Author Archives: cardiff

Monday’s Strike Activity

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Monday 26th February

  • 1 pm to 3pm.
    Open Meeting: Students and Staff United for Education    .
    – “Building a fairer University”
    talk by Dr. Paul Brennan
    – “What is a university: a philosophy café”
    presentation by Dr. Huw Williams
    followed by a time for discussing how we would want universities to be.
    Where?
    Bingo Room, Cathays Community Centre, CF24 4HX

Picketing Rota

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You can sign up for the picketing rota using the doodle poll here:

The poll is private – you do not see anyone else’s submissions – the data is used for planning purposes only – people can turn up anytime after 8am at the two main locations and then move to their departmental/school picket as needed.

Please note other planned activities

Strike Bulletin #2

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Thanks everybody for another successful strike day. This post sums up the day’s activities, and points towards next week’s action, too.

Local pickets:
Pickets outside individual schools were strong, with a good showing that indicates good resolve among members on the second day of the strike.
Some of us felt that we’d handed out the general UCU strike leaflet to everybody, and that a new, local-oriented one was needed. This has now been designed and will be printed ready for members to distribute from Monday.



Main Picket 11am
After staffing the school pickets, we all converged on the Main Building to swap stories, chant, and hear speeches. This will be a general pattern on every strike day now, and is a good way of coming together as a general collective after working in small groups. The Heath Park Campus pickets mananged to proceed without interference from hospital security staff.

University Matters Session and Strike Committee Meeting:
There was a very busy and vibrant banner making, comms, and discussion “University Matters” session at Cathays Community Centre on Cathays Terrace, which is quickly becoming an unofficial strike centre, and was buzzing with activity. There was also a planning session to work on the plans for next week’s Teach Out, and a vibrant and busy strike committee meeting where we mapped out plans for the coming weeks (see below).

Next week’s events:
The strike programme is pasted in below, and, along with daily pickets, we have a few things to focus on and build for next week:

  • Monday 26th Feb, meeting “Students and Staff United for Education”(1pm, Cathays Community Centre Bingo Hall).
    This will be a key organising event with two foci: firstly, to build the pressure on our VC locally to join the ranks of dissident VCs; and secondly, to help the students and student societies who support us organise into a strike solidarity committee which could represent/organise students (which will give us really useful links and partnership students for comms and campaigning purposes).
  • Tuesday 27th Feb, Teach Out (1pm, Cathays Community Centre Bingo Hall).
    This was being planned today, and the full programme will be available soon. Please come along!
  • Wednesday 28th February, Rally at the Main Building, 11am
    We’re going for another rally, to build on the success of yesterday’s, and will be inviting supportive politicians, students, and trades unionists as well as musicians and bands, as well as trying to get some more media coverage. Please shout about this far and wide.
    Make sure you bring a thick coat and double layer your socks: next week promises to be a bit chillier than what we’ve been seeing already. Have a great weekend, and keep your spirits up.

Best,

Cardiff UCU Strike Communications Team

Strike Program Week 2

Strike Program Week 2

UCU Strike 2018 – Strike Bulletin #1

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Rally Alexandra Gardens - 22nd Feb 2018

What’s happened?
We’ve had a great first day of the strike. Lovely to see 600 of you come down to Main Building for a rally, alongside the work you’re all doing at your individual work sites. We had students, members of other unions, and politicians such as Jo Stevens MP and Leanne Wood AM join us in solidarity, as well as the buzz of a fab brass band. Add in some brilliant sunshine, and we left feeling happy and strong.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdwqRqMBk6g]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgkENj-LlWY]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07r_1V4Gu_4]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbYsOA2_9P4]

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/405210666″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]

It’s already having an effect. Eleven vice-chancellors have now broken ranks to say it’s time to come back to the negotiating table. Let’s keep the pressure up to ensure more of them feel the same. It would be great for Cardiff’s own vice-chancellor, Colin Riordan, to be among that group!

What’s next?
There’s lots left to do.

  • We hope to see the lot of you at your departmental pickets tomorrow from 8am onwards, and we’ll be gathering again at Main Building at 11am to recharge as a group.
  • If you’re unable to attend a picket at your own school, we’ll have a contingent at Main Building from 8:00 am.
  • We’ll have teach-outs coming up, including a workshop Friday at 1:00 pm at Cathays Community Centre. (That’s on Cathays Road, just up from the Woodville pub, across from the Lidl.)
  • Please keep coming to your pickets. Join us Monday for a meeting at the Cathays Community Centre at 1:00 pm, “Staff and Students United for Education”, where we can share concrete steps to keep that pressure on.

