Urgent: please respond to our questions listed at the end of the email – the answers can be very short (Y/N), or as detalied as you’d like! You may know that the University of Birmingham has been in the national news this week. Matthew Hedges, a Durham University Research Student who is currently in an…
We are saddened to hear the shocking news that today, Matthew Hedges (Durham University PhD student) has been sentenced in UAE to life imprisonment. BBC – live updates https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-tyne-46238426 BBC – article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-46288510 FT: https://www.ft.com/content/53ceb434-ed7c-11e8-8180-9cf212677a57 The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/matthew-hedges-jailed-life-sentence-court-trial-uae-abu-bhabi-british-academic-a8644476.html According to FT, his sentencing is for ‘allegedly spying on behalf of the UK Government’; a family spokesman said that…
You may have seen the latest “UoB Briefing” update from Prof. Tim Jones in which he attempts to justify the University’s inadequate pay offer and details why the University is once again imposing a pay deal before negotiations are finished. In response, we’d like to highlight that: The University has once again refused…
We are deeply concerned about the safety of staff and students on the Dubai campus. We wrote a letter to the university with a series of questions and reassurances that we need from them (the letter is available here https://uobunison.org.uk/letter-dubai-campus) but all we received was a vague response with a series of links to intranet pages. …
This is just a quick post to flag up an article published by The Guardian on the University of Birmingham’s Dubai campus: It reads: ‘Staff and students at the University of Birmingham have warned that LGBT rights are not adequately protected at its new campus in Dubai where being gay or transgender risks imprisonment, flogging and execution. They have…
An all staff meeting will be held on Thursday 22nd November in the Dome Lecture Theatre, Aston Webb, between 12.00pm – 12.50pm (please invite non-members!) It will be followed by a session between 1-2pm (in the same LT) where students will be able to join us and ask questions about our current priorities and how…
We are delighted to announce that the turnout for the indicative ballot is 54.5%, with 87.9% voting ‘YES’. Members have overwhelmingly rejected the University’s offer and the turnout gives us the option of a strike ballot if we don’t get an improved pay offer along with action on job security, casualisation, workload and equality. We would like to…
News from other UK campuses (and Glasgow City): It is the National Living Wage day today and the new Living Wage rates are out. Why are the University management still refusing to make the University a LW Accredited employer? It is incredibly disappointing that the University of Birmingham management are still refusing to seek accreditation,…
This week, the Trade Unions on campus (UNISON, UCU, UNITE and GMB) have submitted a report to the University management negotiators, ahead of our first joint University – Unions meeting which will take place on Tuesday the 6th of November. The report includes our cover letter, as well as information regarding the pay claim, terms…
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