Yesterday UNISON gave the University formal notice of strike action for Christmas Eve, Sunday 24 December. This might seem to be a strange decision, as most staff at the University are due to finish work for the festive period after Wednesday 20th December. However, while many of us are taking a break on the University…
The VC’s view of our dispute In August and September HR maintained that “negotiations were over” and our Vice Chancellor, Adam Tickell, was doing his best to pretend the dispute wasn’t happening at all. Professor Tickell has since broken a long silence on our action, first during a visit to our pickets last Tuesday and…
We welcome the statement on the UoB website that condemns violence in Palestine-Israel. We know our union members have diverse backgrounds and we have always celebrated this as one of our strengths. We are proud of our community and of our multicultural city. The current escalation saddens us, as its consequences spread among our own…
We are asking all support staff to join us in striking this week. Participating will help win a better deal for you and your colleagues! To help us win this dispute we’d love it if you could join us on our picket lines. On Thursday and Friday this week we will be following a similar…
Updated 26 September to take account of this update from Birmingham UCU. At meetings on Thursday 14 September, members overwhelmingly backed the committee’s plan for strike action in the first week of term. This means that we are calling on all support staff to join us in taking strike action on: Thursday 21 and Friday 22 September…
You can also view this statement on Birmingham UCU’s website. We are pleased the University has now updated staff and students on its review of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete on campus. According to the University, of the 200+ buildings across campus, part of one building, the roof extension of the Arts building, may contain some RAAC….
Birmingham city council has recently declared effective “bankruptcy” with most news articles tracing the issues back to massive equal pay liabilities at the council. This does not tell the whole story though, and could worryingly give the impression that workers are to blame for the sorry state of council finances. Following repeated court judgements including…
“A good day where we saw our colleagues from different buildings and showed our collective resolve.” The day wasn’t as warm as expected, the sun only really came out as we gathered for the rally- though compared to Friday the gods were clearly on our side. I picketed at North Gate as I had no…
At meetings on Monday, members unanimously confirmed that Thursday’s strike should go ahead. The first and most important thing we ask all support staff to do is not go to work. Picket lines We’d love it if you could come along to our picket lines in the morning – this will help keep morale high and…
The UoB UNISON committee has decided to call a strike day for Thursday 17 August. This is A-level results day and when the University will be undertaking “clearing” activity related to student recruitment. This was not a decision we take lightly. We’ve expanded on our reasoning below and you can read more about all of…
