1. Bristol UCU Resolution to Oppose Tommy Robinson on 26th October 2024
At the General Meeting (GM) on 16th October, the motion carried with 47 votes for, no votes against and 4 abstentions. The motion is now a resolution of our branch. Read the resolution here:
Members are to be offered discounted coach travel to London on Saturday 26th October.
- For details and to buy coach tickets (pick up points in Weston and Bristol) use the following link:
- https://www.tickettailor.com/events/bristolstanduptoracism/1399894
- For Bristol UCU members, please click the £12 ticket option.
Please have a safe counter-demonstration.
2. Bristol UCU 16th October 2024 General Meeting Minutes
Our General Meeting (GM) on 16th October had several opportunities for members to express their views on the UCEA offer 2024/25, and on potential bargaining priorities for Bristol UCU Branch during 2024/25. Future GMs will also provide more opportunities for members to discuss and communicate issues relevant to them, so please encourage members you know to attend a GM, particularly if they haven’t done so before.
Following the input from members at the GM, a survey will be sent out next week to all our members to allow them to comment on Bristol UCU potentially becoming a bargaining pilot as part of the national Building to Win campaign, and to suggest priority areas for the Branch. Read more here: Building To Win [LINK]
The next GM is on Wednesday 22nd January 2025 on Teams. If members would like to propose agenda items or AOB (any other business items), please get in touch ucu-office@bristol.ac.uk.
Please find the GM meeting minutes below (and attached):
Bristol UCU General Meeting 16th October 2024 Minutes.
13:00 – 14:00 on Teams
Present: 54
Agenda
- Apologies & Minutes of the Last General Meeting. GM 23 April 2024.
- Members’ views of UCEA offer 2024-25.
- UCU’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) consultative ballot.
- Members’ Views on Bargaining Aims for Bristol UCU.
- Motion ‘To Oppose Tommy Robinson on 26th October 2024’.
- Any Other Business.
- Date of Next Meeting: 22 January 2025. Bristol UCU Meeting Dates 2024-25.
1. Apologies & Minutes of the Last General Meeting. GM 23 April 2024.
Apologies from Afua Twum-Danso Imoh, Emilie Poletto-Lawson, James Thompson, Laura Dickinson.
Minutes of GM 23 April 2024 approved.
2. UCEA offer 2024-25and HEC consultative ballot.
The results of our branch survey were split. 72 members responded to the survey in September 2024.
| Accept | Reject | Abstain | |
| On the pay element | 31 | 37 | 4 |
| On non pay-related elements | 38 | 15 | 19 |
| On the full offer | 28 | 33 | 11 |
It was noted that staging the pay uplift means we all lose out and this would be a bad precedent.
UCU’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) will undertake a consultative ballot.
‘UCU’s higher education committee (HEC) met on 27 September to consider UCEA’s final offer and voted to reject the pay element of the offer and to accept the terms of reference relating to the pay spine review, workload, casualisation, and equality pay gaps.’
(For information, a consultative ballot would ask whether or not members would be willing to take industrial action. This is not an industrial action ballot. An industrial action ballot would be undertaken separately).
Part of the uplift at UoB is non pay-related benefits such as visa costs.
A member highlighted that the University of Bristol does not reimburse the HIS or visa costs for dependents, unlike some other universities.
ACTION: branch to raise awareness of what Bristol covers in contrast to what comparator Universities offer.
3. Motion to Oppose Tommy Robinson on 26th October 2024.
Read the motion here: https://bristolucu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/motion-to-oppose-tommy-robinson-on-26th-october-2024.pdf
VOTE RESULTS:
For: 47. Abstentions: 4. Against: 0. MOTION CARRIED.
4. Members’ Views on Bargaining Aims for Bristol UCU.
We will be surveying branch members about which of several foci we should use for a claim, campaign, negotiations, and victory. UCU National suggests the following possibilities:
Level of pay Unequal pay Gender pay gap Race pay gap Workload Stress Job security Casualized contracts Bullying and harassment Grading Family friendly policies Training/career development Creating a sustainable workplace (environmental issues) Bristol Weighting.
During the meeting poll on these issues, workload was identified as the most important issue.
Members commented on:
- IHS (Immigration Health Surcharge)
- No late hiring of FTC staff
- Increasing student numbers driving up rents for local people as well as staff
- Action on P2 promotion
- Workload (decisions about how long tasks should take may be made by people who have been misguided by data from other subject areas)
- Workload Model issues.
Date of Next Meeting: 22 January 2025. Bristol UCU Meeting Dates 2024-25.
AOB
We have several new BOs:
Firstly, two Equalities Officers joined us in September, Afua Twum-Danso Imoh and Emilie Poletto-Lawson. Afua will be focusing on racial equality. Previously Afua was the inaugural Chair of the BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) Staff Network at the University of Sheffield. She’s going to be working with colleagues and members to identify ways to embed racial equality better within UoB structures and policies. Emilie Poletto-Lawson has been UCU rep for Education and Student Experience since October 2023 and has supported staff recently in the Student Wellbeing Service restructure. She is looking forward to working with Afua on equalities issues and building on the work of Bristol UCU in this area. Both Equalities Officers have already attended the first South West UCU Regional Equalities Conference, sharing views from the Bristol Branch and hearing of issues and good practice in our region. If there are any equality discussions you would like to have, please contact Afua or Emilie via ucu-office@bristol.ac.uk.
Oscar Berglund is now one of our Joint Vice Presidents. He was UCU rep for Policy Studies for several years before joining the Branch Officer team. He’s involved in liaising with anti-genocide groups on campus. Coming out of a few years of intense national conflicts, he’s looking forward to working on how we can further improve pay and working conditions at Bristol over the next few years.
Gina Walteris the new PGR rep,currently in the last few months of a PhD in the English department (‘so you may see me looking haggard around the Arts complex!’) This is her second year as PGR rep, and she joined the Branch Officer team this summer. This year, Gina and co-PGR rep Max DeBono are committed to improving hourly paid teaching and demonstrating contracts, ensuring that tutors are given sufficient training and are allocated hours for marking and preparation that realistically reflect their workload. As part of this, they are running a surveyon experiences of hourly paid work at Bristol. Gina was previously PGR rep for the Arts Faculty, and successfully challenged contracts which allocated PGRs less marking time than full-time staff for the same work.
James Thompsonhas previously been Vice President and President of Bristol UCU. Now he’s back as our Green Rep. He’s going to be working with Unite, Unison and students towards a Green New Deal at Bristol.