UCL-UCU: Final details for 1-3 Dec strike action

This page sets out some ideas to build staff/student solidarity, details our picketing organisation, the timetable and venue for strike and teach-out meetings on 1 & 2 December and the London Region demonstration on Friday 3 December, suggests an ‘out of office’ message for strike days, encourages solidarity with Goldsmiths UCU, and explains how to donate to (and claim from) the national UCU hardship fund.

Staff/Student Solidarity

Please consider sharing this letter to students and encourage them to join staff pickets and protests.

On Wednesday we are hosting a staff/student organising & solidarity meeting, 12.30-1.30pm in the Building Centre, Store Street, the location where we will be holding strike committee meetings.

Picketing organisation

We intend to picket UCL entrances from 8am until a little before 1pm, after which we encourage all strikers to come to the UCU strike committee meeting, see below.

We will set up from the UCL Front Gate (Quad) on Gower Street from 8am, where placards, armbands, leaflets etc. will be available for collection.

As a rule, you should picket an entrance to your usual workplace, but if in doubt, come to the Front Gate and we can give you material and direct you to where you may be most needed.

On Friday, the pickets will culminate in a London Region demonstration, which assembles in Tavistock Square from 12.30. If you must choose between days to come to Central London, please prioritise Friday.

We are intending to innovate with a Virtual Picket for the first time - further details to follow - and our teach-out programme will be partially online (see Appendix 1 below). We encourage everyone to get involved. This is a strike - do not work, but either come in and picket, or stay at home and join the Virtual Picket.

We are very conscious of Covid-19 health and safety. We have a stock of hand gel, but please bring your own mask and gloves. Picketing will be outdoors only, and we will be encouraging people to maintain social distancing.

Strike Committee Meeting

These meetings are a chance for strikers to report back on picket lines and make plans. In the past they have been places where union negotiators have reported and have launched initiatives like lobbies and protests. We intend to experiment with a ‘blended’ strike meeting to allow colleagues striking from home to participate.

We will be meeting in the seminar space of the Building Centre, Store Street. Mask wearing is mandatory:

• Wednesday 1 December, 1.30pm - 2.30pm, to allow for the Student-Staff Solidarity organising meeting at 12.30-1.30pm.
• Thursday 2 December, 1.15pm - 2.15 pm.

Suggested out-of-office message

“Between 1-3 December, please note that strike action is taking place at UCL in pursuit of the UCU’s Four Fights campaign for decent pay, against insecure contracts and spiralling workload, and to close the gender, race and disability pay gaps in our sector.

Please consider donating to the UCU fighting fund to support HE staff across the UK. You can also show support by conducting your business with UCL on non-strike days, and avoid crossing pickets, both physical and virtual.”

Solidarity with Goldsmiths UCU

Our General Meeting last week passed a motion in support of Goldsmiths UCU, whose members are on day six of a three-week strike. We have now transferred £3,000 to their local hardship fund and encourage members to:

• write to Frances Corner (Warden) at f.corner@gold.ac.uk and wardensoffice@gold.ac.uk and Dinah Caine (Chair of Council) at d.caine@gold.ac.uk expressing opposition to the redundancies and restructuring.  
• actively support and publicise GUCU’s dispute, strike days and campaign events through social media, trade union contacts and beyond.

Further details on the Goldsmiths UCU web page and Twitter feed @GoldsmithsUCU.

The UCU Fighting Fund

Our General Meeting last week also agreed to make the local UCL UCU hardship fund available to support claims for the first day of industrial action, to apply the same eligibility criteria and pay the same amounts to eligible members as the national UCU Fighting Fund i.e., £50 or £75 per day.

Click here for detailed guidance on claiming from the UCU Fighting Fund.

UCL UCU Executive Committee

@ucl_ucu

UCL UCU

UCL UCU facebook

Appendix 1 - teach-out programme

Wednesday, 1/12/21

12.30 - 1.30pm
Student-Staff Solidarity meeting
Location: The Building Center, 26 Store Street, WC1E

1.30pm - 2.30pm
Strike Meeting
Location: The Building Center, 26 Store Street, WC1E

2:30pm - 3:30pm in person
Speakers: Xine Yao (English) & Rianna Walcott (KCL Digital Humanities; Writing Lab Visiting Scholar)
Title: Mind and Magic: BIPOC Mental Health & Practices of Care
Location: Entry to the Wellcome Collection

Thursday, 2/12/21

10:30am - 11:30am in person
Speakers/Organisers: Annie Davey, Judith Suissa & students
Title: Student Staff forum on issues related to the strike
Location: IoE Concourse

1pm - 2pm in person
Speakers: Xine Yao (English) and Christine Okoth (KCL English)
Title: Trans Solidarity: WOC on Race, Gender, and Collective Liberation
Location: Mezzanine of the British Library

1.15pm - 2.15pm
Strike Meeting
Location: The Building Center, 26 Store Street, WC1E

2:30pm - 4pm via ZOOM
Speaker: Damon Silvers, director of policy and special counsel for the AFL-CIO
Title: Organised labour - past, present, and future
Link: https://zoom.us/my/kateroll
 

Friday, 3/12/21

10am - 11:30am via ZOOM
Speaker: Dom Galliano, Head of Public Engagement, UCL Engagement
Title: The need for a #ResearchRevolution.
Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/94870039555

Assemble from 12:30
London Region UCU solidarity demonstration
Location: Tavistock Square