Local press coverage of Kingston UCU Athena Swan boycott

Posted on 16 April 2022 by kingston

Our local boycott of Athena Swan activities over our complete loss of faith in Kingston University’s commitments to gender equality and support for parents and carers has been covered in an article by Miranda Dunne in the Kingston Courier: Kingston Union launches boycott of ‘tick box’ gender equality charter

We have written to the Courier and the leader of Kingston Council highlighting errors in the statement made by a university spokerperson in this article – this boycott is independent of our current industrial action, and that action is over Four Fights related to pay and conditions, not just the 2021-2 pay offer.

Four Fights Ballot results: KU UCU smashes threshold again and members vote strongly for further strike action

Posted on 16 April 2022 by kingston

In the recent ballot over renewing our mandate for strike action and action short of a strike (ASOS) in the Four Fights dispute, Kingston UCU once again smashed the anti-union threshold, with 59% of members voting. The results were also again emphatically in favour of continuing our industrial action, with 71% voting for strike action and 85% for action short of a strike.

In total 39 UCU branches will have a mandate for strike action running until October 2022 and 41 for ASOS, with the national vote closely matching our local one. The next steps are to take our branches’ views to the a special higher education sector conference on April 20th.

We are holding a branch meeting 19th April 11am online to gather Kingston UCU members opinions and ideas for the delegates from our branch to bring to the special conference. See inboxes for the Teams link.

Kingston UCU launches boycott of Athena Swan activities

Posted on 18 March 2022 by kingston

With regret, Kingston University UCU are calling for all members and colleagues to implement an immediate boycott of all activities related to Athena Swan accreditations within Kingston University.

While the union supports the principles of the Athena Swan programme nationally, and recognises the hard work of colleagues engaging with the programme locally, we have completely lost faith in the University’s commitment to pledges made under the Athena Swan banner and in their wider commitment to gender equality, and support for parents and carers.

Among the significant, serious, and longstanding concerns Kingston University UCU has, are:

Failures to seriously tackle sexual misconduct and violence, and put in place adequate safeguarding measures.
Poor treatment and refusals of reasonable requests for flexible working from staff with caring responsibilities.
Staff on maternity leave being made redundant.
Minimal Paternity Leave
Inequality in Promotion and Pay

We have drawn up a set of demands that Kingston University can agree to in order for the boycott to be lifted. Read these demands and find further information about these issues on our website here: https://kingston.web.ucu.org.uk/athena-swan-boycott/

Our current working-to-contract as part of Action Short of a Strike means members should not be undertaking additional voluntary duties such as sitting on charter mark committees (this has revealed how much vital work on equalities is done without proper workload time allocation, creating barriers to involvement for those who are unable to consistently work additional unpaid hours).

Although it closely relates to our national Four Fights dispute, this boycott is a separate local campaign. We expect members to adhere to the boycott until our demands our met and Kingston University commits, within an agreed timeframe, to take meaningful action to address these issues.

Please contact us with any queries and get involved in this campaign and other branch activity.

Ballot opens today 16th March, ends 8th April. Vote Early and Vote YES

Posted on 16 March 2022 by kingston

From 16th March Kingston UCU members are being balloted on extending industrial action over our Four Fights beyond the current remit which ends in May.

The ballot ends 5pm Friday 8th April.

Members will get posted a ballot paper with a prepaid envelope for returning your vote. To check the address your ballot is being sent to, go to www.ucu.org.uk/myucu . If you need to order a replacement ballot papers, please email us at kingstonucu@gmail.com Get your vote in the post as soon as you can – don’t leave it to the last minute!

Why it is important to vote?

2016 Conservative legislation put additional restrictions on trade unions trying to take industrial action including a 50% turnout threshold. 50% members must vote for it to count. This means if you don’t vote, you don’t just silence yourself, you stop the voices of other members being heard.

What is the vote about?

It’s over whether to extend our action over the Four Fights dispute: unsafe workload, pay inequality, insecure jobs & shrinking pay.

A renewed mandate would allow us to continue and escalate our action, e.g. to a marking boycott, putting more pressure on employers to negotiate over our demands and resolve this dispute.

How to vote?

We recommend voting YES to strike action and YES to action short of a strike.

These issues aren’t going away, they’re getting worse. We either act, or we accept. Let’s fight to win!

Further strike days: 28th March – 1st April 2022

Posted on 15 March 2022 by kingston

Kingston UCU members, along with staff at 68 universities across the UK, will be taking further days of strike action in our Four Fights dispute over spiralling workloads, shrinking pay, insecure contracts and pay inequality.

We are going back out on strike for five more days from 28th March to 1st April 2022

Join us for a Festival of Resistance 11am – 1pm every day outside Penrhyn Road and Knights Park main entrances with music, art, games, food, dance, performance, speeches and more, as well as more teach-outs.

If staff, students, staff networks, student groups or external organisations would like to be a part of this festival please email us at kingstonucu@gmail.com or DM us on twitter or instagram @kingstonucu

If you would like to run a teach-out please fill out this form with them. For more information see What is a Teach-out?

