Today, we began sending our message loud and clear to our VC, his senior team, to the whole of UUK, to UCEA, to our students, to our sister unions, and to our community, that we will not stand by while our VC and his team, as part of UUK and UCEA, degrade our pensions. They promote intergenerational unfairness and fail to act as custodians of our university and more broadly what a ‘university’ should be. We have acted because they have not. Shame on him, his team and on their peers in other universities. Solidarity to all of you.

We are delighted and excited to announce that we have a visitor to our pickets and teach out on Wednesday. The UCU President, Vicky Blake, is in York on Wednesday and will be at the pickets, speaking at the rally and will be at the teach out. If you are only coming out for one day this week to the pickets, Wednesday should be it.

Further, on Friday, Julie Kelley, is at our pickets to bring regional solidarity.

If you were not out on the pickets today, do consider coming along tomorrow or Wednesday. We start at 08:30 am at each of the four sites:

• The Retreat Entrance
• Newton Way (Behind James College, near to the sports centre)
• Campus East (next to the bus stops)
• Kings Manor (in town)

At 1030am we have a rally at Heslington Hall. Anyone who wants can speak.

Note – these are changes from the previously advertised times.

We encourage the bringing of cakes, hot drinks, dogs, children and Vice Chancellors to the picket line. It all adds to the atmosphere and from experience, it is an invaluable chance to talk with colleagues from other departments and places in the university that you don’t interact with on a day-to-day basis.

Branch strike diary – to be updated in each day’s email.

Details also placed on the branch Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/UcuYork (note, for those who don’t know Twitter, you don’t need an account to view the feed.)

Tuesday 15^th February 2022

• Pickets and rally as advertised above.
• Teach out by the Archaeology Department – ‘Activism and Research’
  10.45-12.30 at St Olave’s Meeting Rooms. Twitter: @ArchSocYork

Wednesday 16^th February 2022

• Pickets and rally as advertised above. Vicky Blake, our UCU national president will be at the pickets and will speak at the rally.
• Teach out organised by the Management School The Management School union members are holding a virtual teachout on Wednesday the 16th at noon on the TumsUcu Tube live stream, https://youtube.com/channel/UCOKWobNm4-J2PvLaiiH6fVg
• Teach out organised by the Politics Department: ‘Migration and Racism’ which includes Rachel Maskell MP.
  1300-1600 at the Crescent Community Venue in York, on the Crescent, off Blossom Street.

This event is in two parts, each with a panel:
Panel 1 – Rachel Maskell MP, Simon Parker, Sara De Jong, Fazia Ehzani.
Panel 2 – Zarah Sharif, Mel Williams, Emilia Chalmers, Susy Williams.

Thursday 17^th February 2022

• Pickets and rally as advertised above.
• Teach out organised by the Archaeology department, ‘Nationalism and building identities’.
  10.45-12.30 at St Olave’s Meeting Rooms. Twitter: @ArchSocYork

Friday 18^th February 2022

• Pickets and rally as advertised above. This includes a visit by Julie Kelley, our regional UCU officer.

Note – all teach outs are open to all, including UCU members, non-member staff, students and the general public.

Questions asked by members:

• Should I remove materials that may enable students to access the learning contained in taught sessions that are lost due to strike action?
  UCU have notified that all materials related to teaching lost due to strike action should be removed, taken down, and not subsequently shared. This is to ensure strikes have impact. If you still have materials up, including lecture capture content, we encourage you to take it down.

• I feel guilty about striking due to my students being affected, what should I do?
  The issues we are striking on are bigger than now, bigger than this student generation and frankly, bigger than us. We are striking for a reversal of a decade and more of attacks on our pensions, pay, conditions and what it means to work in a university. Enough is enough. Students will be disrupted, but if we don’t act our jobs, their learning and the idea of a public good university will be a thing of the past.

• Students want to support me and us, what can they do?
  o   Write to the VC stating why they support UCU action – vc@york.ac.uk
  o   Write to the GSA or YUSU, as applicable, stating support for UCU action
  o   State public support on social media & tag UCU branch locally and nationally
  o   Tell fellow students of their support and why they support our actions.
  o   Come to the picket lines as ‘visitors’.
  o   Ask teaching staff who are not teaching why they are not striking.
  o   Come to teach outs.
  o   Write to their MP, here or at home, stating support for UCU actions.

