Strike action starts Wednesday 1st February

Posted on 30 January 2023 by kingston

Next week, February 1^st, UCU will be on strike alongside teachers in the NEU, rail workers in ASLEF and the RMT, bus drivers in Unite, civil servants in the PCS, and outsourced UCL security guards in IWGB. Join the local Kingston UCU picket line 8am – 12pm Penrhyn Road. Given the disruption to public transport we particularly need members who live locally to show up.

If you can’t travel to Kingston but are visiting local picket lines by other branches or unions, share a picture with us by tagging @kingstonucu on twitter or Instagram. There is also demonstration called by the NEU and supported by UCU and PCS in central London – assemble 11am Portland Place W1A 1AA. Look for the Kingston UCU banner.

Our employers have been notified of 17 further days of strike action over the next two months if they do not come to the table with a reasonable offer on pay and conditions.

How to support the strike:

Do not declare in advance whether you will be taking strike action. You are only required to respond to a direct inquiry from your line manager after industrial action has taken place. Employers try to use generic forms to collect information about who will be on strike in order to undermine the action by mitigating its impact.

Do not rearrange timetabled activities scheduled for future strike days. These strike days are designed to escalate with many points in between for employers to table a better offer, in which case they may be called off. Rearranging classes weakens the impact of strike action.

Join the pickets. Visible participation shows strength and support of strike action and amps up the pressure on our employers to make an offer that better meets our demands. We need to show them that they can’t sit back and ride this out. Sign up for picket lines for 1^st, 9^th and 10^th of February here: signup.com/go/stMgccK. We will be organising online picket organising meeting for Penrhyn Road and Knights Park pickets – details to follow.

Talk to your colleagues and students. Sign up to pickets together, encourage non-members to join. Talk to students about why we are on strike and encourage them to support us in putting pressure on university senior leaders to end this dispute by tabling a reasonable offer. Share our linktr.ee/kingstonucu where the student explainer and letter for students to send to the VC will be updated.

Claim strike pay. Don’t forget to claim from the national UCU Fighting Fund for days of strike action. To claim you need to show evidence of pay deductions so it is important that HPL colleagues claim the hours they would have worked as usual.

Join our #strike-committee on slack: kingstonucu.slack.com.

If you have questions about this industrial action, contact us at kingstonucu@gmail.com. We will also be running stalls next week so drop by for a chat: 12-2pm Penrhyn Road, Monday 30^th January. 12 – 2pm Knights Park, Tuesday 31^st January.

Upcoming branch meeting to discuss industrial action strategy – 9th Jan 11am

Posted on 6 January 2023 by kingston

We will be holding a Branch meeting on Monday 9th January at 11am to discuss industrial action moving forward, including issues regarding strike action and boycott.

Find a link for the meeting in your inboxes – please note the correct Zoom link is the second one emailed out.

Background information:

In November, the UCU Higher Education Committee voted for a Marking & Assessment boycott to begin in January, and indefinite strike action to begin in February, as part of our current mandate for industrial action in the UCU Rising dispute.

There are differing opinions in the union about how to escalate our dispute given employers are refusing to put any improved pay offer on the table. The General Secretary Jo Grady has proposed a strategy of 2 days + 3 days strike action in February, 2 days + 3 days strike action in March, a re-ballot (the current mandate expires 20th April), further strike days in April and a marking boycott to begin in the summer term. Watch her video here.

You can read the case for indefinite strike action put by Zara Dinnen and James Eastwood, Co-Chairs of Queen Mary UCU branch here: How to Stop a University. UCU Left also put out a statement in favour of indefinite strike action.

There are different proposals for what indefinite strike action could consist of. E.g. there is a proposal for ongoing strike action on 4 days a week with the 1 working day rotating. Read the case for this here/ watch the video.

This is the option favoured by the Kingston UCU branch committee. We will be voting on a motion about this option, as follows:

This Branch believes:

In order to win action needs to be hard hitting and with no set end date.
Action must be affordable to members and the union
Continuous action may result in 100% loss of pay.
Striking for 4 days per week should result in less than 57% loss of net pay for most members.

