What's happening at the University of Exeter is a disaster for both the region and the country. The way the sector is set up, it is *inevitable* and *unstoppable* that this will continuously happen everywhere. We need to stop, get out a blank sheet of paper and start again.

Solidarity with @uhertfordshireucu.bsky.social colleagues and shame on the so-called leadership of @herts.ac.uk ⤵️

A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

Union heatwave guidance for reps www.ucu.org.uk/media/13584/...

Happening this Wednesday! If you are at Westminster make sure to join and encourage your fellow colleagues to do this same!

Announcement in my union’s (UCU) weekly email newsletter to members. Hopefully other unions are doing the same.

Being an admin means never have to face any scrutiny, but sure would love if someone could ask them why we're in dire financial straits one minute and on solid footing the next. Seems like you can't be both of those things at the same time, but I guess that's why I don't make the big bucks.

First management @northumbriauni.bsky.social came for our pensions and pay - for no good reason. Now they're coming for our colleagues. This is terrible news for staff, students, and the region. @timeshighered.bsky.social @chroniclelive.co.uk @ukhenews.bsky.social @21group.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Always a bit amused when I see a "this is the canary in the coal mine" take about universities or the humanities. My dude, we're knee deep in canary carcasses. Glad've cottoned on, but the eery silence of ceased chirping has long since engulfed us.

And this is why people hate the Oxford Union. Ashamed of the association doesn't even begin to cover it. I'll be out there protesting with the other anti-racists. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Amazing victory for comrades at Sheffield Hallam, whose extended industrial action halted management plans for a subsidiary which would have seriously undermined working conditions & pension entitlements. A powerful message for us at LSBU & nationally, showing what collective strength can achieve

Info on tonight's counter-programming to Durham Union Society hosting Helen Joyce. Fancy not being part of the problem? We know some people who've got you covered!

Proud of the trade union movement and Scotland for turning out in huge numbers to oppose the far right, to reclaim the streets, and say refugees are welcome here. Nae Pasaran

Up in Newcastle with members from NYCU, at the anti-racist protest. Whose streets? Our streets!

Wow. Simultaneously being put at risk of redundancy and my new modules being abolished, while also being asked to put forward those same modules for TEF and Accessibility case studies. The sheer nerve.

Padraig Mulholland of NIPSA has said if the attacks on migrant workers do not stop, the Unions will bring the country to a standstill.

We condemn the monstrous attack that took place on Monday evening on Stephen Ogilvy. Our thoughts are with him and his family. There can never be any justification for racism, vigilantism, or collective blame. Please read our full statement: ucu.org.uk/article/1454...

Caroline Lucas: "We need to recognise that what happened on the streets of Belfast was being orchestrated by the far right, by Elon Musk, by a network of people who actually want this to happen, so it wasn't quite as spontaneous as it looked.. and that has to be stopped"

In response to last night's far right rally in central Glasgow, the UCU Glasgow branch officers reaffirm the statement agreed by the Joint Union Liaison Committee in August 2024: glasgow.web.ucu.org.uk/2024/08/08/u...

Come on #UCU fam, you know what to do.

Appalling to read the news coming out of Belfast last night, and appalling again seeing how many are trying to spin this into yet another argument about immigration. Astonishing that this has to be said, but *RACIAL POGROMS ARE BAD*. Baseline morality requires that this be our starting point here.

A Vice Chancellor speaks "We cut our pension contributions in half, offer you a trivial payment ... & if you don’t accept, you’ll be left worse off" Grim from VC Andy Long of Northumbria -- who was present at the torching of Nottingham University www.timeshighereducation.com/news/northum...

Any parent and applicant planning to attend the Sussex University Open Day today, we can save you the trouble: these are the non-answers staff is told to give you. To send your staff out with this nonsense and treat visitors to this ChatGPT approach is disrespectful to all.

Its profoundly unclear what management think the future of the university is, but one vision is apparent: a large cohort of well paid middle managers who dont have anyone or anything to manage but do send a lot of emails.

I am really, really worried about how little mainstream broadcasters and politicians are pushing back against explicit racism. It isn’t difficult to contextualise or challenge with facts. They manage it on other topics.

