We have recently received messages from student workers who are happy for us to share their statements on working at the University of Birmingham: ‘I was told by Worklink that I wasn’t going to be paid today and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it (was owed £1,900), I went to Guild Advice…
Our team of departmental reps and stewards has five more members! Please join us in congratulating them. If you’d like to become a steward or rep, contact us! You will have access to 10 days of training per year (with paid time off from work) and half a day/week paid time off from work to…
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…
These 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 …
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…
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…
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…
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…
Incompetency, 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…
This 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…