This Branch resolves:

To call on HEC to call strike action for 4 days per week, with 1 day per week worked in rotation for an indefinite period.
Notifications for first 5 weeks to be sent followed by notifications extending the action after 2 weeks of action and indefinitely as required thereafter until the disputes are settled or members vote to cease.

We will also be voting on the following motion related to action short of a strike:

This Branch believes:

In order to win action needs to be impactful, whilst allowing us to best focus on our students.
Action Short of Strike must be escalated in response to the lack of meaningful negotiation by employers
Workloads currently impact our ability to do our jobs.
One aspect of our workload that takes away time from our students and our responsibilities is attending meetings.
Attending meetings is a voluntary activity, outside of our core roles in educating students (undergraduate, postgraduate, research); it is therefore within the scope of ASOS as has been indicated in advance.

This Branch resolves:

To call on HEC to call an escalation of our Action Short of Strike to include not attending meetings for an indefinite period.

Which course of action we take will be discussed at a Branch Delegate Meeting (BDM) on 10th January before the next Higher Education Committee meeting on 12th January. It is therefore really important for members to come to this meeting to share your views so our delegates to the BDM can represent them.

Further articles on this debate have been collated by Edinburgh UCU: https://www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/indefinite-or-not

UCU Rising strike starts this week

Posted on 19 November 2022 by kingston

This is a brief reminder on upcoming strike action on Thursday November 24th, Friday November 25th, and Wednesday November 30^th. Visit our linktr.ee/kingstonucu to find out about all UCU Rising information, including digital pickets link, hardship fund, teach outs, and much more.

Here are some handy Dos and Don’ts about the upcoming action.

DO:

Sign up to a picket line time slot on campus here. The longer the picket, the shorter the dispute. We need a real show of defiance across the country.
Speak to your students. Our working conditions are their learning conditions. Staff at Kingston are overworked and nearly half of teaching staff are hourly paid. Every other university in the country is striking. This is a systemic problem and the students have a right to be honestly informed. Share our strike explainer for students
Speak to your colleagues about why you are striking. Short term disruption is necessary to halt long-term damage to our sector!
E-mail Caoimhe with a teach out idea and proposed time and picket!
Claim strike pay from the UCU Fighting Fund if you need to. We know times are hard, we want to feel confident not to be forced back to work!

DON’T:

Don’t inform management of your plans to strike! YOU HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO DO THIS. If asked a direct question about whether you took strike action honestly after the action is complete, answer honestly.
Don’t reschedule any classes that are canceled due to strike action! This is covered by our action short of a strke (ASOS)
Don’t cover the classes of striking colleagues!
Don’t upload any materials to Canvas on strike days. Withdrawing your labour means ALL of your labour.

Solidarity colleagues, and see you on the picket line!

Kingston UCU Branch

Strike days announced

Posted on 9 November 2022 by kingston

Strike days have been announced as part of the UCU Rising dispute.

Kingston UCU alongside staff in all UCU branches across the country will go on strike: 24th, 25th and 30th November

Come to the Kingston UCU Extraordinary General Meeting Thursday 10th November 5pm on Zoom (check inboxes for link) to discuss and prepare for this action.

For more on how the issues in the UCU Rising dispute relate to Kingston see: What is the UCU Rising Dispute About?

UCU Rising ballot results announced

Posted on 26 October 2022 by kingston

The results for the UCU Rising ballot have been announced and UCU nationally has smashed the anti-trade union threshold, with a turnout of 57.8% in the pay & conditions ballot, with 81.1% members voting in favour of strike action and 88.8% in favour of action short of a strike. This means we can take national action as a union over the issues this dispute is about. See the full results here

Thank you to all members who helped campaign to get the vote out at Kingston. We will be discussing as a branch what action we want to see and taking this to national branch delegates meeting 31st October.

Members can read General Secretary Jo Grady’s discussion document on how she thinks we should proceed in this dispute.

Agreement negotiated with senior management related to marking & assessment boycott

Posted on 16 June 2022 by kingston

Here is the agreement in principle negotiated between Kingston UCU and Kingston University for working together on local actions to address the issues that have long been a concern raised at our JNCC meetings with management which also chime with the current Four Fights dispute for which we have successfully obtained a mandate for industrial action, including a marking & assessment boycott:

22-06-13 JNCC Joint Statement FINAL

Kingston UCU members voted at the emergency branch meeting Monday 13th June to accept this agreement in principle.

