Vicky Blake UCU @vickyblake.bsky.social
@zenscara
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She/Her Widening Participation professional RT=/= endorsement @UCU NEC | @LeedsUCU Hon Sec | @UCUYorksHumber HE Chair | @UCU_ARPS | @UCUwomen | @Abortion_Rights
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Joined April 2009
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Pinned Tweet
I congratulate and wish our
@UCU
General Secretary well. I want to send my thanks to everyone who supported my campaign, & to the other candidates for fighting the election in a spirit which has allowed us to debate the future of our union properly
(1/2)
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I was assaulted on a train. Guard & other crew kept me safe&called BTP. Ticket office staff took me into office so ppl travelling with man who assaulted me couldn't follow. They got me a hotel because I couldn't travel the remainder of my journey that night. Solidarity
@RMTunion
Unswerving support for
@RMTunion
members striking for decent wages terms & conditions.
And a safe and accessible railway network.
#SaveOurStations
#SaveOurTicketOffices
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Solidarity each and every
@ucu
member out on
#UCUstrike
today.
We don’t do this lightly. We strike because everyone deserves a decent pension and ours should not be cut by 35% when we have demonstrated there *are* alternatives.
Listen up VCs and senior teams!
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
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Pleased to announce that we will be meeting with UUK today. With thanks to every single striker and picketer, our action is effective! ✊❤️
#UCUStrike
#UCUStrikesBack
We will be meeting with
@USSEmployers
this afternoon, after the strikes brought them back to the table. We hope they will now seriously engage with us and we can start discussing how we move forward.
#UCUStrike
#UCUStrikesBack
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474
1K
6
155
545
Just out of negotiations with UUK over
#USS
. Talks were constructive + we are meeting again on Friday.
The pressure is firmly on UCEA and UUK to move.
*Every single striking
@UCU
member strengthens us in negotiations*
#UCUStrikesBack
#UCUStrike
#UnionStrong
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191
490
We ARE NOT going away.
We are exhausted, and angry, and we are PASSIONATE about education.
Working conditions are learning conditions! And they must change.
Massive
@ucu
march!!
#UCUStrike
#UCUstrikesback
#UCUStrikes
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
[Video running the length of the march]
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125
419
*best kept secret*
I'm running to be the next General Secretary of UCU
I’ve spent the last 14 years of my life active in the union & believe I have the experience & understanding to build a stronger UCU that represents the interests of all our members
1/2
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The PA has broken - so we have made a people’s PA — human microphone where people near the speakers repeat each line to the rest of the crowd!
#leeds
#defendourdemocracy
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I wrote here about how and why I voted as I did at the 17 March HEC on
#ucuRISING
disputes
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🚨Employers agree more negotiations!
✊HOLD + GROW THE LINE‼️✊
Tues pm:
#fourfights
(UCEA)
UUK
#USS
meeting this week too PLUS further valuation methodology meeting tomorrow (Mon)
📢This is huge + historic📢
Keep going! Pickets power negotiators!
#UCUStrikes
#UCUStrikesBack
Heading into third week of strikes as determined as I was day one. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to reset the mess that HE has become.
#uss
#ucu
#UCUstrikesback
#ucustrikes
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@JosephineCumbo
We've been very consistent & clear: 2020 valuation was conducted at a wholly inappropriate time. JEP also disgracefully ignored. We've been subjected to widespread attempts at corporate gaslighting & misrepresentation from USS + UUK. Assault on our pensions completely unjustified
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Yesterday 4 JNCHES (
#FourFights
) negotiators and
@UCU
's Head of HE met UCEA. That UCEA met us is down to the strength of our ballot results + absolutely massive strike action currently underway. We need to *hold the line* and *grow* this action: it's *effective* /1
#UCUstrike
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The Pause, and UCU decision-making: I wrote about rules, policy, procedure, and experience here - and my take on decision-making around the pause to strike action.
#ucuRISING
#UCUstrike
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Look who’s at the
@UCUSOAS
picket line today! Amazing solidarity with
@ucu
from
@johnmcdonnellMP
who has been touring
#UCUStrikes
picket lines.
✊The message is clear: we CAN win. Hold and grow the line!✊
This is a fight for education and for decency! ✊💕
#UCUStrikesBack
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News of students admitted to hospital, including ICU, with coronavirus. Staff + students falling sick all over the UK. Long term effects being described as 'this generation's polio'... Still our bosses want us to accept their disgusting lack of leadership? No. NO.
#moveonlinenow
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@CHavergalTHE
@UniversitiesUK
@ucu
Reasonable onlookers who actually engage with the facts will conclude the employers' representatives have an ideological fixation with ignoring lived reality of staff in the sector, and are determined to ignore the unions and dodge proper negotiations, no matter the human cost
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🚨We met UCEA today for further constructive progress in
#FourFights
talks and these talks will continue.
👀Watch this space! And keep up the action - it's working! ✊
‼️Tomorrow: we meet UUK for more talks on
#USS
!
#UCUStrikes
#UCUStrikesBack
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We *have* to do all we can to ensure casualised workers get paid whether work is cancelled / they have to distance/self isolate. Cannot get out of my head how bad this will be for hourly paid + zero hours workers; self-employed indies will struggle a lot too.
#Covid19
#Precarity
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🚨
#UCUStrikesBack
update: we meet UUK for further dispute negotiations *tomorrow*
The harder we strike, the stronger our leverage (though strike action should *not* be needed + it's a disgrace that it is)
✊Stand with us! Hold + grow those picket lines!✊
#USS
#UCUstrikes
/1
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94
223
Solidarity with the beautiful
@RMTunion
- what a gorgeous sound. Love brass bands, love the RMT!
🪧🪧🪧✊🏼✊🏽✊🏿✊🏾🪧🪧🪧
@The_TUC
We
#DemandBetter
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We are marching!
#Liverpool
#UCUstrike
[Video of the length of the march coming down road, awash with placards, beanies, flags, drums and people chanting. Other unions and campaign groups including GMB, CWU, Unison strikers have joined]
@ucu
@nw_ucu
#ucuRISING
#EnoughIsEnough
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✅As ballot papers arrive, vote yes to keep the pressure on!
✉️Post Your Vote and why not have a listen to this👇while you're at it 🎵
🎶(Maybe that should say 'AB-BAllot papers'? 🤩)
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#FourFights
#UCUstrikes
#USSmess
#UCUStrike
@ucu
@ucu_solidarity
@_RyanBurns
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🚨UPDATE from negotiations with UCEA today:
UCEA and
@UCU
met today and held constructive discussions on the dispute on pay and related matters. Talks are ongoing.
#UCUStrike
#UCUStrikesBack
#UnionStrong
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We need urgent clarification
@ucu
: is ASOS also “paused”?
UCEA comms refer to “industrial action” ie broader than “strike” per UCU comms.
We need to reassure & support members that they should not now work all wknd to prep for next week. Urgent clarity needed re rescheduling too.
🚨BREAKING: YOU DID IT!
We have agreed a two week period of calm after breakthroughs in talks covering:
- pensions
- ending zero hour contracts
- ending casualisation
- tackling workload
- pay
Watch and RT
#ucuRISING
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1K
3K
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The Higher Ed Committee meets this Friday where we will discuss + decide next steps to escalate
#USS
&
#FourFights
We can win. We are in a fight we didn’t start, which our employers have the power to resolve.
Remember that, get angry, organise.
/1
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#UCUstrikes
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As we head into negotiations with UCEA later this morning, a little reminder that we are not asking for the moon. We are fighting for decent working conditions and fair pay
#fourfights
#UCUstrike
#UCUstrikesback
🚨
#FourFights
Negotiators' FAQ is *up*!
This is a key moment for
@UCU
and for
#highereducation
We are negotiating hard.
We *want* an agreement - one employers will respect.
The negotiating team is united.
Together we can win:
✊Build the action!✊
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@AAWoodfields
@MrDavidScales
This is disgraceful & ableist, not to mention logistically silly for EVERYONE to use the loos in breaks. Plenty of research on this to tell you your policy is bad, but it should be obvious. Periods, IBS, cystitis, and just plain needing the loo don’t operate on your schedule.
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📢GOOD MORNING
@UCU
!!
