Members’ meeting: on governance and 2035 workers’ strategy

At this week’s union meeting, Wed 27 Nov, 12:30, Zoom [link below], we will be launching our own Workers’ 2035 Strategy Survey, with most of the meeting devoted to discussing university governance. UoM’s governance structures are severely dysfunctional, with significant consequences for us all, such as the SEP. This meeting is to explore ways to drive positive changes towards democratising our university (and universities more broadly).

          Our own Prof. Steve Jones will lead the discussion. He is currently leading a project on university governance, funded by the Campaign for the Defence of the British University. There will be plenty of time for questions and contributions. These two links contains some food for thought:

https://zoom.us/j/95169124410  passcode: 352412

Sign the Workers’ Pledge for Palestine

All out on this Wed 20 Nov, 2.30pm, Whitworth Arch, on Oxford Road, to demand UoM cut ties with Tel Aviv University now!

Tel Aviv University is known to actively contribute to the Zionist murder machinery. Since their inception, they have enabled theft of Palestinian land and provided support for the Israeli military. Only last week, Tel Aviv University invited its students for a day of volunteering in an army base—this is the social activity of Israeli so-called “academic” institutions: supporting a genocide. This comes after years of providing resources to the Israeli military.

For over a year, our students have been taking action to demand that UoM cuts their now unsupportable relationships with Tel Aviv university and BAE systems; so far, the University has refused to take the right step.

On Wednesday, the Board of Governors meet at the University. We will raise our voices again and show that we will not rest until one very crucial decision is taken: the ending of the partnership with Tel Aviv University! No rest until British institutions end their complicity in the suffering of Palestinians and others. Join us on Wednesday, 2.30pm, at Whitworth Arch, Oxford Road!

https://gmpfdivest.my.canva.site/home

One of our UMUCU members is asking for your support for a Manchester City Council motion to divest the Greater Manchester Pension Fund from arms and fossil fuels. The GMPF currently invests £1.74 billion in companies like BP, Shell, and BAE Systems. On 27 November, the council will hear a motion to divest from these companies.

There’s no guarantee that the motion will pass (it’s a Green Party motion, and the Labour majority has yet to say whether they’ll support it).

If you’re a Manchester resident, your council taxes help to fund the GMPF. Additionally, UCU members can play an important role in supporting this motion because the USS recently sold off £80 million of Israeli assets—which shows that it can be done. If you’d like to support this motion, please follow the link above to contact your councillors.

The MIE Anti-Racist Education Network invites you to a seminar with Professor Vini Lander on Wednesday, 13 November, from 1:30 to 3:00 pm. This will be our first seminar of the academic year, with additional seminars and workshops planned in the coming months.

Please see the attached leaflet for information on future events and register here for the first seminar. 

Date: Wednesday 13 November

Time: 1.30pm – 3pm

Venue: Ellen Wilkinson, A3.7

We look forward to seeing you there.

MIE Anti-Racist Education Network Seminar Series 2024/25

There is a joint academic workload task-and-finish group that is jointly chaired by Allan Pacey (Acting Dean FBMH) and Simeon Gill (UMUCU). It has met seven times since the end of November 2023, charged to investigate the challenges of workload for academics.

The group wishes to use six focus groups to help refine ideas and identify priority areas for change. We would like your help to collect nominations for members to contribute. There will be 12 participants in each to balance input from three faculties, comprising 6 people nominated by UCU and 6 people nominated by the faculty. The make-up of each group of six should ideally be as diverse as possible, including members on fixed term contracts, lecturers, senior lecturers, readers and professors, on T&S, T&R and R contract types. See here for more detail.

Please could you register your desire to attend by filling in this form or by emailing ucu@manchester.ac.uk with the subject Workload Focus Groups, before Dec 2024.

Additionally, Employee Relations are happy to receive comments to employeerelations@manchester.ac.uk clearly marked AW Focus Group Comments in the subject field.

To celebrate new hybrid equipment for our offices at Crawford House, we will be using the big screen to host UMUCU’s first ever film night on Thu 7 November from 4pm (film starts 4.30pm), followed by drinks in SandBar from 5.30pm.

The film is a 45m documentary about one of the high points of trade union history, the rank and file organised ‘Teamster Rebellion’ in Minneapolis in 1934. This was a mass strike which won big on pay and union recognition, unionised the town, and ultimately led to winning the legal right to collective bargaining across the U.S. This fascinating and inspiring documentary was made back in 1980 and features interviews with people who actually participated in the strikes.

Directions: Crawford House, Booth Street East, under the tunnel opposite the Aquatics Centre, door on right, then first door on left when inside.

If you can’t make it on the 7^th but are interested in watching the film you can find it here

It is World Toilet Day on 19^th November and TUC are running a quick survey on toilet access for workers. Please could you complete this short survey about your workplace toilets.