We have agreed this statement on the Palestine solidarity encampments set up by students at
@Cambridge_Uni
and
@UniofOxford
with
@OxfordUCU
. In line with local and national
@ucu
policies we urge our institutions to divest from war and apartheid
BREAKING! Students have occupied the lecture block on Sidgwick site of
@Cambridge_Uni
in solidarity with our
#UCUstrike
. More details coming soon. We stand together as striking staff and students to defend education!
⚡️HUGE MARCH ON
@Cambridge_Uni
⚡️ after record-breaking turnout for our pickets and rally, we marched to Old Schools to demand management open their eyes and see that we can’t carry on like this
We are marching on
@Cambridge_Uni
to demand
#Justice4CollegeSupervisors
, because this world-class education is overwhelmingly delivered by precarious staff, many of whom aren’t even paid the minimum wage for their work
Cambridge UCU is in total solidarity with Dr Gopal
@PriyamvadaGopal
, tireless campaigner against racism, both in the university and the wider world. You can buy her book here
Important announcement:
@Cambridge_Uni
invites
@ucu
to submit formal claim for recognition. This step forward is the result of the combined pressure from national strikes and local campaigning.
🗣️ WE ARE ON THE BRINK OF ACHIEVING RECOGNITION! 🗣️
After two years of negotiations, we are about to get recognised by the
@Cambridge_Uni
for all our bargaining groups (academic, academic-related, and research staff).
It has been a hard fight - 🧵
Here's our statement on Arundhati Roy pulling out of the Clark Lecture at Trinity College due to the ongoing academic boycott following it's decision to leave USS last year
It's tremendous gesture of support, and we’re hugely grateful to her for taking such a difficult decision
UPDATE: Swingeing pay cuts for not rescheduling classes as part of ASOS are NOT going ahead.
@Cambridge_Uni
has backed down after protests from staff and students. Our motion showed we wouldn't be bullied and our members organised to push back. We can beat this attack.
Solidarity with all Harvard graduate workers starting an indefinite strike today over pay, healthcare, and other issues after more than a year of negotiations.
The struggle for a fairer, better higher education sector is not limited to the UK ✊
Why are we striking? A short comparison:
1. Starting assistant salary
2. Starting RA salary
3. Starting lecturer salary
4.
@Cambridge_Uni
VC Stephen Toope's salary 👀
#UCUStrikesBack
#CUCUStrikes
Can you hear us
@Cambridge_Uni
? People are sick of poor pay, ever-worsening pensions, ever-increasing pay gaps and casualisation, and we’re not going to take it any more
It's 2021, and enough is enough.
@Cambridge_Uni
is the only public UK university not to recognise the
@ucu
.
This is a campaign to secure a seat at the table for
#AllofUs
.
#RecognitionNow
✏️Sign the petition:
✋Join the campaign:
Here's a bit of history to reflect on - the outcome of a previous marking boycott in 2006.
@ucu
members won a pay rise worth 13 percent over 3 years and the repayment of all strike deductions. (PS POST YOUR BALLOT NOW)
Sidney Sussex is the most recent Cambridge college to join King's, St Catherine's, and Clare to confirm the opinion on
#USS
was not representative - link to statement soon!
#USSstrike
#CamUSSstrike
One thing we wish members take from ASOS is that it's actually fine to be working according to contract. No-one benefits from systematic overwork: it compounds the culture of exploitation in the academia. Let's banish it forever.
Students have occupied the main admin building
@Cambridge_Uni
in
#solidarity
with
@ucu
strikes. Read our statement here and JOIN us at 12.30 TODAY outside Great St Mary's church to show the VC that staff and students are united
🎉🎉The branch just voted to accept our draft recognition agreement. 🎉🎉 This is a huge step towards formalising our bargaining power with the university. 💪🏽💪🏽
A very simple message for the university on the pickets at Sidgwick this morning: across the university staff and students are sick and tired of being systematically underpaid (or entirely unpaid!) for our work.
#ucuRISING
After five years of organising the
#Justice4CollegeSupervisors
campaign is officially calling for a boycott of the college supervision system in Michaelmas 2023. 🧵
A massive thank you to the students who sided with staff and called for the university to
#SettletheDispute
, organising an open letter with 1,400 signatures to demand a negotiated end to the MAB. Students and staff came together at a rally today to celebrate their work!