❣️We deserve decency at work + in retirement
⚠️Our bosses are betraying us
🪧
#UCUstrike
is even BIGGER this week! We’re out on both
#FourFights
+
#USSmess
3D & virtual picket lines
🪧🪧🪧🪧🪧🪧🪧🪧🪧🪧
🚨HOLD THE LINE‼️
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
✊🏼✊🏿✊🏽✊🏻✊🏾
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F*cking “guidance for employers” my actual arse. People everywhere freaking out about *how* to go to work tmw after that. Try RIGHTS, try OBLIGING EMPLOYERS TO OBSERVE THEM. Try PROTECTIONS, try ACTUALLY LISTENING TO TRADE UNIONS. Try also REALISING THIS IS NOT SAFE! Disgraceful
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Extremely clear explanation of the disgraceful, dangerous abuse of process & power by the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation & Technology, from
@TanjaBueltmann
Interesting that
#Newsnight
also exposed the link between the Policy Exchange think tank & Donelan as a minister
‘I’m very concerned about the individual singling out of academics by a Secretary of State’
Prof
@TanjaBueltmann
on the Science Sec’s criticism of some academics expressing what Michelle Donelan described as ‘extremist views’ abt unfolding events in the Middle East
#Newsnight
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Mighty Leeds! MASSIVE turnout on pickets, march HUGE, rallies at start & end ENORMOUS!
Well and truly,
#EnoughIsEnough
!
@leedsucu
@UoLUnison
@LeedsUniUnite
@leedsbeckettucu
@LeedsBeckUnison
@UCULeedsTrinity
@UCULeedsart
@UCUYorksHumber
@ucu
@unisonyorksuni
@UniteNEYH
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💜💕THE GLORIOUS SIGHT OF TWO UNIONS ON STRIKE TOGETHER JN THE MORNING‼️‼️
@UoLUnison
💚💜💗
@leedsucu
standing together for staff and students because:
📢 Staff working conditions = students’ learning conditions
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#UCUstrike
#UnisonStrike
@ucu
1
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And today we walk OUT!
150 universities, huge mandate, because
#EnoughIsEnough
!
We demand decency at work, and in retirement!
Heads up high everyone
#FairPayInHE
#SecureWork
#Equality
#DefendUSS
#WeReWorthMore
#ucuRISING
#UnionStrong
@ucu
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45
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Incredible turnout + weather gods smiling on
@ULivUCU2
today, on strike defending livelihoods of members who give their all to this uni community
This campaign has saved 45 of 47 jobs already. Inspirational campaigning + organising, solidarity builds power!
#FightForHealthJobs
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Blown away by incredible
@ULivUCU2
strike committee just now - they’re meeting daily in their hundreds, each and every one committed to saving jobs, standing up for education and supporting each other. This is what solidarity looks like. 💕✊🏽✊🏾✊🏻✊🏿💕
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5+ years of industrial action to
#DefendUSS
Striking in blizzards & rain
Lengthy, painstaking (painful!) negotiations
As a former SWG chair & negotiator: members won this through successive ballot mandates & hard hitting action that backed negotiators to the hilt
#UnionStrong
1
55
183
@sabstweets_
Also noticing calorie counts being “promoted” where in fact shrinkflation is being applied and you’re getting less snack for your £. Chocolate bars and bags of crisps “under 200 cals” - my history with food issues and cal counting tells me we are now being swizzed!
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4
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We smashed it! Solid week of
#UCUstrike
over
#USSmess
!
Through rain, wind, sunshine & shameful behaviour from UUK + UCEA, we prevail
💜💕In Solidarity, Forever!💕💜
Next week we ramp pressure UP with branches out over
#USS
AND
#FourFights
dispute
#NeverCrossAPicketLine
@ucu
4
44
183
Massive thank you to everyone who has supported my election campaign&sent congrats. I found out in a meeting with all 3 campus unions + HR, went straight into chairing
@leedsucu
committee so not had a chance to respond to everybody yet. I will put everything I have into the role
23
7
183
Several journalists have asked me today whether we could have "shown our disagreement in other ways" vis a vis the
#UCUstrike
. The point is, we have been doing just that, relentlessly! Striking is not done on a whim. It needs to have impact to shake our employers awake + to act.
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61
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Solidarity to all fellow strikers today.
We all deserve a fair deal, decent working conditions, decent, equitable treatment, secure work, safe workload, a decent pension. All of us.
