Bristol UCU Newsflash, 21st April 2021

1) Professional Services Term is here

Professional Services (PS) term launched on Monday with Jo McNeill from the University of Liverpool speaking to members about the work of the ARPS (Academic Related and Professional Services staff) Committee and the ARPS manifesto for change.

Future events for PS term include:

Being an active part of the Union: Recruiting members or becoming a rep, 1pm to 2pm, Thursday 6 May
The restructure survival guide for Professional Services staff, 1pm to 2pm, Thursday 20 May
Supporting Professional Services staff across Unions with UCU, Unison and Unite, 1pm to 2pm, Tuesday 1 June

Starting next week, we will be publishing a series of articles from PS staff about why they joined the Union and what being a member means to them. If you would like to contribute to this series with a few lines or a whole article, then please email: ucu-office@bristol.ac.uk

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2) Bristol UCU Annual General Meeting, 9th June 2021, 13:00-14:00, via Microsoft Teams

Our Bristol UCU 2021 AGM will be on Wednesday, 9th June, 13:00-14:00.

On the current agenda: the election of branch officers and Executive Committee Members. For a list of roles:

https://www.ucubristol.org.uk/contact-us/branch-officers-and-executive/

We will also approve last year’s branch accounts.

If you would like to nominate yourself for a role, or would like further information, please email the Branch Secretary Jamie Melrose (Jamie.Melrose@bristol.ac.uk).

The closing date for nominations is Wednesday, 26th May 2021 – 14 days before the AGM. An agenda will be circulated on the same day.

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3) USS, Pay and Equality

Members will have no doubt seen a number of emails concerning our USS Pension Scheme and UCU’s response to two pay and equality claims – one for this academic year and one concerning next academic year.

For the latest news, see

https://www.ucu.org.uk/strikeforuss

https://www.ucu.org.uk/he2020

In short:

On USS, we will soon be holding a UCU branch briefing on the current ‘crisis’. Date and time to follow. As this University and University UK have also acknowledged, we urgently need ‘a revised approach and assumptions that bring down the headline costs and reduce the scale of reform needed’.
On the 2020-21 pay claim, UCU’s Higher Education Committee meets today to decide on balloting members.
On the 2021-2022 pay and equality claim, employers made an opening pay increase offer of 1.1%.

Further to our USS items, the University is holding a second UoB USS briefing (UCU reps will also be at the meeting) tomorrow at 1pm, via Microsoft Teams:

https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_MjQ3YWE4YTQtYjI4Yy00MGNiLWFkMmQtMWI5OTI0OTMxOGZi%40thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257b%2522Tid%2522%253a%2522b2e47f30-cd7d-4a4e-a5da-b18cf1a4151b%2522%252c%2522Oid%2522%253a%25226b059252-c6b0-4ea0-897b-2ebcae899f7d%2522%257d%26anon%3Dtrue&type=meetup-join&deeplinkId=c98bedc5-cd6d-43c6-a997-ce90679de803&directDl=true&msLaunch=true&enableMobilePage=true&suppressPrompt=true

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4) UCU Congress 2021

Nominations are open to attend UCU Congress 2021 as one of Bristol’s five-member delegation. Regional HE delegate spots are also available,

Congress will be held online, on Saturday 29 May, Monday 31 May & Wednesday 2 June 2021 [link].

If you are interested in attending or would like further information, please email the Branch Secretary Jamie Melrose (Jamie.Melrose@bristol.ac.uk).

Nominations close on the 30th April.

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