@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social making their presence felt outside @northumbriauni.bsky.social HR HQ yesterday, to share their indignation and outrage at plans to force people to chose between their pension and their pay. Whose uni? Our Uni!

@solgamsu.bsky.social from @ducu.bsky.social sharing wisdom and energy with the crowd at today's @ucu.org.uk and @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social rally. Thanks so much!

Restructures often hit precarious, disabled, migrant and racially minoritised staff hardest – the very colleagues already carrying the heaviest burden. Before any changes, management must publish equality impact assessments and act on them.

Just a little reminder - this is happening TOMORROW! See y'all there! @ucu.org.uk @ucucommons.org @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ducu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @umucu.bsky.social @uculeft.bsky.social @unisoninhe.bsky.social @nasuwtnewcastle.bsky.social @ntyneside-nasuwt.bsky.social

It's politicians that need to restore legitimacy with the public, not universities. Only 9% trust politicians but 82% trust academics

We note, with the precise diametric opposite of surprise, that "Universities must be bastions of free speech no matter how uncomfortable that makes people" has magically morphed into "We mustn't wait until a Reform government to start only saying exactly what they would want us to".

Two things here. First, we already are mindful of resilience, and try hard to prioritise opportunity, fairness and belonging - and to the extent to which this isn't as true as it could be, it's precisely to appease the people trying to push this crap through.

THIS IS THE ONE! @ucu.org.uk @ucucommons.org @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ducu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @tuc.org.uk @tucneyh.bsky.social @tucnorthwest.bsky.social @unisoninhe.bsky.social @unison.org.uk @unitetheunion.bsky.social @aslefunion.bsky.social @pcsunion.bsky.social @gmb.org.uk

🎸🎻🪗Choonz and joie de vivre (and a bit of a breeze🍃) at the @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social picket lines today - life-affirming, bonding moments in the fight for pay and pension justice @northumbriauni.bsky.social.

Why is government determined to have plausible deniability about the destructiveness of the #UKHE funding system? Why do they avoid having the data that shows this marketised, fee-based, competition-to-the-death system is destroying research & education? Might it be because they know it's harmful?

16-03-1977 FRANCE: Unions win retirement at age 60 for women.

We’ll be gathering outside the Tower Building this morning from 10-11am to ask why the University of Dundee is continuing with Jon cuts and forecasting redundancies. Anyone can join us to support this peaceful rally. Front of the Tower Building, 10-11am. #NoMoreJobCuts #SaveDundeeUni #SaveHE

Ye Gods. I'm assuming "shocking" here is meant in the sense of "outrageous and enraging", rather than "in any way surprising".

@ucu.org.uk @unitetheunion.bsky.social @unison.org.uk @tuc.org.uk @tucneyh.bsky.social @chroniclelive.co.uk @danhollandnews.bsky.social @timeshighered.bsky.social @ucucommons.org @uculeft.bsky.social @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ducu.bsky.social @newcastleucu.bsky.social @moneyontheleft.bsky.social

Humanity cannot live on pi alone. (I am so, so sorry.)

”We are not only fighting for our jobs, we are fighting for each other”: hear from me and other staff and students who joined picket lines at Uni of Aberdeen today 🪧✊🏻 www.gaudie.co.uk/wpress/index...

💪🥁📣PLS SHARE! @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social ON STRIKE 16, 17, 25, 26, 27 March AND 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 April. 👉👉👉25 March = NATIONAL RALLY TO PROTECT PAY AND PENSIONS 1PM at Monument in NEWCASTLE with UCU GS Jo Grady and President Elect Dyfrig Jones. All welcome.

It's just heart-breaking hearing about students from the Sudan, Afghanistan, and elsewhere who wanted to come to the UK to study and build themselves a future, suddenly denied that possibility.

Reset the "days since Birmingham Uni management make the news for all the wrong reasons" counter, lads.

400 lives uprooted by a single email. This student puts the impact of the cuts into reality. Join the march this Sunday: 1pm, Pier Hill → Broadway.

Sometimes solidarity is getting up slightly earlier and taking a weird route to work so you can post your industrial action ballot.

Today's @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social picket line jam - the title says it all: 'Come Together'. We do, and we will, until the fight for pay and pensions justice is won. Bring pen and paper for picket line quiz today too! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUjW...

🥁📯🐶😍👉Huge @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social picket lines @northumbriauni.bsky.social today - with more strike dates announced (16, 17, 25, 26, 27 March and 20-24 April). Expect more drums, dogs, and righteous indignation @andylong6.bsky.social @georgeclarke.bsky.social @chionwurah.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

It's ASOS time, everyone! We regularly hear from colleagues that they're working, to use a technical term, "silly hours"; way beyond what could be considered reasonable. It wasn't our first choice to end that via action short of strike, but it was clear SOMETHING needed to be done, so here we are.