On way to UCU NEC & HEC meetings thankful to everyone who’s contacted us
#ucuRISING
#UCUstrike
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26
173
The marketisation of higher education has failed students & staff. It has led to exactly this situation: senior leaders spent summer spinning impossible, fictitious notions of “covid safe” campuses + “student experience” over proper planning + consultation to keep us all safe ⬇️
UK universities accused of keeping students at all costs until after fee deadline
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🚨✊Confirmed negotiations today + tomorrow‼️
📢This afternoon:
#FourFights
with UCEA
📢Tomorrow afternoon:
#USS
with UUK
More info soon. Keep making noise! Power to the pickets!
✊We take all of you with us into the negotiating room!✊
#UCUStrikesBack
#UCUStrikes
🚨Employers agree more negotiations!
✊HOLD + GROW THE LINE‼️✊
Tues pm:
#fourfights
(UCEA)
UUK
#USS
meeting this week too PLUS further valuation methodology meeting tomorrow (Mon)
📢This is huge + historic📢
Keep going! Pickets power negotiators!
#UCUStrikes
#UCUStrikesBack
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0
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SCENES!!! Incredible
@leedsucu
picketing again today and humongous march!
#UCUstrike
#UCUStrikesBack
#8DaysStrong
@ucu
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📢GOOD MORNING PICKETERS!📢
✊🏽✊🏾✊🏻✊🏿
🪧We are determined, we are mighty, we are
@leedsucu
@ucu
!🪧
✊🏿✊🏻✊🏾✊🏼
#UCUstrikes
Day 1!
#USS
#FourFights
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
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Ahem.
💥APPROX 1200 PEOPLE MARCHED + RALLIED IN LEEDS TODAY!💥
Stellar organising by
@SSSLeeds
w special thanks to Sharifah R who sent these EPIC pics! Wish could have been 2 places at once!
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
@ucu
@leedsucu
@UCUYorksHumber
#UCUstrike
#UnisonStrike
#StudentStrike
2
50
159
“I’ve looked at your workload plans and I just don’t know how you are all functioning… It is the employers’ fault that you have to strike”
- A student at the
@BrookesUCU
teach-out nails the dangers of unsafe workloads
#UCUstrike
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
@ucu
#overwork
#FourFights
0
54
158
You know a strike is *absolutely massive* when you don't have a hope of 'catching up' with all the photos -- absolutely incredible work all around the UK,
@UCU
members and staff!
#EnoughIsEnough
#ucuRISING
#UCUstrike
#UnionStrong
2
24
157
It’s been such a privilege to serve members as
@ucu
President.
We face huge challenges, but we can be the strong and confident union all our members need.
The presidential address I gave at
#UCUCongress2022
today ⬇️
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32
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Shout out every single union branch officer + rep bargaining + battling to protect not just members, but *everyone* as we push employers to take proper safety measures to protect our health + safety *and* push for separate
#COVID19
leave + full pay for all. Hard. But this matters
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The UK Home Office has *denied a visa* to the six year old daughter of a Kenyan academic expert working at Bristol University.
This appalling cruel decision must be reversed.
End the hostile environment!
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When VCs & senior managers dismiss serious, very real concerns about dangerous workloads
When they attack our dignity, our livelihoods in retirement
When they gaslight about precarity & inequality
While they exploit & pretend our pay hasn't eroded; ...
We
#UCUstrike
✊🏾✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻
0
49
146
🚨Strike pay is NOT a bribe‼️
Strike = lose ALL pay those days
“Strike pay” = contribution funded by union subs (£ paid by members) + fundraising to help keep strikers who need it above water
It is usually BELOW pay lost + CANNOT be more than pay lost!
📢Victory to
@RMTunion
!
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25
144
🚨🪧
#UCUstrike
alert!
💜💕💜💕💜💕💜💕💜💕
Show some love to
@oubucu
who have members on
#UCUstrike
today too in recognition of their regular Saturday pattern!
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#UCUstrikes
@ucu
1
49
144
Everybody OUT!
Merry Strikemas
#ucuRISING
Striking is the most powerful backing we can give our
@UCU
negotiators today!
#UnionStrong
and proud here at
@leedsucu
striking alongside
@LeedsUniUnite
@UoLUnison
supported by
@LeedsUniUnion
@SSSLeeds
!
#EnoughIsEnough
#FairPayNow
2
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⁉️Why are we on
#UCUstrike
?
💜For the heart & soul of HE
💗For basic decency, dignity & respect at work now + in retirement
🚨This
@ucu
report⬇️ shows 2/3 staff are considering leaving our sector - senior “leaders” are FAILING students + staff
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142
📢💥GOOD MORNING
#UCUstrike
-rs & supporters!