Friday 17th June UCU formally lifted the marking & assessment boycott at Kingston University

Join the Kingston UCU branch committee

Posted on 16 June 2022 by kingston

At our forthcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM) which will take place 11th August 2022, we will have elections for the branch committee.

Any member can stand for any role, and roles can be shared. Branch committee roles come with ‘Facilitiies Time’ funds which you can use to buy out teaching, in discussion with your line manager. You are additionally entitled to take time to attend national UCU training.

Below are the positions available (also accessible as a Committee Roles powerpoint file).You can also see which posts current holders are standing down from ‘Vacant Posts’). All positions are up for election. To find out more, email kingstonucu@gmail.com or talk to a current branch committee member in your School or Faculty.

Here is the Nomination Form to complete and send to returning officer Dr Fran Mackenzie (via email F.Mackenzie@kingston.ac.uk). The deadline for receipt of nominations is 17:00h on Friday 8^th July 2022.

We need to build a strong branch committee which reflects our membership and its range of experience and skills!

Equality Espresso! June 14th – 20th 2022, 10am daily Zoom

Posted on 13 June 2022 by kingston

During the marking & assessment boycott, we have been having daily meetings on Zoom to support one another in our current industrial actions. These informal meetings are really lively and supportive.

We would like to continue to use this forum to highlight and discuss equality issues at the University– which are all trade union issues – in an informal and accessible way. We are hoping members of our branch will share their personal experiences, ideas for the branch, perhaps art work, research in the area, and more!

We will start on Tuesday the 14^th of June 10am, discussing race equality and the associated pay gaps at Kingston University. Has any progress been made since we sent our 2020 Anti-Racism Recommendations to the VC?

On Wednesday the 15^th of June, we will discuss disability, the associated pay gap, and the issues staff have had with accessibility and accommodation of their needs.

On Thursday the 16^th of June, we will discuss gender equality and the associated pay gaps at Kingston University. We want to stress that this is not just for women – there are gender pay gaps for some men working in professional services, in particular. In addition, gender equality covers the whole spectrum.

On Friday the 17^th of June, we will discuss neurodiversity in the workplace and the issues staff have with accommodation of who they are.

On Monday the 20th of June we will finish off discussing LGBTQ+ topics for Pride Month! Nicola from our branch committee was an original member of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners – and she can say a few words about parallels between attacks on lesbians and gays in the 1980s and attacks on trans rights now.

Please come bring your thoughts and contributions to our Equality Espresso on Zoom at 10 a.m. all week.

If you would like to share a story anonymously with the group, you can contact the KU UCU Equality Officer, Lori Snyder, ahead of time on kingstonucu@gmail.com with ATTN Equality Officer in the subject line.

If anyone needs anything to enable their attendance in addition to what can be achieved with their set up on Zoom, please let us know – including if the 10 a.m. time does not work because we can look at repeating these events at another time in a future month.

In solidarity,

Kingston UCU branch committee

Updates & Good News

Posted on 26 May 2022 by kingston

Solidarity from the front line!

The Marking and Assessment Boycott is already having a big effect at Kingston and across the HE sector. Senior management are running scared.

Kingston’s senior leadership are putting out communications which are at best dubious, clearly designed to intimidate. All external examiners have been sent a threatening email demanding they confirm by today if they are participating in the boycott. This is despite the fact that external examination is not covered by the boycott. We have prepared a template message members can send to external examiners, so please use it wherever you can and need.

INFORMATION FOR LINE MANAGER MEMBERS

Following yesterday’s clarification about notification, a reminder that managers should only be asking about past/current participation in the boycott, not future intentions. Members who are line managers should also follow advice from UCU here: UCU members who are heads of department or managers

THE BOYCOTT IS WORKING

Further afield, boycott actions have already forced university senior management into negotiations on pensions and 3 of the Four Fights. Kingston’s senior leadership have also made minor concessions even before the boycott started. Students at Leeds University, where the Vice-Chancellor has refused to meet with UCU officers, have occupied management offices forcing the VC to speak with them. Ulster University locked out its UCU teaching staff by announcing 100% deductions for the boycott. After negative publicity and reputational damage, the university has now offered to negotiate locally, and staff are back working but still staying in the boycott. It’s working, even with comparatively few participating. It’s never too late to join in.

