Ballots slipped through letterboxes for education workers in the University and College Union (UCU) from 25 January. Incumbent Jo Grady is being challenged for general secretary (GS), and there are elections for the National Executive (NEC) members and for the union vice-president (who becomes president after two years). Voting closes 1 March. In online hustings this week Grady admitted her term had not been easy, blaming the difficulties on having to implement an industrial strategy that was not of her design (despite implementation being her actual job).
Bombed out building, National University of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine From Denis Pilash, political scientist at Kyiv National University and activist in Ukrainian socialist organisation Sotsialniy Rukh (Social Movement), and Rhian Keyse, Birkbeck UCU and incoming UCU NEC member Dear comrades,
Bombed out building, National University of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine From Denis Pilash, political scientist at Kyiv National University and activist in Ukrainian socialist organisation Sotsialniy Rukh (Social Movement), and Rhian Keyse, Birkbeck UCU and incoming UCU NEC member Dear comrades,
University members of the University and College Union (UCU) in 68 branches now have mandates to strike over either or both of the long-running USS pensions dispute and the pay, equality, workload and casualisation dispute (the so-called “Four Fights”). Late in January, the union’s General Secretary announced the next steps in the dispute: ten days of strikes (14-18 Feb, 21-22 Feb, and 28 Feb 2 Mar), followed by “rolling regional” action throughout March.