🧐Lots of WELLBEING chat from employers so let’s recall one of the
#FourFights
is SAFE WORKLOAD…
~80% staff often or always working v intensively
~Significant reported unpaid hours
>50% staff signs of depression
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
1
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💜Incredible way to spend my 40th birthday alongside striking colleagues in
@leedsucu
and
@UoLUnison
fighting for basic decency in our working conditions and students’ learning conditions, and in retirement!💗
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#UCUstrike
#UnisonStrike
@ucu
@UNISONinHE
5
21
137
#UEA
VC has just resigned. Significant given many questions senior management at UEA should be answering and accountable for. Our fellow
@ucu
members at
@UEA_UCU
need all our strong support to fight for jobs, for education, for accountability. Stand up for UEA staff & students!
What's happening at
#UEA
is going to hurt the region.
"...there are questions for management now about how they handled this and why we are in a situation where we are at UEA..."
@labourlewis
in the news today
#DontDestroyUEA
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45
137
*Right now* UCEA are consulting university leaders on what might be offered to solve the dispute. A written response is promised early next week. Hold the line! *GROW* the line: know that physical and digital/virtual picket lines *do* collectively strengthen our hand
#UCUstrike
/3
4
65
137
No evidence found for the allegations made on this site by a Secretary of State, which was widely reprinted in mainstream media. This investigation has taken an inordinately long time exacerbating extreme levels of stress for those accused - apologies are due, at minimum.
We commissioned an independent investigation in response to an open letter from the Secretary of State about
@ResearchEngland
’s EDI advisory group. Today we are releasing the outcome of that investigation, with thanks to all involved for their patience:
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2
70
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4 Fights ballot result (42.59% turnout, short of 50% required by anti union laws) is a disappointing, difficult blow for us
@UCU
Firstly, we owe a massive *thank you* to all the activists who put in enormous amounts of work to get the vote out in very tough circumstances. /1
4
53
135
If you see me in person at a thing & it's indoors, or outside but crowded, I will be wearing a PPE grade mask. Indoors I will most likely have an air purifier with me. These mitigations are not guaranteed (especially as often the only masker) but my choice is to do that or not go
7
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133
Perhaps if more of our universities' "senior leaders" came down *to* the actual picket lines and spoke to us, they would have a more accurate picture....
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#UCUstrike
University bosses: turnout on picket lines is very low, very low energy strikes
Staff and students:
14
522
2K
0
51
135
Just to say, I love you
@leedsucu
💕💕💕💕✊🏾✊🏻✊🏿✊🏼✊🏽💕💕💕💕
@ucu
#ucustrike
#ucustrikes
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#USS
#FourFights
1
24
132
Solidarity to every member facing a difficult Christmas/winter break & huge thanks to
@chakrabortty
for his ongoing work to expose the worst practices in HE. Shame on Colin Bailey and all VCs who prefer punitive approaches to proper industrial relations.
2
61
133
🚨✊Strength of members' support makes all the difference‼️
#UCUStrike
action has brought employers back to the table to talk.
✊Keep going!
✊Support for the strike is *powerful*
✊We got this!
📢Picket bigger + louder than ever - in person + on digi-pickets!
#UCUStrikesBack
2
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Margot is having an operation tomorrow, it’s risky + we’re worried sick. Need to knit her a “hock warmer” as having metal in her leg is going to increase her sensitivity to cold (she’s already v sensitive as whippets are so skinny)... any dog loving knitters for pattern ideas?!
27
18
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Address from
@DrJoGrady
-
@ucu
’s new General Secretary Elect
#ucu2019
“Those of us who provide education see that it is a source of dignity & confidence.” - talking about how our dedication has often been weaponised against us as staff and how we must collectively fight back
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We are having a tough weekend. Like many others at the moment I would wager. Family member with serious illness is now coughing and instead of being given a test we have been told “monitor it”. This is not a world class testing tracking and tracing system. It is terrifying.
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We fight until they lose.
Whatever happens, whether those polls are wrong or right: you will find me fighting for a better, kinder, humane society. I hope I’ll be fighting alongside you.
4
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🧵A thread: why I’m standing to be GS of UCU and why I believe we need change in leadership, a new approach, and to ensure the union works for all of us.
