Author: OBU admin

Oxford Brookes UCU members began the two-day strike with a strong picket in front of JHB, as well as two further pickets at Wheatley and Harcourt. We were once again required to remain off university premises by university management (and reminded of this by security officers), but we nonetheless managed to speak to a number of staff and students, who – while often uninformed, particularly in the case of students – were overwhelmingly supportive of the strike. We will be picketing tomorrow as well, so do join us on the picket line!

Picket line at Headington.

Some members on the picket line at Wheatley.

Oxford Brookes UCU has been supporting the national strike and organizing within the university, despite the latter purposefully making our lives difficult. Indeed, following the announcement of the strike, university management barred us from holding any stalls in the Forum, including a purely informational stall during National Recruitment Week. Below is a copy of their email:

***

Thank you for your earlier request in which you asked to host a stall in the Forum on the 18th May for purposes of awareness and recruitment.

Oxford Brookes University has a strong tradition of encouraging and supporting staff and student membership in a broad range of organisations and we are proud of how the John Henry Brookes Forum has become a locus for positive staff and student engagement.

However, bearing in mind that UCU has announced a programme of industrial action, starting with a two-day strike on May 25th and 26th which may directly impact on student progression, we feel that accommodating your request would be inappropriate and would send the wrong message to our students at this time.

At a future point, when the current dispute has been resolved, and the threat of industrial action has been withdrawn, we would be happy to discuss your request.

Yours

Brendan

Karen Bampton

PA to Brendan Casey
Registrar & Chief Operating Officer
&

PA to Paul Large
Director of Infrastructure Investment

Senior Management Team
Oxford Brookes University

***

We responded by distributing informational flyers outside the university. Our flyers were targeted at students, who have only heard about the industrial action through Oxford Brookes’ management team and have therefore received precious little information about what is actually at stake in the dispute. Our flyer outlines not only the reasons behind the national strike but also the particularly egregious situation at Brookes in terms of fair pay and casualisation. E-copy of the flyer below, feel free to print, circulate soft copies, or request hard copies from the Branch administrator.

Below are the results of the Elections of Branch Officers for the academic year 2016-2017.

Many thanks to outgoing officers, and to Mikko Kuisma as Returning Officer!

 

Branch Officers

The Chair – Alan Reeve

The Vice-Chair – Bob Langridge

The Branch Secretary – Jeff Waistell

The Treasurer – Stephen Hurt

The Membership Secretary – Chris Hesketh

The Health & Safety Representative – Richard Beresford

The Equality Officer – Sola Adesola

 

Faculty Representatives  

Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) – Alon Lischinsky

Health and Life Sciences – Stewart Thompson

 

Positions still open for nominations

The Minutes Secretary (officer)

Faculty representative for Humanities and Social Sciences (2^nd position)

Faculty representative for Technology, Design, and Environment

Faculty representative for Business

 

If you are interested in any of the remaining positions or would like to nominate someone who might be, please get in touch with Jeff Waistell, the Branch Secretary (jwaistell@brookes.ac.uk). Any nominations will have to be ratified by the current Branch Officers.

 

Upcoming AGM

Don’t miss our upcoming Annual General Meeting on Wednesday April 27th from 12 to 1:30, in JHB301.

You should have received a second edition of our newsletter, containing information about the meeting. If not, you can access an electronic copy here.

Upcoming Ballot

You should all have received your ballot papers by now. They were sent in an envelope that looks like this:

If you have NOT received a ballot yet, please request a replacement here as soon as possible. In light of the Trade Union Bill, union ballot turnouts are under intense scrutiny and as such, it is extremely important that every single member uses their vote.

Looking for Volunteers 

Are you interested in getting more involved with our branch? We are looking for volunteers to act as ‘local contacts’ around Oxford Brookes. Local contacts are NOT expected to take up a formal role in representing members or meeting managers unless they later want to receive training and support to become a full representative of the union. But they can do a lot to raise the union’s profile by, for instance, distributing newsletters, putting up posters, and talking to non-members about the work of the branch.

