UCU is supporting the National Unity demonstration which takes place in central London on 17 November. More details are available on the UCU website.
Coaches will be going from Cardiff, Ceredigion and Swansea. It may be possible to put on additional transport, but this will depend on numbers.
If you would like to go, please contact the UCU office at ucu@cardiff.ac.uk.
The UCU Equality Groups Conference 2018 will be held at Manchester Conference Centre from Thursday 29 November – Saturday 1 December 2018.
The conference holds four half-day conferences and a plenary session for all quality strands. This means that not all delegates will need to attend for the full 3 days. The sessions are:
Further details, including registration, are on the UCU website.
Members of Frontline and PAC have launched the new initiative “Rethinking the University: Past, Present, and Possible Futures”. We share an interest in university governance and leadership structures, the way in which decisions are made, and the future of universities and higher education more generally.
We have organised a seminar series to provide historic and contemporary perspectives on how universities are run. We have invited a range of British and international speakers to share their insights about the workings of universities, addressing questions such as: How have universities worked in the past? What types of governance models exist across universities in Britain and Continental Europe? How could, and how should universities work in the future? In short, the seminar series aims to provide a fresh look at an institution, in which we all work, but not many understand.
A total of 6 lunch-time seminars are planned and all will be held on Thursdays between 1 and 2 pm. The speakers include:
The talks will hopefully provide an impetus for interesting and fruitful discussions about what kind of university we are hoping for in the future. Senior management will be invited to the series, and it is envisioned that after all guest speakers, there will be at least one discussion session focussing specifically on practices at our own university. This event is run in association with UCU.
If you are interested in contributing to future events of this initiative, please get in touch with Frank Sengpiel (sengpielf@cardiff.ac.uk) or Christoph Teufel (teufelc@cardiff.ac.uk).
The following is from talk given at yesterday’s members’ meeting by Rowan Campbell. Continue reading
We held an open members’ meeting this Wednesday which was well-attended & lively.
We had excellent contributions about the current Pay, Equality, and Pracarity ballot from Executive committee members:
We also talked about how you, as members can help campaign on this issue by attending school-level meetings, knocking on doors with your dep reps, and just talking with colleagues about the pressing issues we’re fighting on.
We also agreed to support today’s strike in the fast food industry.
Cardiff UCU has released a statement of solidarity with fast-food workers fighting for decent pay, union recognition, and against precarious working conditions.
Cardiff University UCU branch wishes to express its solidarity with the fast food workers’ strikes taking place across the UK on 4th October, which includes workers at McDonald’s, Wetherspoons, TGI Fridays, as well as Uber Eats drivers. This is a brave move by these workers, who face poverty pay, aggressive management, and minimal protections in terms of a reliable income and decent working conditions. We hope that actions by the BFAWU, IWW and IWGB will inspire other workers in similar situations to organise collectively too. We look forward to celebrating a swift and total victory for those involved and the beginning of a wider struggle to improve the working lives of the countless thousands of food sector workers across the UK and beyond.
We’ll look into donating to the strike funds for these unions, too.
Precarity is no longer an issue just for other workers (50% of UK University contracts, and almost a quarter of those at Cardiff, are “atypical” – i.e. short-term, hourly-paid, zero-hours, etc). We need to take action on this ourselves, as well as supporting others (like, by voting “Yes” in the current ballot for instance 😉).
Join us, the Cardiff UCU banner, and fast food workers in Wales, in the Cardiff McStrike solidarity demo outside McDonalds at 5pm today (4th October).
We stand in solidarity with all those on strike today – together we're stronger. Join UberEats strikers outside McDonald's on Queen St, Cardiff at 5pm today to show your support #FFS410 #McStrike #SpoonStrike #AllEyesOnTGIs #UberEatsStrike https://t.co/kAuBUeeKFu
— Wales TUC Cymru (@walestuc) October 4, 2018
The Cardiff Trades Council (a staunch supporter of our pensions strike this year) is hosting a conference called “Workers United Against the Far Right” in Cardiff on Saturday, 6 October 2018 from 11:00-14:00.
The conference, co-sponsored by numerous Cardiff union branches, will plan how trade unionists and others can best organise against the growing threat to our community and political life from the renewed far-right threat. More info, including on how to attend, is available on the Facebook event page.
The main points boil down to:
The following is from talk given at yesterday’s members’ meeting by Steven Stanley, Cardiff UCU Executive Committee member. Follow Steven on Twitter @dr_stevestanley.
This is my 15th year as a lecturer here at Cardiff and I joined the executive committee this year following the strike. I’ve been thinking about how the current UCU campaign and ballot over Pay & Equality links to the pensions dispute. Continue reading
Frequently Asked Questions about the current ballot on taking action over pay & equality: Continue reading