I’ve spent the last 14 years active in UCU from branch rep to President. I understand how the union does & doesn’t work. /1
2
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Be Wary Of Queen Mary!
Fab energy on the
@qm_ucu
picket lines!
@ucu
#UCUstrike
members will not be intimidated!
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#USSstrike
2
20
125
Solidarity with
@UniteUCU
who have emphatically voted in favour of taking strike action against
@UCU
to support the
#PGRsAsStaff
campaign leads on course for partial redundancies, despite Congress' commitment to expanding this area of work. UCU must return to negotiations now 1/2
Unite UCU members have today overwhelmingly voted to take strike action in support of their two
#PGRsAsStaff
colleagues. 71.22% of members who voted backed strike action on a 76.37% turnout.
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40
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📢GOOD MORNING
#UCUstrikes
!
‼️REMEMBER, and roar:
💥We are striking for decency now & in retirement!
💥Our working conditions = students' learning conditions
💜We strike BECAUSE we care
💕We strike to
#DefendEducation
✊🏻✊🏾✊🏿✊🏼✊🏽Join us!
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#UCUstrike
@UCU
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We met UCEA today re
#FourFights
.
Some constructive progress was made.
We are in the process of confirming a date in January.
Hold fast on
#UCUASOS
!
Re-balloting initiated!
We're ready to
#UCUstrike
again if we have to!
Our ongoing industrial action: *crucial* and *effective*
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Our fights in HE are serious. Nobody goes on strike lightly.
Strikes can be tough but here's a song we hope will help keep spirits & solidarity up
Amazing to work on this
#UCUband
project with wonderful union members across the UK. Put the sound up!
#ucuRISING
#StrongerTogether
Last few days have been difficult & upsetting. But last month lots of us on picket lines sang my lyrics & I was so proud of what we can do when we come together. We’re all on the same side, even when we come from different directions. Let's go again
#StrongerTogether
#ucuRISING
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💜Hold your head *high*
#UCUstrike
-rs!
💗Hold the ASOS line & be proud to be
@ucu
💜Keep talking to and supporting each other - that solidarity you felt on the picket line remains + grows
💗If you’re able, talk to people about why you strike/ASOS. It makes a difference to many
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UNIVERSITIES OPERATED THROUGHOUT LOCKDOWNS + ALL RESTRICTIONS THANKS TO *STAFF*
WORKING FROM HOME *IS WORK*
MANY STAFF WERE STILL ON CAMPUS EVEN WITH RESTRICTED OPENING
MANY MANY STAFF WORKED + ARE WORKING EVEN MORE EXCESSIVE LOADS OWING TO COVID
Wow!
In a
@UniversitiesUK
&
@UCEA1
press conference, vice chancellors compared staff working from home during the pandemic with taking strike action
"We have been able to cope with 0% of staff coming on campus [during covid], so I am sure we can cope with this”
Disgraceful
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We were aghast to see
@UCEA1
's commentary to
@guardian
last week downplaying casualisation in Higher Education & incorrectly asserting
@UCU
had “repeatedly reject[ed] opportunities to work with employers".
@rorfitelli
& I wrote to set the record straight⬇️
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A group of us who organised around solidarity with Ukraine in the lead up to
#UCUcongress
2023 have written a joint statement.
Please read, share, and sign to show support:
@UCU
@UkraineSol
I organised with other members ahead of
#UCUcongress
to propose a positive programme of solidarity with Ukraine, focusing on education & humanitarian work.
Very glad this (motion 6) passed but upset motion 5 carried without
@LeedsUCU
amendments. We'll publish a statement tomorrow
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My boyfriend just messaged that he’d be sacked if he presented such poor graphs at work. I pointed out we’d also be sacked for being 2.5 hours late for a presentation of this magnitude. On stuff that experts have been warning about for MONTHS!
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If you aren’t already angry about the
#USSmess
, you will be when you’ve read this ⬇️
Please share widely. And if you’re at a striking
@ucu
branch and haven’t joined comrades on strike yet - please join us on
#UCUstrike
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
Suppose you run a pension scheme, and conducted a valuation in the middle of a pandemic which showed the need for savage cuts. How do you hide the fact that since then the scheme has strengthened dramatically? Here's how.