More info here (factsheet): The_role_of_the_contact

If you are interested in such a role, please contact the Branch administrator. We would be delighted to have you on board!

National Updates

Here are the latest national updates from Sally Hunt:

UCU campaigns update 04 March 2016

UCU campaigns update 11 March 2016

UCU campaigns update 18 March 2016

UCU campaigns update 8 April 2016

UCU campaigns update 15 April 2016

Our second OBU UCU information bulletin, advertising the upcoming AGM and ballot on fair pay. 

Upcoming Meeting

Don’t miss our upcoming Branch meeting on Wednesday March 9th from 12 to 1, in JHB207.

Completed Recruitment Week 

Thank you to everyone who helped facilitate our recruitment week on Feb 22-26. We managed to reach out to a large number of non-members, some of whom are now in the process of joining the union.

We issued a special newsletter for the occasion, which you can access here: Newsletter_Feb2016

We hope to continue expanding our branch over the coming months. If you are a member and you would like to receive some flyers, posters, or informational booklets in your pigeon hole to distribute around your department, please get in touch with our Branch Administrator.

International Women’s Day (March 8) 

Check out UCU’s video on the gender pay gap.

Update on your UCU subscriptions 

The new Trade Union Bill means you will no longer be able to pay your UCU subscriptions through payroll (also known as check off). If you are still using this method, please transfer from check off to direct debit wherever possible.

National Updates

UCU campaigns update 12 February 2016

UCU campaigns update 19 February 2016

UCU campaigns update 26 February 2016

Revamped website

As you can see, we now have a more developed website, which we hope will serve as a useful resource for members (and to help attract new members) Feel free to leave comments directly on our pages or get in touch with the Branch Administrator if you have any suggestions for how to further improve this interface.

Upcoming recruitment week: Feb 22-26

February promises to be a busy month for trade unions, with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) launching a week of campaigning to oppose the Trade Union Bill and celebrate the positive impact of unions in workplaces and society. UCU will be playing a full role in supporting this week and will use it as a springboard for activism for national recruitment week 2. We at Oxford Brookes UCU will be joining these efforts and running a local recruitment week on our campuses.

Check your pay!

As part of its national campaign for fair pay within further and higher education, UCU has created an excellent new function on its website called ‘Rate for the Job’. You can use it to:

1. Compare your salary to similar staff in your and other universities
2. See how the value of your pay has been affected by recent below inflation pay rises
3. Check how big the gender pay gap is in your institution

You can help the campaign for fair pay by letting others know you have used ‘Rate for the Job’, either by
using the social media buttons at the bottom of the ‘Rate for the Job’ page or by forwarding the link to colleagues who are not in the union together with the join UCU link https://www.ucu.org.uk/join.

Equality Officer position available on Oxford Brookes UCU Committee

UCU equality reps and officers work within branches to promote equality with the employer and union members. This could include looking at issues such as:

• flexible working
• absence management
• discriminatory practices
• equal pay
• equality impact assessments.

They also ensure that UCU’s national annual meetings, and any other relevant events and opportunities for women, black members, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members and disabled members are publicised locally, that members from all groups are encouraged to participate, and that the branch maximises the opportunities for recruitment and organisation amongst all groups.

Equality reps are key in developing and sustaining national and local equality networks.

The Equality Officer position for Oxford Brookes UCU has been open for nominations and remains open for co-option (until the annual nomination process for all posts takes place). Please get in touch with the Branch Administrator if you would like more information.

Next branch meetings:

Our next branch meetings will be on 9 March and 27 April (AGM).

National

The links below provide access to the regular updates sent to all UCU members by Justine Stephens, UCU’s head of campaigns. For further information on national campaigns, please refer to UCU’s main website: http://www.ucu.org.uk/.

UCU campaigns update 05 February 2016

UCU campaigns update – 29 January 2016