Hello Branch Members,

Our Annual General Meeting and elections will take place on 13 June 2024 at 1pm. Please see the attached guidance for how to apply to the executive positions, all of which are up for election. Our returning officer will be Zulfi Ali, and all nomination forms should be sent directly to him by email.

Nominations close on 10 May 2024, so please do put yours in soon!

UCU CCCU Annual General Meeting 2024amended (details)

UCU CCCU Annual General Meeting 2024amended Nomination form (nomination form)

CCCU Branch statement on Israel-Palestine

The events in Israel and Gaza are deeply distressing. The Canterbury UCU branch want to extend our support and solidarity to all members of the university community affected by this situation, and importantly to state our unequivocal condemnation of any forms of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or ethnic discrimination. All members of our community deserve a safe and inclusive environment in which to work and learn together, and as a union branch we are committed to ensuring the vision of an inclusive university is a reality. If any member experiences discrimination or abuse, please reach out to UCU@Canterbury.ac.uk, the branch will support you.

Dear members,

We’re currently reballoting to extend the mandate in the #UCURising dispute and CCCU members will likely be contacted by an exec member about voting. If you need to order a replacement ballot, that can be done here.

And it is worth reading a bit more on the state of the dispute here.

Hello branch members,

There’s lots of information that is relevant to a branch hardship fund. Attached here you will find two documents: a resolution to be considered 13 July, and a longer outline of the proposal for a fund, how it will run, and so on. Happy reading.

Resolution on branch subscriptions for Jul

Hardship fund proposal

Please find attached here the resolution passed overwhelmingly at our branch AGM a few weeks ago. We write now to the National executive asking them to “de-prioritise” Motion 5 from Congress, which this branch has now condemned as full of false equivalencies which deny Ukrainians the right to defend themselves from imperial aggression.

Resolution on Ukraine

CCCU UCU members have reported concerns about some transphobic stickers being discovered in the toilets near the SCR recently. These were removed and reported to the Facilities Helpdesk by a gender fluid UCU member. Subsequently, the Facilities Helpdesk informed several managers in the Facilities Department, the Head of Equity & Inclusion, Housekeeping, and Security supervisors. Other staff members also reported the same incident to the Director of HR, Head of People, Culture & Inclusion, and the Chair of the Equity & Inclusion Committee. Similar instances have taken place in the Verena Holmes building previously, and the University is aware of this. The University is promising to ‘monitor further instances’ and if there are any further similar incidences, ‘a decision can be made if further action needs to be taken’. They also highlighted the procedure for reporting incidences and the support available to affected staff: 

Report + Support – Canterbury Christ Church University 

Support (canterbury.ac.uk) 

The sentiments of these stickers go against national UCU policy on LGBT+ rights and inclusion, the local branch LGBTQIA+ Inclusion Policy, and the University’s Trans & Non-Binary Inclusion Policy.  The impact that these types of microaggressions have had on staff has been greatly distressing, and has led to feelings of members not being able to trust one’s own colleagues, as the recent incident was in facilities largely used by staff. Members have been left feeling unsafe, unwelcomed, excluded, fearful of coming onto campus, and this has had a significant effect on their mental and physical wellbeing. For our trans, non-binary, and gender fluid members, the effect has been most greatly felt, and this is yet another incident in the increasingly hostile environment both within and outside of the University. 

CCCU UCU Exec Committee call on CCCU management to put out a clear statement to all staff that these types of acts will not be tolerated and encourage staff and visitors to report any further such incidents, or indeed any harassment whilst using the facilities. We ask that immediate and visible action is taken, and are happy to work with SMT, our members, and the CCCU LGBTQIA+ Staff and Student Networks to suggest what form these might take. We will be raising this issue at the next Joint Negotiating and Consultation Committee (JNCC) meeting on Monday 19th June. 

Incidents such as this, and the exclusionary environment they create show just how relevant it is that UCU members at CCCU voted recently to sign up to UCU’s new LGBT+ Charter (https://www.ucu.org.uk/LGBT+charter). At our quorate Branch Meeting on Thursday 11th May 2023, members voted as follows: 

Do you agree that the branch should sign up to the UCU LGBT+ Charter, as per the recommendation of the Executive Committee? 

With a majority of 68%, the motion was passed and the branch was duly signed up to the UCU LGBT+ Charter. Signing up to the Charter will allow the branch to have representation on a soon-to-be formed UCU LGBT+ Forum, and access to more support from UCU Equality Officers. The Branch will soon be in receipt of some UCU Pride Progress lanyards, and members of the Executive Committee have met recently with UCU’s Equality Support Official LGBT to discuss other visible ways the branch can indicate its commitment to LGBTQIA+ rights and support of the LGBT+ Charter. Once these arrive, interested members will be invited to collect them from us. There is also an opportunity for members to join UCU’s walking group at London Pride on Saturday July 1st this year. There are a limited number of wristbands. UCU will support travel within the area of the Pride London event. If you are interested please complete this form.  

CCCU UCU is committed to providing an inclusive environment in which everyone is treated with dignity and respect. 

This time it’s different. “UCU Rising” is the current, massive, national ballot of members on both the pensions dispute, and on pay and conditions. The results will be known late in October, and the threshold for action is national. What this means is, any one branch failing to get over the threshold doesn’t matter if, nationally, turnout is above 50%.

So every vote counts, no matter what.

The national union is pulling out all the stops and you can see the pages, videos, FAQ and so on, here.

Locally we know that members are struggling with enormous workloads, with stagnant and decreasing pay in real terms, and with a top-down managerial culture of “do this because I said so”. We know Christ Church can afford a pay rise for its staff, easily. We know that we agreed to sacrifice 20% of our salary during the pandemic, and the university did not repay us, instead granting a “bonus” worth maybe 1/7th of what most staff lost.

We know management won’t really listen to us unless we rise. So we’re pulling out all the stops too to get out the vote. If you can help us, please do email:

UCU@Canterbury.ac.uk

Here is a gallery of Four Fights images which explain the national picture, these are free for you to download and use. Locally, CCCU members are profoundly affected by the risible pay offer of 1.5% while inflation runs above 7%, and by the new workload modelling practices, which give us a mere 20 minutes to read and give feedback on student assessments. A successful ballot gives the branch negotiating leverage to go into meetings with management and advocate for better pay and conditions on your behalf.