6th November 2014
Day One
This is the first day of the national boycott of marking and assessment.
Things are moving quickly, and this will be the first of our regular local bulletins.
University level developments
The recent Open Letter to the VC was a superb example of the power of collective action. Picked up in the national and the local press, signed by over 500 academic and support staff, including at least a dozen heads of department, that Open Letter has already persuaded university management to consider retreating from the ill-judged hawkish position that it adopted on 29th October.
In his recent response to the Open Letter, the VC has announced that senior management will be asked to reconsider their initial position. We welcome this development, though we note that neither the date nor the outcome of this exercise has yet been announced.
The VC has offered to open discussions with your local UCU representatives, ‘to work together on a joint communique to be sent to all the negotiators’ in the pensions dispute. We have welcomed the invitation but have specified two conditions which will have to be met if we are to accept the invitation.
As a first condition, we have asked the VC to make a public statement withdrawing the letter sent out on October 29th in the name of Paula Tunbridge. Such a statement would help to repair some of the damage done to the important collegial ethos of our university.
As a second condition, we have asked the VC to withdraw the allegation that UCU, has ‘jumped the gun’ by starting industrial action now and so is negotiating in bad faith.. It is a matter of public record that these negotiations began at least eighteen months ago.
We have asked for the VC’s response by 1700 on Monday 10th November.
Implementing the boycott
Returning to the details of the boycott, there are already many individual questions about the inevitably miscellaneous character of this powerful collective action. We have therefore set up a Dispute Committee to respond to individual questions about the boycott. Please send your queries and concerns to me, geoffrey.wall@york.ac.uk
We are calling a branch meeting to be held on Tuesday 11November in B/B/006 at 1300.
Our main speaker will be Michael MacNeil, our national Head of Bargaining and Negotiation who will offer an up-to-the-minute national perspective on the dispute and the negotiations, and on support for York. Members will have the chance to ask questions, to take stock of the action so far, and to consider what lies ahead. Among the actions we may want to consider are the organization of collective activities on campus to show and strengthen branch solidarity in an action much of which is being undertaken by individuals in isolation. If our management remains as hawkish as it is at present, we may want to initiate a wider campaign of academic censure and boycott (a so-called ‘grey-listing’) of the University of York which would isolate the university from the wider academic community. We want as many members as possible to take time to attend this meeting
In conclusion, we urge you to support the boycott, to talk it over with your students, to hold firm and to take pride in the everyday power of collective action.
Geoffrey Wall
President, UCU University of York