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UNISON members have overwhelmingly rejected the University’s pay offer!

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 thank everyone for voting and for helping out with leafleting and spreading the word!
 
Demands presented to the University: 
Your union reps presented the University with the demands you voted for, at a negotiating meeting yesterday (the demands report is available here). It’s now up to the University to show it cares about poverty pay and the welfare of its staff and students. We need action on these issues now. We will keep you up to date with any new developments, and the next steps that we might need to take.
 
An all staff meeting will be held on Thursday 22nd Novembein 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 can work together. 
The meeting will be co-hosted by all trade unions on campus (UNISON, UCU, UNITE and GMB), and is open to all staff, regardless of whether they are members or not.
Roger Godsiff (MP for Hall Green) will be our guest speaker for the 12-1pm meeting. Roger is a supporter of our Living Wage campaign and has repeatedly lobbied the University to become accredited. At the meeting, we will discuss the report, give everyone an update on where we’re at, and explore possibilities to seek other groups’ support for our claim and demands. 
 
A support staff meeting will also be held on the 22nd of November at 9.15am in G13 Nuffield Building, for members who can’t attend the lunchtime meeting.
 
Article by Birmingham UCU on the University of Birmingham’s project expansion in Dubai & the horrendous conditions in which migrant workers are forced to work
Title: University Set to Draw on “Slave Laour” in Major Dubai Campus Expansion’
Excerpt: ‘In 2017 Jeena Sharma, writing in the pacific standard, interviews construction workers and finds that the practice of confiscating passports and entrapping workers under exploitative contracts is still common place and amounts to little more than slave labour. The Guardian report that two migrant workers commit suicide in Dubai every week.
It remains unclear how this can possibly sit with the University’s claims to a “global reputation”, their commitments to “responsible business”, or their duty to “public benefit” as set out in their charitable status’.
 
To read the rest of the article, please click here:
 
Are you interested in becoming actively involved in the branch/ in your workplace? Let us know!

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