A "Voluntary Enhanced Retirement" scheme was announced at our place (Uni of Leeds) today with more details due in an FAQ on Monday. My personal take is that it is, on current information, difficult not to see this as a form of voluntary redundancy scheme. Have we seen similar at other branches? /1

More #UCU branches now added to our starter pack 💞 of formal branch/committee presences we've found (no individuals) Please let us know if yours is missing (and sorry about the delay @ucugreenwich.bsky.social @brunelucu.bsky.social @ysjucu.bsky.social @uhiucu.bsky.social @ucuimperial.bsky.social!)

The venue for today’s #USS JNC meeting - before the wind started up and the rain started just in time for us to leave this afternoon!

Thank you @ducuuo.bsky.social comrades for returning this result. We will not give up. We care about our university, our students and our city. It has been a very long time since anyone at the top did. That’s got to change.

oh, we know how we reacted, because we were advised by UCU HQ on that... Nobody fills this in. Absolutely nobody. People who are not taking action should should that kind of solidarity to ensure this doesn't get implemented because it's going to harm your workplace disastrously if they allow it.

Why is @ucu.org.uk engaging in the very behaviour that we/it publicly call out when members’ employers employ such tactics? It is shameful. It undermines every branch of #UCU It’s utterly destructive to staff morale and our branches’ leverage Not in our name. Solidarity @uniteucu.bsky.social

Really useful pensions thread from @josstified.bsky.social 👇

With another 9 @ucu.org.uk branches now calling on UCU to do the right thing we wonder if @drjogrady.bsky.social is listening to her members.

Nottingham colleagues @uonucu.bsky.social and UoN Unison are on strike next week in defence of jobs. Please donate to their hardship fund if you can, and please share the link 👇 #UnionStrong #DefendJobs #DefendHE #WeAreTheUniversity #UCU

Strike action is ON!!! Next week will be the first of 4 weeks of striking from our members as we continue to say NO to the compulsory redundancies forced on us by the university for their poor financial choices. #StopTheCuts #SaveHE

Problematic (to put it kindly) on so many levels. 1) there isn't really 'unfunded' research. The REF is there to allocate resources so that research is possible without a grant.

Our sister unions will also be balloting soon so we stand together in the sector.

Solidarity

Really helpful post here about the upcoming ballot which you'll have seen an email about on Monday. #WeAreTheUniversity - vote yes to: ▶️protect jobs and prevent cuts ▶️defend the agreements that support our work ▶️demand a pay uplift.

We will be balloting in October! Remember, our dispute with the employers is three-fold: pay, protection of agreements and defence of jobs. Any ballot paper will have all three. We all know these three issues are intrinsically linked. We know we need to fight them together. #WeAreTheUniversity

A tenet of Fascism is keep repeating lies and people will become so confused about what is the truth that they’ll start to believe them. We all have a responsibility to keep repeating the truth in the face of politically-motivated lying. Don’t just roll your eyes, speak up.

Why is our trade union emulating the worst behaviour of our employers towards UCU staff? How many of our letters, motions, attempts to bring motions from lay members pressing for resolution have been ignored now? Solidarity with all @uniteucu.bsky.social #UnionStrong #ReclaimUCU

I have friends who run a shelter near the UN offices in Deir al-Balah. They reached the same decision today. People cannot be moved and there is nowhere to go. They asked me to circulate this message widely. “We received evacuation orders but decided to not evacuate at all. /1

Please support @bcu-ucu.bsky.social and sign our petition to stop the threat of compulsory redundancy for 342 staff. chng.it/nKTdm2RCZ7 @ucu.org.uk branches we need your support!

🚨 Lobby the BCU governors! 🚨 On Wed 16th BCU governors are meeting for an update on the current review, which has put 342 staff at risk of redundancy & cuts student support in multiple ways. Join our lobby: 1pm outside Parkside Building Bring your solidarity and your sun cream! #SaveBCU

We @ucu are at the #DurhamMinersGala to honour the @DurhamMiners and the TU movement across the four nations. I am representing every post-16 education member today, every branch defending jobs and demanding better pay and conditions.

Current Leeds branch officers and our former hon sec reunited at #DurhamMinersGala today. Stay cool comrades!

Marching with Agnes today because we promised we’d come to this year’s #DurhamMinersGala together. Rest in power comrade, we miss you x 📸 for poster photo Chris Tregenza @uonucu.bsky.social @leedsucu.bsky.social @redhillsdurham.bsky.social #BigMeeting #DurhamMiners

I've been deliberately taking more breaks from posting here / checking feeds recently (had some leave!) and came back for a scroll this evening to the reports of full on nazism from Grok over on X/Twitter 😑🫠

A delegation from our branch joined our comrades at University of Bradford, striking over plans to make £16m of cuts, slash hundreds of jobs and close multiple courses. Solidarity!

