Tag Archives: dispute

Press coverage of Kingston UCU strike 2021-2

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Regular strike updates are being posted on twitter and instagram – thanks to everyone for their support!

The River scooped the story of the UCU strike at Kingston with an article by Diego Evrard-Broquet. We’ve had some great conversations at the picket lines with other River writers, showing the strength and quality of teaching in the Department of Journalism, Publishing and Media despite job cuts this summer that have seen staff workloads increase.

Fantastic support from students was evident in a report by James Mayer for MyLondon: ‘London university students support lecturer strikes but say tuition fees are wasted’

International student Radhita Jain said:

“The strikes haven’t impacted us much, I think we just really want to support it. We spoke to our tutors and they said they aren’t being paid enough which is quite unfair granted that me being an international student is paying £16,400 for one year.”

Great student support was also evident in coverage by Danai Nesta Kupemba for the Kingston Courier: Video: Kingston University lecturers strike for better pay and working conditions

Philosophy student Will said:

“The strike attempts to call out systems that make it impossible to continue learning at this university and to do this we need to support our lecturers.”

The Kingston Courier also covered the second round of strike days in February – March 2022 in an article by Kieran Kelly: Kingston University UCU members engage in more strikes

Our Postgrad Rep, Nicola Field is quoted:

“We can see the terrible pressures that staff are under and the unbearable working conditions. They have unmanageable workloads and there are terrible discriminatory pay gaps against BAME, women and disabled staff. A huge number of university staff across the whole country are on insecure contracts, precarity is having an absolute crashing, destructive effect on the sector.”

The Courier‘s Ciaran Nerval covered our third round of strike action in March – April: Lecturers take strike action at Kingston University over pay rates and workload  

See the video with KU UCU members spelling out what our dispute it about:

Response to Email from HR Director & Strike Update

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  1. Response to email from Emily Boynton

29th November staff received an email from Emily Boynton, the current HR Director, on the topic of our upcoming actions (strike and ASOS).

The first thing to note is that you are under no obligation to complete the online form to let the university know that you are intending to take industrial action. The detail on pension contributions in the email is irrelevant and misleading. This is discussed explicitly in the UCU dispute FAQs:

Do I have to tell my employer that I am taking industrial action?

No. It is often the case that management will send out emails/letters demanding that you declare in advance whether you will be taking industrial action. This can have the effect of misleading and intimidating members, and will enable your employer to minimise any disruption. You are under no obligation to inform management in advance as to whether you will be taking part in strike action or action short of a strike. UCU will provide your employer with all the information about the action required by law including those categories of members who we are calling on to take action. Once you are back to work following the strike action, you should respond truthfully to any query from your employer as to whether you have taken or are taking industrial action. You should not, however, respond to any such query while you are on strike.

The online form circulated by Boynton also requests that we let the university know whether we will be participating in ASOS by working our contracted hours. The university should expect that all staff – UCU members and non-members – are working their contracted hours, except in exceptional circumstances. Consequently, we should not declare our intentions to participate in ASOS either as it can be seen as a reasonable and legally-justified means of ensuring our wellbeing and work-life balance.

  1. Petition for all strike deductions from salaries to be donated to student hardship fund

We will request that all strike deductions from salaries will be donated to the student hardship fund at Kingston University. LSE has already responded favourably to a response from its own local UCU branch. Therefore we are optimistic that our management will take a similar approach.

  1. Haven’t booked your picket slot yet? 

We are expecting all members to sign up to at least one three hour slot. Check inboxes for the link to the signup.If you can’t join us physically, please join us on the digital picket line this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from 10-11am at this link.

On strike days, we will have rallying points at the front of Penrhyn Road and the front of Knight’s Park at 10am and 1230pm so please do join us at either of those locations at those times.

  1. ASOS guidance

Action short of strike (working to contract) begins on December 1st. UCU central are putting on a series of briefings about ASOS and what it means in practice this week. Please see email from Jo Grady (29th November) for the sign-up links. The branch will circulate further guidance on ASOS in the coming days.

Strike action starts next week

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Members can find all the key information and resources on Kingston UCU linktree –  including strike explainer documents which you can share with your students, social media graphics etc.

There is a useful FAQs about taking strike action on the UCU website.

Check inboxes for links to sign up to pickets – see you on the picket line!

Four Fights ballot result: Kingston staff vote for industrial action

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Our branch has achieved a phenomenal 60% turnout in the national Four Fights ballot over over unsafe workloads, casualisation, pay deflation, and the gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps. This was in spite of the incredibly short ballot period and issues with missing ballot papers, and is a huge increase on our turnout of 32% in the last ballot in 2019.
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92% of members endorsed some form of action, with 70% voting in favour of strike action and 92% in favour of action short of strike.
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We will be talking through what this means at our branch meeting Wednesday 10th November 1-3pm on Zoom, with our discussion feeding into a national delegates meeting before the UCU Higher Education Committee convenes on Friday 12th. Please come along if you can. Check inboxes for links.
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Thank you to everyone who voted and all those departmental contacts and activists who helped out with the Get the Vote Out campaign

Updates on Four Fights dispute ballot

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Ballots have gone out and should be returned as soon as possible. To order a replacement ballot use this online ballot replacement request form. You must order your replacement by 5pm Thursday 28th October.

