As the trade union that represents the majority of the academic staff here at Royal Holloway, UCU campaigns and activities can have an impact on your lecturers and in turn your education. We've put together this helpful article to give you an idea of what a trade union does and information about the current ballot which could lead to strike action being taken.
The University and College Union (UCU) is a British trade union, which represents academic and support staff in education (mostly those educating in a higher or further education setting).
UCU has over 130,000 members nationally across 152 institutions and many academic and support staff that work at Royal Holloway are members of UCU.
What is a trade union?
Trade unions are membership organisations that provide a range of assistance and services to members in exchange for a membership fee. UCU describe the role of trade unions as:
- Providers of information, advice and guidance to members for work-related problems.
- Providers of training, insurance, financial services and legal advice to members.
- Campaigning on particular issues.
There are many trade unions in the UK and they usually represent members working in a specific industry or field. Membership of a trade union is optional and is a personal decision, but is protected under employee rights. This means all employees have the right to join a trade union (or not) and employers are not able to treat employees unfairly for being members or incentivise leaving a trade union.
Why are we talking about them?
You may not have heard of UCU before, but as the trade union that represents the majority of the academic staff here at Royal Holloway, their campaigns and activities can have an impact on your lecturers and in turn your education.
In 2021, university staff at Royal Holloway participated in the largest strike action UK higher education had ever seen following a ballot of UCU members. UCU is currently holding another ballot with industrial action (if supported by members) planned to take place before the end of the calendar year.
The ballot
The voting ballot opened for UCU members on Tuesday 6 September and will close on Friday 21 October. We expect UCU to announce the results on Monday 24 October.
The ballot will involve two separate votes for members; UCU say they will ask members to vote in favour of industrial action in relation to:
This is a really complicated set of topics and we’ll release an article with more information on these specific matters. It’s important to understand that UCU is aware that these issues do not affect all members equally and, as a result, not all members will be voting on both of these topics.
- 83 institutions will vote only on the Pay and Working Conditions topic.
- Five institutions will vote only on the USS Pension Scheme topic.
- 62 Institutions will vote on both the USS Pension Scheme and Pay and Working Conditions topics separately.
At Royal Holloway, UCU members will vote on both topics.
How can I find out more?
We’ll be sharing some articles over the coming weeks (and in our Friday email newsletter) to give you some useful background information. This week, we’ve tackled a broad overview of who is involved and why this is an important topic for you to engage with. Soon we’ll be bringing you some information about the ballot topics.
In the meantime, you can find out more by visiting these websites: