Strike report - Day 7 (Tue 3 Dec) + plan for Day 8

Since the beginning of our action, on top of the 30,000 leaflets plus mentioned yesterday, we have distributed around 15,000 stickers to staff, students and members of the public who stopped to offer solidarity. We also published a general leaflet for students and a leaflet in Mandarin and Cantonese aimed at Chinese students.
 
Campus was once more very quiet today and departments continued their Teach-Outs.
 
We had a useful Strike Committee meeting that discussed future plans for strike action.

Day 8: Insourcing and Inclusion - Unite for Access for All!

Day 8 is the last day of strike action in this phase. There will be protests during the morning and a strike meeting at 12:15pm in Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, ahead of the #IncludeUS! Rally beginning at 1pm. For details see below.

i) Insourcing: IWGB is calling strike action this Wednesday - join UCU / IWGB rally

Tomorrow there is a change to our normal schedule. We will be picketing from 8-10:30am and then holding a solidarity rally with the IWGB at the main Gower Street entrance. Please try to join the picket lines as early as possible. We welcome first-time picketers and seasoned strikers alike.

Outsourced cleaners, porters and security staff will be on strike for 24 hours on Wednesday, consequently many services will be closed and buildings may simply not open. 

Some of our teaching colleagues are also “outsourced”. Tomorrow, precarious UCU members in Open City Docs have agreed they will strike together. They deserve all our support. They have announced pickets and Teach-Outs just outside Student Central on Malet Street.

ii) Inclusion: #IncludeUS! Rally - Day of Action for Disability Equality in Education 

Wednesday 4 December is our Day of Action for Disability Equality in Education. There will be a London Region UCU rally at Hamilton House at 1pm.

Invited Speakers: Mike Rosen, TUC Disabled Members Committee, Alliance for Inclusive Education, NEU, UNISON, National Union of Students, Disabled People Against Cuts
+ UCU activists on #includeUS actions & where next for our strike.

When You Return to Work on Thursday…

We understand that many colleagues will return to work facing a huge backlog. This shows the effectiveness of our strikes. We will be under a lot of pressure to catch up with lost work. 

Action Short Of A Strike (ASOS) will be ongoing. Our industrial action FAQ has some helpful advice about this:

““While a strike is a concerted stoppage of work, action short of a strike (ASOS) is normally action which affects only certain aspects of your work. Since the changes introduced by the Trade Union Act 2016 we have to determine and ballot members regarding the types of action short of strike we are calling. Action short of a strike in these disputes means we are asking you to:
- work to contract
- not cover for absent colleagues
- not reschedule lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action
- not undertake any voluntary activities”

The FAQ goes on to consider e.g. what does working to contract mean, what does refusing to reschedule lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action mean? Etc.

Thank you for supporting our action.

UCL UCU Executive Committee

@ucl_ucu
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucu/
https://www.facebook.com/universitycollegelondonucu