It's Tuesday. The picket is standing strong, despite windy and showery conditions. Some reflections in speeches on the picket: We can do it! We can win, and we will win! On today’s picket themse: REF and TEF are are ill defined concepts. It is unclear, what they measure, but it is abundantly clear, that they … Continue reading Day 11 on the Picket – Effing Excellent Frameworks Day

Picket line: UCU members around the country kicked off this morning the third week of the largest strike in the UK HE sector! In Lancaster, we started with a Rosie the Riveter day just to remind our managers that we currently face a 27% gender pay gap in our workplace. Students and local activists turned … Continue reading On the Picket, Monday, 9 March

Today was Dogs of the Picket day at the Lancaster picket. We were blessed with visits from some very wet but enthusiastic puppies to warm our hearts. Other techniques were attempted – some of us gave ‘dancing in the rain’ a new spin!  In the afternoon we gathered for a teach-out on collegialism and managerialism. Nils … Continue reading Monday 24th February – Day 3

On Friday we celebrated Student Solidarity Day – we invited our wonderful students to visit us on the picket lines to imagine a better University for us all.  We also received a visit from LUSU Full Time Officers. Bee Morgan spoke about boycotting open days to address the problem of overcrowding on campus. You can find … Continue reading 2020 Strikes – Day 2 (Friday 21st)

After a few weeks of waiting in high anticipation for the outcome of ongoing negotiations with both UCEA and UUK, we received disappointing offers that were rejected by the HEC at the end of January, who voted for a further 14 days of action.  Negotiators in the #FourFights dispute have outlined here why they believe further strike … Continue reading Day 1 – Here we go again!

And that's a wrap! What a turnout we had for our last day of 2019 strike. The wind was very cold but the coffee and tea delivered as it was every day before by our Unite and Unison colleague warmed our bodies and our hearts! photo © Chloe Vitry After our round of leaflet distribution, … Continue reading Day 8

Penultimate day of strike for 2019 and our numbers are still strong! We had interesting chats with students (who, again, stressed their full support even though some of them are busy canvassing leading up to the general election!). We received the visit of Martyn Moss, Regional Official for North West, who congratulated us on the … Continue reading Day 7

First day of sunshine for our 2019 strike, and what a beautiful day it was! The ground may have been frozen (replacing muddy ground) but our thoughts were to the warming up of the Earth, as this strike day coincided with a climate strike in town. We danced and moved around to keep warm all … Continue reading Day 5

Today we had the pleasure of receiving the visit of Karen Evans from Liverpool University. Karen is part of the National Disputes Committee (representing NW region), which is about democratising UCU in times of conflict and was instituted by Congress after the 2018 strike. We were also visited by students members of Acorn, a union … Continue reading Day 4

Day 3 and still going strong. The creativity of our members, now well practised in the art of banner making, know no boundaries. We were delighted to be entertained by our own picket band video © Jacob Phelps Elsewhere, 13 branches who did not meet the mandatory 50% threshold for strike actions are asking to … Continue reading Day 3