UPDATE: 22nd February 2022
UCU Strike update
We have been speaking with representatives from UCLan and College Union (UCU) and have been told about the UCU members strike on Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd February. In addition to Monday 28th February through to Wednesday 2nd March inclusive.
We have been reassured by the University that students will not be adversely affected by the lack of attendance related to the strike action on courses where attendance is monitored. If students are worried or think they are missing out on teaching they should let their course leads know.
We will arrange a follow-up meeting with UCU representatives after the strikes so they can continue to share with us any further plans following these rounds of strikes. As always if students have been affected by the strikes, then please contact our VP Education, Usman Kasaba directly (SUEducation@uclan.ac.uk). Alternately if you would like more information on the strikes and how you would like to show your support, please email yourunion@uclan.ac.uk.
We encourage both the University management and UCU to hold constructive meetings to enable a resolution, where both parties have the ability to reach one.
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November 2021
On 1st December 2021 UCLan staff members of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) will be holding a three-day strike and will also begin a six-month process of ‘action short of a strike’. UCLan Students’ Union has been in discussions with both UCU leadership team and the University to seek clarification of the strike and to inform our position and articulate how we can help.
UCLan Students’ Union, like UCU, is a membership led, democratically driven organisation. The values we hold as important are the same values that underpin UCU: collectivism and campaigning. As such when UCU enact these values to strive for positive change for their members, we support that. We support it because these are the same principles and values that we seek to enact.
The difference between ourselves and UCU is clear, whereas UCU champions UCLan staff members, we champion students. What’s best for staff and what’s best for students often overlap: student experience, quality teaching, well treated and motivated staff. Every year we celebrate this through our Student Led Teaching Awards, Golden Roses. Students want to recognise fantastic teaching, even more so this past year, where we had over 900 nominations for our awards. Students want to celebrate great teaching at UCLan and we are proud to play our part to support this.
These shared principles, agreed values and reciprocal support between the two Unions are fundamental, but not absolute in application. We believe the needs and rights of UCLan staff do not supersede the needs and rights of students. And whilst progress is important, we believe the experience of tomorrow’s student does not have priority over the student of today.
This initial three-day strike intends to disrupt, but given the number of staff participating, we hope UCU striking staff will inform students of changes and reschedule teaching. This will ensure students are not caught off guard or lose out. If not, this action could disproportionately disrupt certain student groups: student parents and carers, students with disabilities and commuting students. We have spoken to both UCU and UCLan Senior Management Team directly in relation to this.
If a national resolution is not found quickly, we call on both sides to continue to listen to the student voice. We want to provide this student feedback to both UCU and the UCLan Senior Management Team on teaching and learning. We will work closely with the elected course reps and through Unitu to gather feedback on how these actions are affecting students. We ask that UCU and UCLan Senior Management Team consider this feedback over the course of the dispute when deciding what further action is taken.
Union action that delivers benefits for members is fundamental and should be protected and encouraged. We support unions who want to create better lives for their members. However, if this leads to adversely affecting UCLan students – students who have worked so hard to have the opportunity to study at UCLan – over a sustained period, then this is not fair and we will continue to represent our student members on this.
We’ve put together some FAQs of what a Trade Union is, what do they do and what strike action is to help you understand what’s going on this week. You can read the FAQs by clicking here.