UCL-UCU: Call for Solidarity with Queen Mary Strikers

Queen Mary University UCU members are facing 100% pay deductions for taking part in a marking boycott in the USS pensions dispute and the claims over the Four Fights dispute. See the call for solidarity below.

UCL UCU voted at its AGM to make a significant donation to QMU in solidarity, but, with QMU Senior Managers imposing 42 days' worth of 100% pay deductions on QMU UCU members, they really need your solidarity too.

The whole of UCU needs to rally to support them, as they are standing up for our joint claims on pensions and conditions. If QMU succeeds in breaking them with this tactic, other HE employers will do the same without hesitation.

Please make a donation to the QMU strikers’ hardship fund.

You can also send messages of solidarity to James Eastwood, QMUCU Branch Co-Chair.

UCL UCU Executive Committee

twitter: @ucl_ucu

UCL UCU website

Urgent Call for Solidarity from Queen Mary UCU

Dear colleagues,

Queen Mary UCU branch is fighting a local dispute over a policy of 100% pay deductions for participating in ASOS. The branch needs your support.

Having secured its highest ever turnout for action in March, staff have now been engaged in a marking boycott for nearly 10 weeks since early May. In negotiations management have yet to offer any concrete proposals that might settle the dispute.

Last week, senior management decided to impose 42 days of pay deductions on staff participating in the marking boycott split across July and August. This comes in addition to deductions already taken for strike days. Management is clearly trying to break the boycott with these renewed threats. But staff will not be cowed or starved back to work. At a branch meeting following these threats, members overwhelmingly voted to continue the boycott until the policy has been withdrawn by management. The policy marks QMUL management as vindictive outliers given no other branch is facing these 100% deductions. Nevertheless, the situation at QMUL has national significance as this management policy is being trialed for use elsewhere in the sector; UCEA have directly recommended this tactic to universities, also claiming that the ‘moral position’ of employers in using it is ‘robust’.

Implementing these deductions would be punitive, disproportionate and legally dubious. QM UCU therefore needs the solidarity and financial support of the wider union to help us to sustain the action throughout the summer.

What you can do:

• Make a donation to the QMU UCU hardship fund
• Send a personal message of solidarity to the branch via James Eastwood, QMUCU Branch Co-Chair