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At a future point, when the current dispute has been resolved, and the threat of industrial action has been withdrawn, we would be happy to discuss your request.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