In this Newsflash:
- Stop the Cuts at Bristol & CALD
- EGM Tuesday 1st April 2025
- Casework mailbox
- Membership Checks
1. Stop the Cuts at Bristol. Stop the Cuts in CALD.
Last week proposals were unveiled which if allowed to proceed would see more than 40 colleagues in the Centre for Academic Language and Development (CALD) made redundant. Branch officers and local reps are working to support colleagues there and formulate counterproposals to avoid the redundancies, and members across the institution will doubtless join us in sending their solidarity.
Please sign the UCU petition to save staff in CALD here, and share it widely with staff, students and the public.
Save our staff at University of Bristol’s Centre for Academic Language and Development (CALD) [LINK]
This news came less than a week after a university spokesperson claimed ‘we have no planned programme of compulsory or voluntary job cuts as seen at universities elsewhere in the country’ in response to a recent article written by our Co-Presidents and Vice President.
The redundancies in CALD clearly are ‘planned’ and have been for some time. They are part of ‘a programme’, and do not differ from redundancies being fought by union branches and members up and down the country.
This branch is highly concerned that decisions are currently being made which further threaten jobs and programmes at this institution. We continue to do all we can to gather information about this, and to impress upon senior management their obligation to consult with trade unions as early as possible on matters which relate to ‘any threat to employment, and on changes in work organisation or contractual relations, including redundancies and transfers,’ as our recognition agreement puts it.
We hope as many members as possible can join us at the Emergency General Meeting on Tuesday 1st April, where part of our discussion and debate will be guided by the motion to stop the proposed redundancies in CALD (attached).
We’ve received valuable feedback on the motion to ‘Protect Jobs and Academic Disciplines’ from members, so we are going to use an e-survey to better understand the views of the membership on some aspects of that motion before bringing a revised version to a future meeting. We can also use some time on Tuesday to discuss this.
2. Bristol UCU Emergency General Meeting Tuesday 1st April 2025 13:00 – 13:50 on Teams.
All members are welcome. Please encourage our newer members to join us.
Please check you UCU member email for this link to join the Teams meeting.
Agenda.
- Open Letter: Save our staff at University of Bristol’s Centre for Academic Language and Development (CALD) [LINK]
- Member debate and discussion.
- Discussion of draft Motion to Protect Jobs and Academic Disciplines at the University of Bristol.
- AOB: Support for Student Protests in Turkey.
Date of next meeting: Bristol UCU Annual General Meeting 4th June 2025 on Teams.
3. New Casework Mailbox.
We have started a new mailbox to help the branch team separate out requests for casework support from other kinds of branch business. If you or someone you represent needs support or advice from the branch, please contact ucu-cw@bristol.ac.uk (and fear not, we will of course still respond to casework queries sent to the regular office mailbox!).
4. Membership checks.
UCU conducts annual membership checks in order to meet its legal requirements. You will shortly receive an email from UCU head office checking whether the data we hold for you is accurate. This will include your membership number, workplace and branch.
If you want to check or update your membership details in advance, please visit My UCU.
If you have multiple employers in sectors represented by UCU, please register each one as an ‘additional employment’. This will link all your eligible employments to a single membership number, allow secondary branches to represent you, and eliminate duplicate subscriptions.