Members of the Kingston UCU branch committee have made a video explainer about how the Four Fights on pay and conditions relate to the situation staff face at Kingston.

We’ve also been posting about each of the Four Fights and why #KingstonStaffHaveHadEnough on twitter and instagram.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve had great support from Kingston students, who have produced their own posters. We’ve also made a flyer explaining the dispute to students that can be shared.

To help us get the vote out at Kingston and pass the legal threshold of 50%+ members voting, please

If you have questions about either the ballot or the Four Fights dispute, please Contact Us and / or see these FAQs:

Branch Newsletter: October 2021

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The latest Kingston UCU branch newsletter is available with updates on:

  • Upcoming ballot on industrial action over pay, conditions and equality
  • How the dispute relates to issues faced at Kingston
  • Health & Safety and return to campus
  • Why Kingston Politics courses must be reopened, and other issues.

Kingston UCU newsletter October 2021

Please get in touch with any responses, feedback or items for future newsletters.

UCU ballot on industrial action briefing

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This is the first of two briefings taking place on the 5th October. You can attend either, depending on your availability​​.

Kingston UCU members will have received communication from UCU central that we will, from the 18th of October, be balloting for industrial action on pay and pay-related issues. The purpose of this meeting will be to describe the campaign and the issues involved, both at the local level of Kingston University, and more broadly across the sector.

The event will take place on Zoom, please check inboxes for the link. See you there

Updates on the fight to #SaveKingstonUni

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Kingston staff have told local journalists at the Surrey Comet about how devastated and horrified they are by the neglect and indifference of management, whose catalogue of poor decisions have directly damaged the courses being closed, and who are refusing to set out what cuts to actual jobs they are proposing and what this will mean for students and staff who remain.

Professional associations have denounced the course closures including the Royal Historical Society, History UK, the Society for the Study of Labour History, the Political Studies Association, the British International Studies Association, and the Association for Contemporary European Studies. They have highlighted how the closure of these courses at universities like Kingston with many first-generation students and a high proportion of BAME,commuting and local students, limits access and participation and damages democracy.

The student-led campaigns #SaveKingstonUni and #SaveKUPolitics continue on apace, but the VC has refused to meet with students.

Over 500 supporters have signed the petition to stop the cuts at Kingston. Numerous UCU branches have shared their support online and at solidarity meetings.

These cuts are part of attacks across our sector on the arts, humanities and social sciences, London South Bank, Chester, Leicester, Aston and Sheffield are facing similar cuts. But there are also cuts in health and life sciences – Liverpool have started 3 weeks of strike action against redundancies (donate to their strike fund here: ww.ulivucunews.org.uk/hardship-fund) This is an ideological attack on higher education.

The only way management will back down if you, your co-workers and fellow students make them.

How you can stop the cuts at Kingston:

  • Sign the petition and share it with everyone in your department / course / school.
  • Share it on social media with #SaveKingstonUni #savekupolitics #savekuhistory #savekumedia #savekufilm
  • Support the campaigns on Twitter: @kingstonucu @uni_kingston @savekupolitics. Instagram: @savekingstonuni @savekupolitics @kingstonucu
  • Write to the VC and Board of Governors using the template letter
  • Come to meetings like the UCU Solidarity Network Organising to Win – Support the Disputes! rally 6pm 27th May Register:
  • Come to branch meetings – keep an eye on inboxes for details

KU UCU’s response to KSA Stage 1 dispute hearing outcome

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In January we wrote to senior management over a recorded failure to agree, in accordance with the Collective Disputes Procedure and entered into a Stage 1 dispute with the University over its handling of the potential job losses in KSA, among other issues.

A formal Stage 1 meeting was held on 18th February, chaired by Dean of the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Computing / Pro Vice-Chancellor David Mackintosh. We received a letter stating the outcome of the meeting from David Mackintosh, which members can read here: Management Letter Outcome_Stage_1_210220

As far as the University is concerned, this dispute is now closed and we are unable to progress to Stage 2 of this process. However, we have serious issues with the way in which this process was handled. We dispute the university’s own judgement of the outcome of the Stage 1 (Resolution meeting) as set out in the letter.

We maintain that Kingston UCU branch has NOT been involved in any meaningful consultation or negotiation about the extent of the debt in KSA, its origins, the impact on remaining overworked staff, the future shape of KSA currently being determined by a Portfolio Review or the timing or potential for any future job losses.

You can read our full response to the outcome letter, here formulated by the Kingston UCU branch at the branch meeting on the 18th February: Response to dispute 6 March_. We believe:

  • the meeting was not impartial (the chair was partial)
  • HR should not have been providing the management response
  • there has been a failure to negotiate
  • there has been a failure to consult
  • there has been a failure to provide information
  • there are holes in the management case (as noted in our timeline documentation)
  • current management timelines related to KSA jobs reveal a continued lack of negotiation and consultation with recognised trade unions

Increasingly, it’s our opinion that, regrettably, management uses their notion of “consultation and negotiation” as a tick-box exercise to give legitimacy to decisions already made in the absence of informed input and scrutiny from the experts on the ground – hardworking academic staff. Whilst UCU values its relationship with KU management and our HR colleagues and the opportunity to negotiate and consult on behalf of our members, we are no longer prepared for that relationship to be abused in the plainly unsatisfactory manner outlined above.