The new episode of the LeedsUCU podcast is all about the branch's campaigning work and the role of the campaigns officer (which will be up for election in September). Search LeedsUCU in your podcast app, or, for direct links and transcripts, see www.leedsucu.org.uk/about-us/pod...

Solidarity with BCU UCU! Please sign and share their petition.

Solidarity with everyone on strike at @uculincolnbranch.bsky.social and across the sector ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏿✊🏻✊🏾🪧🪧🪧🪧🪧

Abortion is healthcare. Abortion is a human right. Abortion is a trade union issue. vickyblakeucu.uk/202... #DecrimAbortion #AbortionRights #UCU #BodilyAutonomy

Deeply ashamed of my union behaving like the bosses we fight. Imposition, victimisation and union-busting needs to stop right now @ucu.org.uk. Solidarity with UCU Unite staff ✊

National rally in support of higher education, Newcastle.

@vickyblake.bsky.social representing Leeds UCU at the National Rally in Newcastle.

A delegation from our branch joined the strike rally in Newcastle - we stand in solidarity with striking workers standing up for the future of HE!

Solidarity with @newcastleucu.bsky.social and all branches taking action in defence of jobs and conditions right now. We’re in Newcastle today for a national demo to #DefendHE #NoRedundancies #DefendEducation #StopTheCuts t.co/ZzwgiJ3gSs

Our @ucu.org.uk #UCU branches + committees starter pack now has @ucudmu.bsky.social @leicesterucu.bsky.social @beourhope.bsky.social @ljmucu.bsky.social added - welcome to BlueSky! Make sure you update by following all on the list :)

📢 National Demo Announced at Newcastle University UCU members from across the UK will descend on Newcastle on Wednesday 11 June for a national demonstration against job cuts. ✊ Join us and make your voice heard www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-e...

On hold

SOS! the volunteers on 'Madleen' have been kidnapped by Israeli forces. Greta Thunberg is a Swedish citizen. Pressure the foreign ministries and help us keep Greta safe! Web: government.se/contacts/ X : @SweMFA FB : @SweMFA IG : swedishmfa #AllEyesOnMadleen

More here:

“People came over to help and got me on the curb. A medic was called, who cut off my clothes. In my leg was what felt like a five centimeter hole with muscle hanging out of it and blood all down my leg. The medic put a tourniquet on it, and a journalist I was with took me to ER.”

Names of the participants on board the Madleen: 1. Yasemin Acar 🇩🇪 2. Baptiste Andre 🇫🇷 3. Thiago Ávila 🇧🇷 4. Omar Faiad 🇫🇷 5. Rima Hassan 🇫🇷 6. Pascal Maurieras 🇫🇷 7. Yanis Mhamdi 🇫🇷 8. Suayb Ordu 🇹🇷 9. Greta Thunberg 🇸🇪 10. Sergio Toribio 🇪🇸 11. Marco Van Rennes 🇳🇱 12. Reva Viard 🇸🇪 13. Sir Liam Cunningham 🇮🇪

Greta Thunberg and her colleagues on the Madleen are literally heading into the scene of a genocide, putting their own lives at great risk, and there are still folk out there calling it 'performative activism'. It really is quite something.

Francesca Albanese 👇 #Israel threats against #Madleen are deplorable and any use of force against the #Flotilla would constitute a terrible breach of international law. The #MadleenFlotilla is a mission of humanity in the face of brutal inhumanity #Gaza.

Fantastic work by @uculincolnbranch.bsky.social members ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏿✊🏻 Hope this focuses the minds of #LincolnUniversity SMT - no to compulsory redundancies! #DefendJobs #DefendHE

We also need to push the government. A small step in doing so would be for you to sign this open letter to @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social docs.google.com/document/d/e...

Many of us @ucu.org.uk have just returned home from the beautiful city of Liverpool after our Annual Congress to see the awful, awful news and harrowing footage. Sending love and solidarity to everyone who has been hurt and affected and everyone worrying about their loved ones.

Private session for first section of HE business at today’s sector conference (part of #UCU2025 Congress) to debate industrial strategy on pay & pay related issues. It’s been a privilege to work alongside JNCHES national negotiators this year, we’ve worked collaboratively and constructively together

Feeling FOMO about all the discussions happening at #UCU2025? Participate in working for #UKHE this weekend from the ease of your own couch / garden furniture and sign the petitions that are out there. (#UCU2025 delegates: might you set aside 5 min to put signatories towards these petitions?)

#UCU2025 as it is Sector Conference today, and we will be talking about USS and the ongoing sceptical exploration of CI here is something I wrote on this last year medium.com/@sarahcjoss/... I am standing. Please vote for me, Vicky & Jackie 🧵