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News Archives

The Outcome of the Second Joint Expert Panel Report: A Quick Guide for Members

Published: 19th December, 2019

The Joint Expert Panel (JEP), which comprises nominees from UUK and UCU and which is chaired by Joanne Segars, chair of the Local Government Pension Scheme, has completed its second report on the USS pension scheme.  This report looks in greater depth at how the scheme is run and how the dispute around the cost…

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The strike in black and white

Published: 10th December, 2019

How valued are the people who make universities? Meanwhile here are some beautiful photographs shot by Jacob, recipient of one of our awards for outstanding services to the strike.

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A new banner for Leicester UCU…

Published: 8th December, 2019

Friday 13 December – 3–5pm – KEB528 – WE WANT YOUR IDEAS! A banner is a thing to float in the wind, to flicker in the breeze, to flirt its colours for your pleasure… Choose purple and gold for ambitions, red for courage, green for long cherished hopes. Mary Lowndes, 1909 We are quite fond…

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What now? We work to contract…

Published: 5th December, 2019

Our initial block of strike action finished on Wednesday 4 December. But our dispute with our employer – both University of Leicester and the employers’ association Universities UK – is ongoing. Therefore we will not be working normally – where ‘normally’ means subjecting ourselves to punishing workload, responding to emails in the evening, spending our…

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#LeicsUniStrike 2019 – Day 7 [Under Pressure]

Published: 3rd December, 2019

And on the seventh day we rested… in fact, wanted to rest, but instead we decided to showcase the issues that have brought us to the point of exhaustion, particularly the excessive workloads and job insecurity that represent two of the four pillars of UCU’s “Four Fights” dispute. The #ExhaustionRebellion hashtag was started by our…

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#LeicsUniStrike 2019 – Day 6 [Danger! High Voltage!]

Published: 2nd December, 2019

As the industrial action carried on into its second week, and temperatures plummeted below zero, Leicester UCU warmed the cockles of striking staff with a disco theme on the picket lines, and much more besides. We received many visits of support throughout the day from students and bringers of cake, and we were especially pleased…

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#LeicsUniStrike 2019 – Day 4

Published: 28th November, 2019

Day four dawned with an initial feeling of the “the morning after the night before” – it was raining heavily for the first time, and we were worried. However, we should know by now, we didn’t need to have worried, as always Leicester UCU brighten up our day, with nearly 200 members turning out to…

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#LeicsUniStrike 2019 – Day 3

Published: 27th November, 2019

Today saw animals of all shapes and sizes unleashed on the Leicester UCU picket lines! Fierce foxes, passionate penguins and more delightful dogs than you can count supported strikers with love and wagging tails! All were here to support our message to the university management: get your paws off our pay and pensions! Whilst every…

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#LeicsUniStrike 2019 – Day 2

Published: 26th November, 2019

Having been featured as part of the face of the current strike on BBC News yesterday, Leicester UCU again came out in force, despite the rain, to protest in defence of our pensions and pay against a decade of steady decline, and to fight back against excessive workloads, casualisation of our professions and pay inequality…

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#LeicsUniStrike 2019 – Day 1

Published: 25th November, 2019

Roll back to 16th March 2018 – the final day of 14 days on the picket line and it felt like we had unfinished business. In fact, one of our picket lines even made the point that they’d be back in chalk on the pavement outside the University. And today we were back – boy…

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