What can you do?
If you haven’t already contacted your political representatives, please do so. The power of all our members contacting politicians at all levels will make a difference. If you visit https://www.writetothem.com/, you can punch in your postcode to find out who represents you and how to get hold of them. Write your own e-mail – it always makes a difference – or you can use a template, which you’ll find as a text file using this link: email-template.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for something to do while you stand outside your buildings, we’re encouraging everyone to use the smartphones in their pockets to make some media. We can all do quick, 30-second, soundbite interviews with our colleagues who are willing to be filmed (always ask permission, always say it will be shared on social media), gathering personal perspectives on the following questions:

  • Why are you on strike today?;
  • What’s your message to the Vice Chancellors?; and/or
  • What will the pension cuts mean for you?

We should then post them on social media quoting the UCU strike hash tags (#UCUStrike and #UCU). If we’re uncomfortable using our own social media accounts for this, then simply follow the @cardiffUCU on Twitter, and share the videos you produce privately as direct messages. They can then be tweeted out by the official account and downloaded for sharing on Facebook. It doesn’t have to be polished/perfect. The more of this kind of social media content we produce on the day the better.

If you’ve got ideas on what else we could be doing, get in touch. And thanks for your solidarity and support.

Best,
Cardiff UCU

University matters

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When
23rd February, 1pm-4pm

Where
Cathays Community Centre

What
University Matters will to bring you, the individual, to the forefront of the strike action. The message from the Vice-Chancellor is clear – they do not want to prioritise staff (and students) when it comes to University funding. We want to show the Vice-Chancellor just how important we are to the running of Cardiff University, that we have wonderful people working here and, most importantly, that you deserve a reasonable pension.

What do I need to do?
To join in, come along to the Cathays Community Centre talk to other members of staff about the work you do, why you do it and why you matter to Cardiff University and society. If you feel inspired to do so, grab pen and paper and write a message to the Vice -Chancellor about why you do what you do.

Can’t make it to the Community Centre? No problem.
If you can’t make it to the Community Centre, feel free to post a photo from wherever you are – we’d love to see your messages to the Vice-Chancellor.

Just don’t forget to use the hashtags:
#UniversityMatters and #HelloColin, and tag @CardiffUCU so we can find them.

University Matters Poster 23rd February

USS Strike Update Thursday

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Thanks for such a fantastic turnout today! Please check the social media and the “old-style” media for coverage of today’s brilliant pickets and the rally.

Photo of today's rally

Photo of Cardiff UCU rally 22nd Feb

Photo of today's rally

Band at noon

BUT THE STRIKE IS NOT OVER – WE NEED TO KEEP UP THE PRESSURE. 

[There is more information about following events in the newer post Strike Bulletin #1 ]

This means pickets on every strike day. Tomorrow (Friday) please come to Main Building again if you need further supplies of leaflets.

At 11am, we will then all congregate again at the Main Building for an informal rally. From 1pm there is a Teach-out event at Cathays Community Centre, Upstairs Meeting Room and Landing, Cathays Terrace.  Staff and students are invited to come and discuss/visualise what they do, why it matters and why we should fight for decent pensions.

Then it’s back to the picket lines on Monday morning bright and early or as soon as you can make it.

Further solidarity messages

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Solidarity message to striking UCU members from Shavanah Taj, Wales Secretary of PCS (the Public and Commercial Services Union)

Friends let me start by saying Da iawn for being one of the few UK unions to have smashed the 50% ballot turnout barrier imposed by recent Tory anti-union legislation. With 88% national vote in favour of strike action on a turnout of 58%;89% in favour of strike action in Cardiff, the figures alone demonstrate the true strength of feeling amongst UCU members.

As you know PCS members have been at the forefront of many attack’s by government on their jobs, pay, terms and conditions. We know that being forced to take strike action is no easy decision to take. I admire your members courage and unity which is truly our core strength within our movement. I would like to pass on the full support and solidarity of the PCS union to all our colleagues in UCU.

In view of your announcement of taking ongoing strike action, I hope that your employer will now sit up, listen and return to the negotiating table to offer a deal that is acceptable to your members. This dispute isn’t simply about protecting existing staff pensions but also about looking out for those that come next, including existing students who choose to purse a career in this field.

