As someone who works for another UCU branch (@ducu.bsky.social), I endorse this message at Lboro, Durham, and everywhere

@ucu.org.uk @theguardian.com @timeshighered.bsky.social @chroniclelive.co.uk @labourunionsuk.bsky.social @teamlabouruk.bsky.social @tuc.org.uk @ducu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @umucu.bsky.social

Stronger together ✊ Hear from #LboroUCU members on why union membership matters and how we support each other. Be part of it: ucu.lboro.ac.uk/join/ @ucu.org.uk #UCU #JoinAUnion

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no... @ucu.org.uk @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social

The same can be said for @ducu.bsky.social !

Every gain on campus – from workload to health & safety – has come from members taking action together. If you’re feeling isolated, you don’t have to face this alone. Join Birmingham UCU today.

Shame nobody from UCU is quoted in this article

Attention, Durham members! You've got 'til the end of the week to safely post your local ballot. Numbers keep climbing, but the more votes we get, the stronger a position we're in! Here's 12 good reasons to get that vote in!

400 jobs at risk. A campus set to close. This film explains what’s happening at the University of Essex and why staff, students and the local community are organising to stop it. 📍 Southend rally | 5 February

Ric gets it (and happy birthday, Ric!)

Go get 'em, @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social !

Solidarity @sheffielducu.bsky.social ✊ Petition and branch hardship fund details below 👇 www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no...

A big part of the reason the UK university sector is in such a mess is that it is led by people who despise their staff & actively try to break their spirits.

The move in recent years for a number of UK universities to do this is disgusting and unjust. Sheffield management isn’t alone, but they are a disgrace. Only a leadership team that has utter contempt for their staff & doesn’t care a jot about ongoing relations and morale would do this.

Solidarity with @sheffielducu.bsky.social - please donate to striking members as they are now facing 100% deductions! It is our right to strike.

‘haphazard’ and ‘uncoordinated’ is a real through line in cost cutting in the university sector it’s almost like the people making decisions here fail to understand that universities are very complex institutions and that very few people (if any) ‘do the same job’ within them

Just reading this skeet made my heartrate spike. I could taste bile. It occurs to me that so many of us have still open wounds from what happened in 2023, which we don't know how to even start healing.

Absolutely disgraceful; full solidarity with our colleagues in Sheffield. This reads a lot like an escalation of what some institutions - including ours - did after the MAB: demand the work we were docked pay for not doing then got done for free.

We are so, SO far past the point where it is even remotely acceptable for UKHE and the government to just keep insisting there's nothing that can be done, and forcing our colleagues and friends to pay for that total failure to act.

Do it, y'all! No matter how things go over the next six months, we're stronger with a mandate!

St Helens, Knowsley and Liverpool are out on the picket lines this morning. FE staff have faced a 40% real-terms pay cut and are paid around £9,000 less for doing the same job. That’s not fair and it’s not sustainable. Show your support ✊

Full solidarity with our Scottish comrades!

For the new arrivals on this website now the other one has become even more of an abusive mess:

Damn right we are!

THEY'RE NOW ALSO TAKING DOWN GUARDIAN ARTICLES FROM OUR DOORS. Nice freedom of expression we've got here. Not at all worrying censorship of trade union activities, international solidarity, and other organising. Anyway, READ THE ARTICLE AGAIN THEN: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #UKHE

Attention, DUCU! Ballot papers INCOMING! We're tired of being asked to do more & more for less & less, which has only gotten worse since the employer slashed >200 roles without protecting the workloads of those left. Vote YES to strike action! Vote YES to ASOS! (See today's member comm for more.)

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate :)

Solidarity to @northumbriauni.bsky.social staff, told they must move to a pension scheme widely considered worse or face a pay freeze (against UK-wide bargaining). United as unions, they can beat it (& deter other employers from trying similar). Post those ballots, & join if you’re not a member!

@northumbriauni.bsky.social want to freeze our pay unless we move pension? @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social say #Wham bam no thank you man! @ucu.org.uk @ducu.bsky.social @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @umucu.bsky.social @uswucu.bsky.social @chroniclelive.co.uk @danhollandnews.bsky.social

It might be that Birmingham have been uniquely foolish in their handling of this situation, but it's worth noting that management failing to take overwork, stress and burnout seriously is a sector-wide problem, and only getting worse as universities slash staff costs.

Go get 'em!

@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social ballot opens next week to stop a pay freeze @northumbriauni.bsky.social. Just getting in early, ya filthy animals... @ucu.org.uk @ducu.bsky.social @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @umucu.bsky.social @uswucu.bsky.social

Here's a musical message for all @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social members, and those @northumbriauni.bsky.social who want to freeze their pay! @ucu.org.uk @ducu.bsky.social @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ducuuo.bsky.social @umucu.bsky.social

✊ Yesterday UCU members stood at Southampton Solent as the Board discussed a fire-and-rehire proposal that would weaken pensions. UCU is clear: no to fire and rehire. #SouthamptonSolent #UCU

VC loses confidence vote:

This is pulling the ladder up after them - it is SO vital and I came through a route that did precisely this for me. I then went on to a fully funding nurse training that gave me and my daughter enough to live off... Talk about removing ladders from poverty.

Always happy to welcome more friends into club-of-demanding-an-end-to-this-mess, but why does every VC see the light only *after* they retired and set aside all power & responsibility? What is it in those VC bodies like UUK an UCEA that prevents them from acknowledging reality?

Join your trade union. @ducu.bsky.social

Awful, awful news. Full solidarity with UCU Essex in their fight to get this plan abandoned.

Despicable.

The insulting 1.4% pay offer from the universities on top of years of sub-inflation pay rises has led our members to vote for strike action in the 2025-26 pay round. The results are as follows: Turnout: 54.39% Yes: 83.16% Against: 16.84% We now have mandate for strike action!

I'd say what they think they're achieving here is exactly what they *are* achieving. Now they think they've won on what it means to be a woman biologically (despite that not being true either scientifically or legally), they've moved on to denying trans women the right to *socialise* as women.

Solidarity with Derby @ucu.org.uk members on strike against compulsory redundancies this week. #LboroUCU branch is with you as you stand up to your catastrophic management! #DerbyUCU #WeAreTheUniversity

And De Montfort University! Which other Nous-victims are there in #UKHE?

Disappointing national ballot result for @ucu.org.uk. We have to keep building despite it. Proud of our branch @ducu.bsky.social who got comfortably over the 50% mark based on our local data. Building strong local branches is essential to defending our sector, there is no other way out of this.

This is why it's important to have Arts/Humanities courses AND STEM courses. It all fits together, they compliment each other. There's no such thing as useless education.

Sensible universities see their staff as assets to be nurtured and protected. Foolish universities see them as a cost to be minimised. Really stupid universities see them as an enemy to be defeated. @sheffielducu.bsky.social

This is what my employer is trying to do to us at Northumbria University.

Come see Dr Jane Rooney talk this Thursday on the topic of international law! Atrocities in Palestine and International Law Dr Jane Rooney (Durham Law School) 4 December 2025 1-2pm TLC101

So, an OU student a shitty reaction paper in a psych course, got failed by a grad student TA for not following directions and threatened legal action, while also getting her uni TPUSA chapter to post the essay. Her mother is on X saying trans people must not be allowed to be professors. This is…