FINANCE
The central concerns remain around pay deductions and intimidation. We sent out guidance about giving notification of participating in the boycott yesterday. Do get in touch if you need further support.

We are addressing potential deductions very seriously, and our aim is to mitigate hardship and losses to a significant extent through:

Local hardship fund– share and donate!
Central hardship fund– this has received donations from £15 to £50k from branches with member levies – so all members can apply to this.
Twinning. We are linking up with 5 branches which didn’t reach the threshold for action or which aren’t acting in the boycott. This is a central plank of a cross-branch solidarity strategy initiated by Heriot-Watt UCU – see document here: The Heriot Watt Strategy 2022. This will be a source of financial, social, and political solidarity for us now, providing the foundations of more mutual aid in the dispute going forward.

We’re also pleased to announce RHUL-UCU passed a motion of support for Kingston UCU and agreed an initial donation of £500. We are grateful to RHUL-UCU, and look forward to further fundraising and solidarity activities with our twinned institutions, now also including KCL.

SUPPORTING/SUPPORT FROM STUDENTS

It is important to keep communicating with students about the boycott, including the support we can give them, and how they can support us by putting pressure on our senior leadership to resolve this dispute by entering into meaningful negotiations. Share the Kingston UCU letter to students about the boycott and the e-poster produced by student members of UCU and Kingston UCU branch committee (left).

Again, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any concerns or questions.

Good luck & solidarity,

Kingston UCU branch committee

Update on giving notification

Posted on 25 May 2022 by kingston

Kingston UCU Members will have received an email from HR late on Monday 23rd May requesting they complete an online form regarding participation in the marking & assessment boycott.

Pay deductions

Given the lack of clarity in the email, we are seeking urgent clarification from HR as to whether senior management are intending to impose 50% pay deductions, or 100% pay deductions with a “voluntary ex-gratia payment” equivalent to 50% of salary, as well as on the threat to withdraw any ex-gratia payment at any time.

A number of other aspects of what is both stated and not stated in the email need urgent clarification. We will update members as soon as we receive a response.

Notification

There are some misleading statements about UCU advice regarding notification of participation in action short of a strike (ASOS).

UCU guidance states: ‘If you are asked about whether you are participating in ASOS including the marking and assessment boycott, you should respond only in terms of what action you have taken/are currently taking, but not answer about future intentions regarding ASOS. This will mean that employers will need to keep checking for confirmation as to whether or not you have participated in ASOS and what forms of ASOS you have participated in and when. If you are asked directly whether you participated in ASOS in the past or are participating in it now (whatever the timeframe, be it last week, yesterday, or today) you should respond truthfully, but you should not declare your intentions regarding future action.’

You should answer a direct request for information about your current individual participation in ASOS truthfully. This does not require completing generic, blanket HR forms intended to undermine industrial action (which do not provide any information about the secure storage or retention schedule for the personal data collected, e.g. regarding trade union membership). You are under no obligation to notify your employer/manager in advance of starting action.

Financial support and solidarity available to members:

The UCU national Fighting Fund is available to all members subjected to 100% ASOS deductions as well for strike days.

We have also launched a local Kingston UCU hardship fund to supplement the national fund for those in particular need. Five other UCU branches, who didn’t pass the threshold to take action in the most recent ballot, are tabling motions to twin with us and provide direct financial support.

ASOS

We remind members that our current ASOS covers the following:

working to contract
not covering for absent colleagues
removing uploaded materials related to, and/or not sharing materials related to, lectures or classes that will be or have been cancelled as a result of strike action
not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action
not undertaking any voluntary activities; and
a marking and assessment boycott.

Find all information about the Marking & Assessment boycott here, including further detailed FAQs, as well as resources on our linktree, including an explainer to share with students.

For more news and updates join our discussion list: UCUKINGSTONDISCUSSION.

You can also join our regular support meetings, held daily on Zoom throughout the boycott period: Daily 10:00am on Zoom.

In solidarity,

Kingston UCU branch committee