Let me also take this opportunity to urge your Vice Chancellor of Cardiff University, Professor Riordan, to add his voice to the growing numbers of Vice Chancellors around the UK and use his influence on the employers’ group (UUK) to get them to negotiate with the UCU, with a view to finding a jointly acceptable solution which will preserve the defined benefit pension.

I will continue to highlight your dispute to our members and encourage messages of solidarity and ensure they do all they can to amplify your voices wherever possible. If there is any hardship fund then can you forward me on the details please and I will organise a donation and circulate details to branches. I intend to visit your picket line this week and will pass on the full support from the PCS.

Stay strong and stand firm. You’ve got this!
Shavanah Taj
PCS Union, Welsh Secretary & National Officer

Solidarity message to striking UCU members from Philip Jennings, General Secretary of Uni Global (an international federation of unions representing 20 million workers worldwide) and a Cardiff University Honorary Fellow

Dear Friends,

I am emailing to send you warm greetings, support and solidarity. I am an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University and as such am well aware of the high quality of research and education provided by this university. I am Cardiff born and recognize all that you do for the City and it’s people.It is time for the people to stand with staff who toil to bring the best of coming generations from all corners of the world.

All of these are the great reasons why the University must do its utmost to ensure that its staff are treated fairly and that they can go about their daily tasks with the confidence that the worries of tomorrow are taken care of.

As well as being an Honorary Fellow, I am also the general secretary of Uni Global Union, a global federation of trade unions, so I am particularly aware that if employers wish to remain successful, they need staff who are motivated and not weighed down by the cloud that unfair treatment brings.

So I urge the University and Vice Chancellor, Professor Riordan, to add his voice to those growing numbers of Vice Chancellors around the UK and use his influence on the employers group to urge UUK to negotiate with the UCU with a view to finding a jointly acceptable solution which will preserve the defined benefit pension scheme.

Best wishes for a successful conclusion to your dispute.
Philip Jennings
Honorary Fellow Cardiff University and General Secretary, Uni Global Union

Solidarity message to striking UCU members from USDAW South Wales and Western Division

“Usdaw stands in solidarity with the UCU, it’s members and affected families who have had to resort to industrial action to make their voices heard on this issue. We have also seen many of our members adversely affected by changes to pension provisions and have seen the effect that this can have on people expecting a fair provision at the end of their working lives. We wish you all the very best in relation to this issue and hope a satisfactory resolution can be found” – Mike Walker Deputy DIvisional Officer Usdaw South Wales & Western Region

Best Wishes

Mike Walker
Deputy Divisional Officer
Usdaw South Wales & Western Division

From Cardiff County Unison Branch:

Hi All, 

Good luck with today and a message of solidarity from Cardiff County branch. 

Cardiff County offer our striking comrades a message of solidarity as you defend your pension rights. We firmly believe that an attack on one is an attack on all and have no doubts that, unchallenged, this attempt to strip colleagues of their rightful access to their full pensions would soon be echoed in other organisations.  

In solidarity

Emma Garson

 

Thursday’s strike activity

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What’s happening tomorrow?

We will be picketing at various entrances (Main Building, Heath Park and other locations as organised by departmental reps) from 8am. Please don’t feel that if you can’t make it at 8 you can’t come along – get there whenever you can! The starting point is Main Building, so if you’re not sure where to picket, please come here for further instructions.

Picketing materials (armbands, placards, hi-vis jackets etc) can be collected from the UCU office, 49B Park Place, from 11 am today, Wednesday 21st, although there will also be supplies available on Thursday morning at the picket.

At 11am we will be having a rally for members and supporters outside Main Building. Pickets are asked to make their way to this. We have a range of supporters offering solidarity and who have agreed to speak at the rally, including Joanne DUCU, Jo Stevens MP, Lianne Wood AM, Leader of Plaid Cymru and Jenny Rathbone AM.

From 12 o’clock, there will be entertainment from Brass 12 and Tom Duggan. For full details of this and Teach Outs, please click here for the Program.

Don’t forget the strike continues on Friday as well and we will need pickets and supporters then as well – watch this space for further details.

 

 

Local messages of support and solidarity

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We are receiving many messages of support and solidarity from our sisters and brothers across the trade union movement, such as this message from UNISON Cymru:

Solidarity message to striking UCU members
 
Dan Beard from UNISON’s Higher Education Service Group Executive said,
“UNISON Cymru Wales members give a warm message of solidarity to UCU members striking in defence of your right to a decent pension.
 