Just in case you missed it -
@UniofOxford
VC Louise Richardson has sent an email to staff reversing her position. This is not a drill. Repeat: this is not a drill.
#CamUSSstrike
#USSstrike
The leaders of Loughborough, Glasgow, Warwick, Birkbeck, Goldsmiths, Strathclyde, London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine, Essex and others have all called for a resumption of national talks.
Today we are delivering over 600 postcards to
@cambridge_uni
signed by current and future college supervisors who are sick and tired of the way the university and colleges treat their staff. We are demanding fair pay, decent working conditions and
#Justice4CollegeSupervisors
@ucu
@UniversitiesUK
@UCEA1
So who did they think was delivering lectures, rewriting courses, dealing with students in crisis, keeping IT systems, archives and libraries online, AND doing research, writing grant applications OFTEN WHILE caring for their own kids. THE FLIPPING FAIRIES?
Please, please remember: there is no justification for being abusive towards someone you disagree with, on Twitter or elsewhere. The ballot will have the unfortunate effect of dividing our membership. We urge all members to do all they can to stay friends with each other.
The sun is shining on a huge crowd for our biggest ever rally with
@AngliaRuskinUCU
and
@Unite0775M
! We will win this dispute and win a fairer education system for all
#UCURising
The union movement has filled Cambridge Guildhall to capacity! Hearing workers across Cambridge speaking to their experience of public sector cuts and the power of strike action ⚡️⚡️⚡️
What's the difference between Deliveroo and
@Cambridge_Uni
? The degrees are more expensive than the pizza but far too many of the workers delivering them are paid thru a gig economy model.
@rachela_hall
investigates for
@guardian
As
@ucu
Higher Education starts a crucial meeting, we are sharing excerpts from a report sent to HEC members by our delegates to yesterday's BDM. We were *not* happy with what happened there and urge
@DrJoGrady
@justinemercer11
and
@ucu
officials to act on members' concerns.
Yesterday, the Regent House, the governing body of
@Cambridge_Uni
, firmly rejected proposals by the administration to water down the standards that apply to University Examinations.
Solidarity with
@PriyamvadaGopal
- being targeted with vile sexist and racist abuse for speaking up against white supremacists. We are proud to be your colleagues both on the picket line and off it.
#BlackLivesMatter
#Solidarity
☕ Happy Monday Cambridge!☕
Today is our 6th strike day! Pickets are kicking off from 8:30am so come down and join us - weather forecast is dry and cloudy (don't let the early morning rain put you off!)
#UCUStrikesBack
#CUCUStrikes
History graduate students, including our members, have successfully won the struggle for paid graduate teaching - kudos, and a lesson on how to fight precarious labour!
Wonderful turnout for today’s march against Tommy Robinson’s supporters, who were so few they couldn’t manage a march (though they did manage to assault a police officer). Hundreds of us showed there is no place for racism and hatred in our proud and diverse city.
"Those on strike are not demanding anything impossible. We are not asking for fat sums of money like VCs and management. We are simply asking that the labour of those who keep universities running be acknowledged."
@PriyamvadaGopal
is speaking now at our rally
Yesterday at our AGM, Cambridge passed a very strongly-worded condemnation of Congress Motion 5 (Stop the War in Ukraine) and committed the branch to Motion 6 and affiliation with
@UkraineSol
💥 WE HAVE A FIRST WIN ON PAID TRAINING 💥
Today the Uni confirmed that they will draft guidance that mandates Faculties to pay for supervision training they require .
We now want the Colleges to follow the Uni's lead and pay for training too.
#Justice4CollegeSupervisors
🚨
#SummerofSolidarity
🚨At a branch meeting today we voted to donate £5,000 to the
@qm_ucu
fighting fund. We also passed a motion of solidarity with our comrades in Queen Mary’s UCU. Your struggle is our struggle!
68% of research staff in higher education are on fixed-term contracts like Julia. We are fighting for our right to negotiate for job security for her and others.
#RecognitionNow
#AllofUs
We passed two important motions at our general meeting on 27 July. The first concerns recognition. We are pleased to announce that
@Cambridge_Uni
has agreed to open negotiations with UCU for recognition covering academic, research and academic-related staff.
