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.

Press release: Kingston UCU members to take industrial action from 1 December

Posted on 30 November 2021 by kingston

2021-11-30 Press release Kingston UCU members to take industrial action from Dec 1-3 FINAL

Strike action starts next week

Posted on 26 November 2021 by kingston

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

Posted on 7 November 2021 by kingston

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.

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.

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.

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

Posted on 24 October 2021 by kingston

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

Talk to colleagues in your department, school and faculty about the ballot and dispute
If they are members remind them to vote! If they are not members, if they join by 27th October they can vote.
Put posters up in your offices. Download KU-specific posters and flyer here, or use UCU general resources.
Post on social media about the ballot. Tweet at and retweet from @kingstonucu. Use the UCU social media resources.

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

Ballot on industrial action over Four Fights dispute opens

Posted on 18 October 2021 by kingston

Kingston UCU members will be balloted from Monday 18th October to Thursday 4th November on the Four Fights dispute over unsafe workloads, casualisation, pay deflation, and the gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps.

See here for more information about what the dispute is about and how these issues relate to staff at Kingston.

See here for details of how to cast your vote and why it is so important (we need 50% of the membership to vote for it to count!)

We will contacting members to remind them to vote and answer any questions they have. Contact us or talk to a member of the branch committee in your faculty.

Help get the vote out and make it count! Talk to members in your department about the dispute and remind them to vote. Download posters here and put them up in your office.

We are at breaking point.

Vote YES and send the message to management: Kingston staff have had enough

Branch Newsletter: October 2021

Posted on 5 October 2021 by kingston

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

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

Mental Health Awareness

Posted on 5 March 2021 by kingston

Mental health is a critical issue for university students and staff and an existing crisis exacerbated by the Coronavirus pandemic. It is a health and safety issue – employers should take preventative steps to guard against any long-term negative health implications of employment including stress.

Continue reading →