“Yours is a critical dispute and a defined benefit pension is the benchmark of a good employer. Pensions are deferred earnings which you have worked hard to receive. The changes proposed by Universities UK are severe and could strip you of thousands of pounds in retirement. The proposals must be reversed. Attacking pension benefits will never be acceptable to the workforce.
 
“As we consult with our own members on the Universities UK proposals, we are proud to offer our support to our sister union. UNISON members have been encouraged to support UCU comrades on picket lines, protests and rallies. Good luck in your fight for pensions justice.”
 
 
Alastair Gittins
Communications
Information Development Organiser
UNISON Cymru/Wales
 
Office: 02920 729 453
Mobile: 07816 538 397

Also this message from USDAW:

USDAW message of support:

“Usdaw stands in solidarity with the UCU, it’s members and affected families who have had to resort to industrial action to make their voices heard on this issue. We have also seen many of our members adversely affected by changes to pension provisions and have seen the effect that this can have on people expecting a fair provision at the end of their working lives. We wish you all the very best in relation to this issue and hope a satisfactory resolution can be found” – Mike Walker Deputy DIvisional Officer Usdaw South Wales & Western Region

Best Wishes

Mike

Mike Walker
Deputy Divisional Officer
Usdaw South Wales & Western Division

And this Solidarity message to striking UCU members from Philip Jennings, General Secretary of Uni Global (an international federation of unions representing 20 million workers worldwide) and a Cardiff University Honorary Fellow

Dear Friends,

I am emailing to send you warm greetings, support and solidarity. I am an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University and as such am well aware of the high quality of research and education provided by this university. I am Cardiff born and recognize all that you do for the City and it’s people.It is time for the people to stand with staff who toil to bring the best of coming generations from all corners of the world.

All of these are the great reasons why the University must do its utmost to ensure that its staff are treated fairly and that they can go about their daily tasks with the confidence that the worries of tomorrow are taken care of.

As well as being an Honorary Fellow, I am also the general secretary of Uni Global Union, a global federation of trade unions, so I am particularly aware that if employers wish to remain successful, they need staff who are motivated and not weighed down by the cloud that unfair treatment brings.

So I urge the University and Vice Chancellor, Professor Riordan, to add his voice to those growing numbers of Vice Chancellors around the UK and use his influence on the employers group to urge UUK to negotiate with the UCU with a view to finding a jointly acceptable solution which will preserve the defined benefit pension scheme.

Best wishes for a successful conclusion to your dispute.

Philip Jennings
Honorary Fellow Cardiff University and General Secretary, Uni Global Union

And this Solidarity message to striking UCU members from Shavanah Taj, Wales Secretary of PCS (the Public and Commercial Services Union)

Friends let me start by saying Da iawn for being one of the few UK unions to have smashed the 50% ballot turnout barrier imposed by recent Tory anti-union legislation. With 88% national vote in favour of strike action on a turnout of 58%;89% in favour of strike action in Cardiff, the figures alone demonstrate the true strength of feeling amongst UCU members.

As you know PCS members have been at the forefront of many attack’s by government on their jobs, pay, terms and conditions. We know that being forced to take strike action is no easy decision to take. I admire your members courage and unity which is truly our core strength within our movement. I would like to pass on the full support and solidarity of the PCS union to all our colleagues in UCU.

In view of your announcement of taking ongoing strike action, I hope that your employer will now sit up, listen and return to the negotiating table to offer a deal that is acceptable to your members. This dispute isn’t simply about protecting existing staff pensions but also about looking out for those that come next, including existing students who choose to purse a career in this field.

Let me also take this opportunity to urge your Vice Chancellor of Cardiff University, Professor Riordan, to add his voice to the growing numbers of Vice Chancellors around the UK and use his influence on the employers’ group (UUK) to get them to negotiate with the UCU, with a view to finding a jointly acceptable solution which will preserve the defined benefit pension.

I will continue to highlight your dispute to our members and encourage messages of solidarity and ensure they do all they can to amplify your voices wherever possible. If there is any hardship fund then can you forward me on the details please and I will organise a donation and circulate details to branches. I intend to visit your picket line this week and will pass on the full support from the PCS.

Stay strong and stand firm. You’ve got this!

Shavanah Taj
PCS Union, Welsh Secretary & National Officer