Across all of the unions here today, across the education sector and beyond, there are staff facing the same struggle: a decade of real terms pay cuts, gig economy employment practices, unaffordable housing and collapsing services. Together we can win!!
#wednesdaywalkout
Our
#Justice4CollegeSupervisors
Rally is starting now outside Great Saint Mary’s! After we will be delivering our open letter (with over 1200 signatures!) to Marina Fresca-Spada, Head of the Senior Tutors Committee and Malcolm Millbrook at the Office for Intercollegiate Services
Just one day after we secured a historic mandate for strike action,
@Cambridge_Uni
has announced an “exceptional cost of living payment”. We should be clear that this scheme is but a sticking plaster compared to the scale of the cost-of-living crisis. 🧵
"Trinity College must understand that they are part of a collegiate system that relies on the support of other members of staff"
Academics pledge to withhold labour from Trinity if it exits UK pensions scheme, in wake of Varsity revelations
😰 LATE PAYMENT ALERT 😰
Hi
@Cambridge_Uni
, at least 5 people have not yet been paid for marking of undergraduate exams that they completed in EASTER TERM. Can you follow up and expedite payment ASAP?
It's not like we are in the midst of a cost of living crisis or something...
On average, across the UK, BAME research & academic staff are paid £12,000 less per year than white counterparts.
We're calling for concrete action from Cambridge University to tackle this inequality NOW
#UCUStrikesBack
#UCUStrikes
#CUCUStrikes
🚨🚨After hourly-paid
@Cambridge_Uni
teachers signed 600+ postcards demanding a better deal, today, w/
@yourcambridgesu
, we sent an open letter to management calling for urgent change.
It's time for:
1. PAID TRAINING
2. FAIR PAY
3. PROPER CONTRACTS
#Justice4CollegeSupervisors
!
📣
@Cambridge_Uni
RAISE THE BAR FOR CASUALISED STAFF📣
Thank you to everyone for an incredible morning of action!
Today we:
📬Posted 900 postcards in support of our
#RaiseTheBar
campaign to HR
❗Dropped a banner outside King's
🎄Decorated Old Schools ready for ContractsMas
"We are highly qualified individuals essentially working in a gig economy. Academics are fighting each other to be increasingly underpaid and overworked, whilst being encouraged to move to where the work is, discarding their support networks each time"
Look at what our picketers on Sidgwick site are putting in the "Dustbin of History" - Excessive workloads/ Race and gender pay gaps / Pay cuts / Pension cuts and ...
@UniversitiesUK
#ucuRISING
(we might add
@UCEA1
too)
😡 UPDATE: THE CAMBRIDGE TRUST REJECTED OUR DEMANDS 😡
600 people signed a petition demanding the Cambridge Trust to guarantee 4 years of funding to PhD students.
Last week, the Trust rejected all of our demands on spurious grounds.
Dec 15, 6 PM: Escalation meeting!
🧵
Following Friday's tragic events in London, there will be no picketing at Sidgwick tomorrow morning.
We are also asking picketers at other sites to observe a minute's silence at 11am.
Please read the full statement from Cambridge UCU here:
Someone (not us) has been flyposting King's Parade in Cambridge. 😈 Student solidarity so far has been amazing and we haven't begun the action yet. (We'd say that even better than going back to bed on strike days you can join the picket line.)
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
🔥🔥Big win for the
#Justice4CollegeSupervisors
Campaign!🔥🔥 One of our 3 key demands has been for paid training from supervisors, and the colleges have agreed to a new levy that will fund a £100 payment for time spent in CCTL Training for every new supervisor. 🧵
You know you're in trouble when UCU General Secretary
@DrJoGrady
calls your choices a disgrace.
@Cambridge_Uni
, there's a quick fix: join every other public uni in England and recognise your staff union.
#RecognitionNow
Today it is
#Justice4CollegeSupervisors
day on the picket lines. Let's warm up for our rally with a recap of where we are, how we got here, and how Cambridge Colleges are not listening to our demands (brace yourself, it will be a long 🧵)
UCU branches, the clock is ticking. This is what you need to do to get your employer to follow suit:
1) Prevent them from passing Force Majeure regulations to get rid of Quality Assurances;
2) Ask them to issue a (joint) statement calling for UCEA to resume negotiations.