🚨DR UK's Statement on the EHRC's New Code of Practice "We are appalled at implications that an adequate workaround is trans people using Disabled toilets instead. We will not be used as a loophole in the wider erosion of trans rights." Full statement👇 www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/disabil...

Thank you to @eddavey.libdems.org.uk and @mariecgoldman.bsky.social for sending this letter about the draft EHRC Code of Practice. We fully agree that it needs to be withdrawn, and that women's rights and trans rights are not in conflict. 🧡🏳️‍⚧️ We're re-sharing the letter, with Alt-text. 👇

Equality is not conditional. Dignity at work is not negotiable. The EHRC Code of Practice has been published. UCU is examining it urgently. This is a significant and unsettling moment and we will not leave branches to navigate it alone. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1451...

It is "unionize or die" time in American higher ed. Yes, that means you and your special work. I don't care if you're "not political," because our enemies are very political.

If your employer tried to punish you for staying in your pension scheme, would you stand for it? Northumbria UCU members have voted to censure their university, declared no confidence in the board of govs and called on the chair to resign. This is why strong branches and collective action matter.

A strong statement here from Durham's Student Union regarding an invitation for Helen Joyce to attend an event at Durham Union Society (yes, it's confusing).

🛑NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY CENSURED BY UCU🛑 On 28 May @ucu.org.uk wrote to management @northumbriauni.bsky.social regarding censure.

Had the honour & opportunity to meet @zackpolanski.bsky.social at #UCUCongress. We briefly chatted about Makersfield, the importance of trade unions, and my journey in @ducu.bsky.social as a professional services member. He was friendly, he listened, he asked probing questions. Was a pleasure.

Have just lined up solidarity payments from @ducu.bsky.social to @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social, @uonucu.bsky.social @goldsmithsucu.bsky.social & Heriot Watt UCU. They may be local disputes but you are not alone! Solidarity! We still have some allocated funds for unions in dispute, hmu if this is you.

Action- the administration says they are making 100% salary reductions in response to our marking and assessment boycott and that all other work from participants during this time is "voluntary." Response- We strike for two months straight. westbridgfordwire.com/university-o...

Academic departments deserve to be saved, supported, resourced, allowed to grow even if they're not "best in the country," "first in the REF," "top-ranked," "at a Russell Group uni," or whatever other austerity-brained nonsense senior managers have been using to flimflam you out of solidarity

'Please confirm that the threat of financial loss should you not move to a scheme you're not interested in constitutes "encouragement", and not "pressure".'

Who could have guessed?

This matters. Please co-sign. Managers like to pretend that petitions don't move them, but in reality cannot but answer questions about the numbers, and suddenly things that were deemed inevitable appear to be more-evitably-than-previously-declared.

Solidarity with @unite0775m.bsky.social - on strike again today and 10 days this month over inadequate pay offers. @cambridgeucu.bsky.social members passed a motion of support recently, and I popped over to the picketline outside Engineering to say hello this morning.

2,700 staff at the University of Nottingham have received 'at risk' letters from the management. The same management which refused to cut their own pay, and the same management which refused to resign after losing £60 million on a disastrous attempt to build a new campus. #JoinAUnion

Don't tell the Sun that some students *don't even come to lectures in the first place* they might get Triggered and us wokerati can't have that

Portugal: Unions confirm general strike for June 3 www.portugalresident.com/unions-confi...

Gasp! Not the right to leave a lecture, something no student has ever had before. What are we supposed to do with all the laser beams and guard dogs we use to prevent students exiting our lecture theatres early!?!

When we talk about academia being a death-by-a-thousand-cuts kinda job, we're usually talking metaphorically, but...

A Durham UCU statement regarding last week's ruling in favour of Sussex University in their appeal against the £500,000+ fine imposed upon them by the Office for Students, and what we see it as meaning for providing adequate support for trans students and staff against transphobia.

"France serves up €1 meals to all university students in effort to cut hardship"

So. If you work in HE, are reading this, and are not in your union: Join it. If you work in any other sector, care at all about having a university sector, and want to help: tell your MPs how you feel about all this as directly as you can.