When will the UK government wake up to the wholesale destruction of HE that's happening? This affects towns and cites across the UK, our businesses, the NHS, schools, young people, our global standing, everything! Higher Education, Universities, contribute over £265 BILLION to the economy.

DUCU pub social in the Half Moon RIGHT NOW!

Some picket snaps from last week courtesy of @neunion.bsky.social members! More to come next week!

BUCU Members - Did you know you’re entitled to reasonable paid time off and proper facilities to carry out any union role and attend UCU training? Despite what your manager or HR might tell you - this is the law.

Here is @ducu.bsky.social ‘s analysis of management’s most recent response to our request to negotiate. Management took extra time to deliver us a response that was a flat and unequivocal “no, we will negotiate NOTHING with you.” durhamucu.org.uk/ducus-analys...

Reading the news today & came across this. To be CRYSTAL CLEAR, @ducu.bsky.social has REPEATEDLY raised workload problems to management and offered potential solutions for negotiation. In EVERY instance, management has refused to negotiate. “No” is not negotiation. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

About to start our rally outside the Palatine Centre. Come along for solidarity and chanting! Let the employer know we're not going to keep working more hours than we're paid for, and the hundreds of staff lost to "voluntary severance" are not forgotten!

@ucu.org.uk @ucucommons.org @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ducu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @unisoninhe.bsky.social @tucneyh.bsky.social @danhollandnews.bsky.social @timeshighered.bsky.social @chroniclelive.co.uk @josephinecumbo.bsky.social @neunion.bsky.social @bylinesnetwork.co.uk

Hopefully this makes a difference 🤞

We can win a better pay offer in 2026! We've suffered a 9% pay cut in real terms since 2018. Management imposed another real-terms cut last year - insisting that a 2% increase was all they could afford - and then refused to negotiate with the unions. 2026 pay negotiations begin in April.

Ric gets it! In this case, he's got the importance of voting in the current round of UCU elections. The ballot closes 5pm next Monday, so get those envelopes in your nearest slotted red tube!* *Slotted red boxes also available.

Read our statement on the announcement of 200 jobs to be lost at the University of Dundee. “DUCU believes that the timing of exits proposed in the VS scheme will cause massive disruption at a very sensitive time…when exams, marking, & processing of grades are taking place. sites.dundee.ac.uk/ducu/

After a massive turn out in the indicative ballot, we're moving to make it formal. On March 2nd, our formal ballot for another round of industrial action against Future Nottingham, compulsory redundancies, and course closures opens. If you are a member, make sure you vote! Let your voice be heard!

Across the UK, UCU branches are fighting job cuts and compulsory redundancies at Stirling, Aberdeen, Heriot-Watt, Essex, Solent, Leicester, Nottingham and London Met. Same story: cuts, overwork, and attacks on education. We stand with every branch in dispute. ​

Shout out for the learned societies keeping a beady eye on the state of the disciplines that university senior managers are so swiftly dismantling. Keep an eye on the state of UK university Geography with the help of the @rgs.org 's new report, published this week.

UK unis: we need to pay mid-six figure salaries to the people in charge, because it is imperative we get the best and brightest to lead us. Also UK unis: It isn't reasonable to expect us to do anything to solve any of our problems, or even to check whether a new problem might be brewing.

Join the University and Colleges Union branch at the University of Dundee today. Our strike action and lobbying was a major factor in securing additional funding for the University. We consistently protect our members and ask for redundancies to be ruled out. Join now - www.ucu.org.uk/join

Solidarity to colleagues at the University of Aberdeen for getting a mandate for industrial action.

So. Much. NOOOOOOIIIIIISSSSSEEEEEE! (Because so much anger and solidarity.)

It says a lot about the state of UK universities that @birminghamucu.bsky.social have had to negotiate over "recognition that union reps should not face detriment for union work". It also tells us that all who work in unis need to be in a union. #JoinAUnion #heartunionsweek ❤️unions

@ucu.org.uk @georgeclarke.bsky.social @andylong6.bsky.social @ucucommons.org @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ducu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @tuc.org.uk @unison.org.uk

They took my desk, now they want my pension, well NO: (On strike today and tomorrow, off to join @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social picket line outside the law school, itll be cold and wet but sometimes you have to stand up and be counted.)

Job cuts and campus closures anywhere threaten post-16 education everywhere. Solidarity with staff and students at Essex fighting job losses and the closure of Southend campus – including 7 days of strike action from today.

Solidarity to @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social !

RE this Tab article: Durham UCU is *not* "definitely [striking]". We have a *mandate* to strike, and - per our ballot result & a confirmatory motion at today's GM - we'll be engaging in ASOS. We do not currently have plans to strike (this could change, depending on employer response to our claim).

Reskeeted without comment.