Dear UCU member

As we begin taking a full week of strike action from today, we wanted to put the record straight on what our employer has been reporting to you and your members about our dispute.

Every trade union member knows that when their branch goes into dispute and starts to take industrial action, the employer’s propaganda machine starts churning out disinformation to damage and undermine action. It is important that you are aware of the facts behind the employer’s rhetoric so we have published a ‘UCU SMT Myth Busting [uniteucu.wordpress.com]’ page on our website.

But beyond this, what you may not know is that UCU management is proactively exacerbating the dispute and undermining the possibility of finding a resolution through a series of union-busting actions that wouldn’t be unknown among the most hawkish of your employers: 

• they’re employing non-unionised fixed-term/agency staff to cover striking workers, and are outsourcing other work
• they’re openly crossing picket lines themselves, covering the work of striking staff, and are suggesting core teams are functioning normally
• they’re circulating misleading propaganda, which accuses our negotiators of acting in bad faith
• they’re threatening Unite members with disciplinary action if they mention strike action in out-of-office email messages so as to reduce wider awareness of our action
• they’re targeting a number of branch committee members and leading activists through repeated abuse of agreed policies and procedures
• they have breached our recognition agreement through recognising another union for managers.

It is beyond sad that we are in this situation. Our density is over 65%, which represents many dedicated and long-serving members with an enormous wealth of experience working for UCU branches and members. They are simply no longer able to properly do their jobs and are leaving UCU employment at an alarming rate.

Some of our matters in dispute could be close to resolution – or at least could be making enough meaningful progress that Unite action would be unnecessary – which makes management’s refusal to talk to us all the more incomprehensible. 

But the major sticking points, about which they are silent, are the safety and work-related stress crisis [uniteucu.wordpress.com], and now, their attacks on Unite branch officers [uniteucu.wordpress.com] which are further undermining our broken industrial relations.

In the coming days and weeks we will be reaching out again and providing opportunities for you to speak with us, ask questions and demonstrate the support so many of you have openly offered. 

We want to build this union into one that can best deliver for UCU members, one that is safe for its staff and one that allows us to support you in the best and most effective ways we know how. One in which both the union and its staff can thrive.

Thank you for reading

Unite UCU (LE127)

Accidents have been going up in UoM for a while, and the University is losing a lot of time off in sick pay due to stress. We need people to help UoM hold itself to account over these issues. So we are asking for members to step up to support our current (encyclopaedic) H&S rep Nicola, who will happily discuss with anyone interested. Note that H&S reps have a venerable history, going all the way back to legislation passed in 1974 [hse.gov.uk]. After receiving training—for which the Employer must give them time off—H&S reps have arguably the strongest protection of trade union representatives; they are entitled to independent time off (or workload relief) to fulfil their duties; and, when correctly viewed as critical friends of the Employer, play a valuable role in the University community that can be flagged in promotion applications.

Please do consider stepping up; the time-commitments would be tailored to your capacity. Get in contact with ucu@manchester.ac.uk to find out more.

In 2023 UMUCU in consultation with our members issued 11 areas where we sought improvement in the promotions process. Despite resistance from the employer we observed some limited but positive changes in subsequent processes across certain areas. More recently a well consulted process ran to develop clearer criteria for T&S promotions, a process which UCU were included in and support. Unfortunately changes were then made to all promotions criteria without consultation and this had led to changes which reduce transparency, increase complexity and threaten trust in the promotions process. This is compounded by a promotions appeal procedure which is not fit for purpose, a reality acknowledged by previous P&OD leadership. Whilst UoM can review promotions processes, it should do so in a way that reflects best practice and that has not been the case and as a trade union UCU cannot then reassure our members the process will be fair and free from bias.

We repeat our previous demands restating our 11 minimum criteria and request that any review ensures our promotions processes also align with the JNCHES agreement.

During discussions we requested that promotions criteria were mapped out so progression and differentiation were clearer in each criteria. This included the alignment of criteria by job role so progression could be more easily tracked. We are committed to working positively with the employer, but when this does not happen we are committed to leading discussion with our members, something which we have had to do here with promotions and with the travel policy proposals which we released in Dec and will be raising at Feb TUNG.

We will look initially to form a working group from within our membership to develop our proposals for change. Please join us to help lead positive change for the benefit of all academic staff.

UMUCU currently has a shortage of personal case reps – volunteers, who after undergoing some basic training, support UMUCU members facing problems at work. 

Typical situations where a member might need support are: 

• Defending themselves against an allegation of misconduct 

• Submitting a complaint about bullying 

• Requesting that ‘reasonable adjustments’ are put in place 

• Dealing with work related stress 

• Defending themselves against an allegation of poor performance 

You don’t need to be an expert on everything in order to become a personal case rep. You can start by focussing on a single type of problem, only moving onto other areas once you feel ready. There is always support and advice available from existing, experienced case workers. Most members are so glad to have someone helping them through a difficult situation that they don’t mind if you can’t answer every question immediately and sometimes need to seek advice from a case worker colleague. 

Please email ucu@manchester.ac.uk if you’re interested in finding out more.