#USSmess
#USSstrike
1/ (Graph courtesy of
@USSpensions
)
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Regular reminder that
#ucustrike
is a strike by higher education workers represented by
@ucu
, not a lecturers’ strike, and academia is not the only career in a university! Top points to
@yorkshirepost
for getting this right 👌
#LoveOurARPS
@UCU_ARPS
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Solidarity works! No 100% ASOS deductions for
@qm_ucu
members who resolutely stuck together & for each other in the face of shameful intimidation tactics.
Very inspiring - including for us at
@LeedsUCU
facing similar threats (we are resisting, please sign our petition!)
Very glad to confirm that SOLIDARITY WORKS! In our branch meeting today we voted to accept an agreement to stand down our local action in return for non-implementation of ASOS deductions.
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When a student who strongly supported
@LeedsUCU
during 2 major strikes last year graduates & tells senior handshaking figure at graduation to FIX THE PAY GAP + SUPPORT THE WORKERS. Are there a lot of onions in here? ✊❤️😭❤️😭❤️✊
#solidarityforever
#congratulations
#unionstrong
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🚨Take on one of us, take on all of us!
Indefinite strike notified at Leeds Uni from 15 June, re 100% pay deductions for taking part in Marking & Assessment Boycott (MAB)
📣We are pushing for talks
🪧But we are ready.
#ucuRISING
#NoDeductions
@ucu
@UCUYorksHumber
@strike_map
We are incredibly disappointed that
@UniversityLeeds
is persisting in its draconian policy of imposing punitive, 100% pay deductions for participating in lawfully called industrial action short of strike action. We will fight this policy however we can
#NoDeductions
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13 minutes to announce devastation, via Teams, no questions. This is not what leadership looks like.
This is cruel.
Solidarity
@WolvesUCU
, we are with you, and your students, and the generations of students who deserve studying with you to remain an option.
13 minutes. No questions. ‘Thank you for listening’ and he’s gone. Total contempt.
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“Our dismissed colleague…is currently a Co-I on a £1.4M Fellowship. His research has an h-index of 18 (with over 1390 citations of peer-reviewed papers) and he has had 37 International patents. He was deemed to not satisfy the metrics set for him to retain his employment”
For the first time at
@UniversityLeeds
, a
@ucu
member will be dismissed soon for not doing enough research. They have researched, published, got grants, but it's not enough. Despite ethnicity & Covid risks. Not OK for a university with high values...
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💜💕🪧✊🏾✊🏼✊🏿✊🏽✊🏼🪧💕💜
GOOD MORNING
@UCU
STRIKERS!!
Day 3 of
#UCUstrike
for decency!
💥 There is power in our union!💥
❌Uni “leaders” are wrong
✅Together we are strong
We strike because we all deserve better than this!
#UCUstrikesback
#UCUstrikes
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
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There WERE petitions to remove that statue and yet it stayed put. It was perfectly possible for me to grow up near Bristol and go to things at buildings named after him on school trips and not learn til I was much older he was a slave trader. Good riddance.
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Students & staff are let down by relentless failures of
@UCEA1
The Minimum Service Levels Act is an ideological assault on our fundamental democratic right to organise & withdraw labour to defend jobs, pay & conditions
No worker - in any sector - should be subjected to this.
University students are being let down by relentless strikes
We want to end this disruption and the resulting impact on their education
So today, I’m announcing that we will consult to introduce minimum service levels in universities so students get the teaching they deserve
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To note or not to note, what is the question?
I wrote about terminology of HEC recommendations in the upcoming
#ucuRISING
disputes consultation.
"Note" is a form of shorthand to distinguish from situations where "accept" would connote ending a dispute.
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UUK have made a series of very bad bets on
@UCU
members' resolve to
#DefendUSS
. Our action is effective: vital we maintain pressure on VCs to mandate proper offer. Be *unmissable*. Strikes remain ON. Make the next 2 days MASSIVE. ASOS Thursday on. Sector conference Fri
#UCUStrike
In acting as a buffer between
@UCU
and VCs around the country,
@UniversitiesUK
have been a major blockage in resolving the
#USS
dispute. Branches need to hammer this message hard: it's now on VCs to read
@UCU
's demands and impel UUK to act before things get even worse.
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Solidarity with striking transport workers today + always. Do not believe those who tell you this is done lightly. Believe workers, who have voted for + are taking this action because they understand what is at stake. Including our safety when we travel.
Victory to the
@RMTunion
!
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