It is not too late for the employers to work with us to seek a resolution to these disputes. There is still time to negotiate and end the action.

UCU members are determined to continue our action until long-term and lasting solutions can be found.

Students vote overwhelmingly for Union of Kingston Students to support strike action

Posted on 13 February 2022 by kingston

From Monday 7th February to Wednesday 9th February, all Kingston University students were invited by Union of Kingston Students to vote in a referendum that asked the question: “Should the Students’ Union support UCU’s upcoming strike?”

The result was a resounding YES – 82% of students were in support and 18% against.

A minimum turnout of 500 was needed for the result to be valid – this threshold was smashed with a whopping 1,286 students voting. The Union of Kingston Students will be following this up with a series of actions (which you can read about here).

This is a resounding and historic success for our Kingston community. It is clear that Kingston students are with us in this fight for better working (and learning) conditions and that any attempts to pit students against staff will likely be unsuccessful.

Why Kingston students should support striking staff

Posted on 6 February 2022 by kingston

A message from Nicola Field
Kingston UCU Postgraduate Student Representative

Strike action is a last resort. We can all see that teaching staff have been pushed to breaking point by unsafe workloads, inequality, insecure contracts, and shrinking pay. It is in the gift of university Vice Chancellors to address these issues and end this strike. But so far they’ve been intransigent, they won’t negotiate with our branch representatives but instead gaslight them over these issues. So lecturers are being forced to ramp up the pressure to make themselves heard, with more days of strike action.

Students have a right to be angry about this disruption and to demand money back. That anger needs to be directed at those responsible – the employers who have pushed things to this, who seemingly don’t care that staff are sick with stress, struggling to get by, and treated unequally – and who won’t commit to meaningful action to address this situation.

Staff and students are on the same side. Like the NUS, UCU members want students to receive a high quality, inclusive, empowering education. If the staff who teach and support them are overworked to the point of burnout, on temporary insecure contracts, underpaid and treated in a discriminatory way, then students are being let down and deserve better. Student support for UCU industrial action so far has been fantastic – visiting their picket lines, joining teach outs, making posters and placards, discussing what our vision for fair and equal education looks like.

Staff are striking this time on February 21, 22, 28 and March 1 & 2.

March 2 will also be the day of the NUS Student Strike for Education, when we will all strike together to demand fully-funded, accessible, lifelong, democratic education for all.

Students’ voices and the students’ union are often listened to much more than staff and staff unions. If we unite and stand together, we can make a better university and better higher education system.

See you on the picket lines!
You will be very welcome to help us make banners and posters – and eat our cakes!

Solidarity to all Kingston staff and students.

More strike days announced

Posted on 30 January 2022 by kingston

(Photo credit: Diego Evrard-Broquet for The River KU lecturers taking industrial action)

Kingston UCU members, along with staff at 68 universities across the UK, will take further strike action in our dispute with our employers over spiralling workloads, shrinking pay, insecure contracts and pay inequality.

We are going back out on strike on 21st – 22nd February, and 28th February – 2nd March 2022.

These strike days will overlap with strike days at other institutions over changes to the USS pension scheme taking place 14th – 18th and 21st – 22nd February, and the NUS student strike on Wednesday 2 March calling for higher and further education to be free at the point of use for students and for staff to get better working conditions, pay and pensions.

Further industrial action may follow including rolling regional and UK-wide strike action and a nation-wide marking and assessment boycott.

See you on the picket line.

Kingston UCU demand pay deductions from strike action be donated to student hardship fund

Posted on 16 January 2022 by kingston

Kingston UCU have written to senior management to demand, in conjunction with Union of Kingston Students, that any money deducted from staff salaries as a result of taking strike action in December 2021, be donated to the student hardship fund. Other universities, such as Essex, UCL, and LSE, have agreed to do this.

Here is a copy of the letter:

Dear Helen,

We write to you in your capacity as chair of the JNCC at Kingston University and ask that you disseminate this communication to the wider Senior Management Team.

We are disappointed to learn that the university has chosen to take the unsupportive and punitive action of making deductions from the salaries of staff who declared themselves to have taken part in strike action in December 2021. The UCU national Four Fights campaign highlights the issues of excessive workload, casualisation, inequality and pay deflation, all of which are extremely pertinent to Kingston staff.

While we acknowledge that the employer is within their rights in taking this action, it is disheartening and demoralising that the current university leadership have carried out their threat to deduct payment from hard working staff, the majority of whom regularly work longer than contracted hours carrying out unpaid work from which the university benefits greatly. All this at a time when senior management are actively working towards awarding themselves pay increases. It is a further demonstration of the callous and uncaring attitude that senior management repeatedly display towards staff at Kingston and is detrimental to the continually deteriorating relationship between senior management and staff as evidenced by the recent staff survey.

Therefore, in conjunction with the Union of Kingston Students, we demand that the total sum of salaries deducted (and other cost savings incurred by KU such as pension and NI contributions) be made public and the equivalent sum be donated to the student hardship fund.

Rosie McNiece

KU UCU Vice-chair

on behalf of KU UCU branch committee