Tag Archives: News Roundup 26 October 2018

A weekly roundup of Cardiff UCU news and announcements

Workload Reps Training and Workload Campaign Meeting: Monday Nov 5

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As part of the next steps in our Workload Campaign, we are holding a training session and campaign meeting on the afternoon of Monday 5th November.

For the training session, Adam Lincoln from UCU Head Office in London will be coming to Cardiff to run a half-day introduction to the role of the workload rep., and how we can use our rights as trade unionists (particularly under Health and Safety legislation) to take action in support of manageable workloads. The training will provide you with the skills and information needed to help us take the next step in our campaign to take back our time.

We will follow this with a Campaign Meeting, to plan the next steps of our workload campaign here in Cardiff. After the meeting we would like to encourage everyone who can (& would like to!) to join us in going for a drink and/or some food locally.

Both events will take place on Monday Nov 5:

  • Training session: 12pm-3pm (with lunch provided)
  • Campaign Meeting: 3:30pm-5pm

If you are interested in attending but have not yet put your name forward, please email the branch office at ucu@cardiff.ac.uk and let us know for catering purposes. If you are interested but can’t attend on this occasion let us know, we will hold further events in the future.

HE Pay and Equality ballot results

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Despite the hard work of those campaigning to get the vote out in the recent ballot, and the vote being in favour of action, only 7 institutions exceed the 50% turnout threshold required under anti-trade union laws. Nevertheless, 44% of members at Cardiff participated in the vote, which, as far as collective memory serves, is the highest participation rate in a ballot over pay that the Branch has had. Enormous thanks to those reps who worked so hard to achieve this. The full results of the ballot can be found on the UCU website. The results and next steps will now be considered by the Union’s Higher Education Committee.

Action on threat of compulsory redundancies

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Following media reports of possible staffing cuts at Cardiff University, the University’s representatives at this week’s Joint Consultative and Negotiating Forum refused to rule out the threat of compulsory redundancies as a consequence of the Size and Shape Review and the Transforming Cardiff/Transffurfio Caerdydd programme.

We hope that our fears prove unfounded and we are keen to work with the University to avoid redundancies, as we have done before.

As a result, and in accordance with the unanimous resolution passed at Wednesday’s General Meeting, UCU has written to the Vice-Chancellor invoking the Disputes Resolution Procedure and requesting that a meeting of the Joint Negotiation Committee be convened on this issue.

National Unity Demonstration 17 November, London

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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.

UCU Equality Groups Conference 2018, Manchester

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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:

  • Thursday 29 November, 09:30 – 13:00: Disabled Members Annual Meeting
  • Thursday 29 November, 14:00 – 17:30: Women Members’ Conference
  • There will be a dinner for all delegates attending for each strand on Thursday evening from 19:30
  • Friday 30 November, 09:00 – 13:00 Plenary session and workshops
  • Friday 30 November, 14:00 – 17:30: Black Members’ Conference
  • Saturday 1 December, 09:30 – 13:00: LGBT Members Conference

Further details, including registration, are on the UCU website.

Rethinking the University: Past, Present and Possible Futures

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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:

  • Dr Eric Lybeck (Exeter, UK) – 21 February
  • Bernhard Chesnau (Dresden, Germany) – 14 March
  • Dr Elisabeth Morrish (York, UK) – 11 April
  • Prof. Johan Wagemans (Leuven, Belgium) – 9 May
  • Dr Alison Wood (Cambridge, UK) – date TBA
  • Prof. Felicity Callard (London, UK) – date TBA

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).