management. The […]
Continue ReadingIncompetency, inconsistency, extra penalisation, and lies are what our members have experienced on this month’s pay day Strikes are a last resort for any trade union branch and ours is no different. This is partly because we take our jobs seriously and need to balance any short-term disruption against the improvements we are looking for […]
Continue ReadingSummary of the July strike days: We had a fantastic time during the two days of strike action. A new samba band emerged on the pickets, many supporters travelled from afar to be with us and show support, many brought food for the strikers, and children had the opportunity to learn about what solidarity […]
Continue ReadingThis is how the University of Birmingham were trying to break the strike earlier this week – by asking students to come in for ‘last minute shifts’ tomorrow. The email was sent out during our negotiators’ meeting with management (during which they made no new offer!). For information, Worklink is a university department (which they call […]
Continue ReadingConfessions of a cleaner A fictional account of a day in the life of a university cleaner, based on real events I get up around 3.30am, shower, grab something to eat and then scurry for my first bus due 4.45am. I’m quite lucky because others don’t live where buses run late so they have the added expense of […]
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