• I have not been to a picket line before, what will it be like?
  o   It is a great opportunity to talk to fellow members, share stories, build friendships, and feel empowered.
  o   We talk to students, to staff who want to cross the picket line and to the public, always explaining why we are striking.
  o   Cold – sorry, but it is, but layers and comradely spirit, alongside a flask of tea help!

We hope to see many of you on the pickets this week and next. If you cannot make it but are on strike, solidarity to you, we will be with you in spirit. If you are not striking, we encourage you to join us in forcing our employer to see they have to act on the gross unfairness and inexplicable treatment we are being subjected to.

Also and importantly, note previously sent information about national and local strike funds. Access them if you need – we don’t want people to not strike due to financial considerations.

Solidarity to you all.

UOY UCU Executive

1. Removal of access to teaching materials for students that would be taught on strike days.
   The ASOS notification on this is clear. We can and should remove access to all teaching materials that are associated with lectures, seminars, labs and any other taught sessions that are lost on strike days. The materials should then not be made available afterwards. That teaching is lost, which means the associated materials are lost. If materials are already on the VLE take them off. If you have Panopto videos you could put them into your personal Panopto folder and remove access. It is essential that the strike has effects, and this is a key method of doing this.

2. You don’t have to notify anyone, including students, that you are going to strike.
   We aim to cause disruption. This may seem harsh on current students, but our dispute is much bigger than now, and we are acting to secure the idea of what a university is into the future. The egregious attacks on our pensions, pay and conditions justify the action that we have voted to undertake.

3. Many students support our actions.
   Students have been involved in the strike action by creating and handing in a petition with 1250+ signatures in support of the strikes in December. Details of students’ support for UCU action are on this website: https://studentsupportstrikes.wordpress.com  
   Students will be on the picket lines and are also involved in creating the teach outs that are to be found below.

4. A suggested email signature is below. It comes in two versions depending on if you wish to confirm you are striking or not.
   The UCU is currently undertaking industrial action which involves striking from the 14th to 22nd February inclusive. This is in support of our USS and Four Fights disputes. You can find more information about these here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11896/Why-were-taking-action
   As a UCU member I reserve the right to not confirm if I am or am not striking until after the current action. You may experience a delay to me responding to your message. If you are a student and need urgent support, please contact your department administrators and/or see this page for contact details: https://www.york.ac.uk/students/health/help/

   The UCU is currently undertaking industrial action which involves striking from the 14th to 22nd February inclusive. This is in support of our USS and Four Fights disputes. You can find more information about these here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11896/Why-were-taking-action
   As a UCU member I am taking part in the strike action and will be undertaking action short of a strike on my return, so there will a delay to responding to your email. If you are a student and need urgent support, please contact your department administrators and/or see this page for contact details: https://www.york.ac.uk/students/health/help/

5. Teach Outs
   We have, as a branch, organised a series of teach outs. The Exec are very thankful to colleagues who have put together the programme outlined below.

   The first are organised by the Politics Department and will be held in the Crescent Community Venue – http://thecrescentyork.com/
   Wednesday 16^th February, 1-4pm. Migration and Racism.
   This event is in two parts, each with a panel:
   Panel 1 – Rachel Maskell MP, Simon Parker, Sara De Jong, Fazia Ehzani
   Panel 2 – Zarah Sharif, Mel Williams, Emilia Chalmers, Susy Williams

   Monday 21^st February 1-4pm – Classism and cost of living crisis
   More details on a future email.

   Monday 28^th February 1-4pm – NHS solidarity and disability
   More details on a future email.

   The second ones are organised by the Archaeology Department.
   Tuesday 15^th February: “Activism and Research”
   Thursday 17^th February: “Nationalism and Building Identities”
   Both are from 10.30-12.30 at St Olave’s Meeting Rooms, see the map below. @ArchSocYork

   The Management School have also organised a teach out:
   Teachout – Wednesday the 16th of Feb at 12 noon on the ‘Tumsucutube’ live stream on YouTube!

6. Picket lines
   Further to information sent out in the previous email, please come along to the three picket lines. Please feel free to bring children and dogs!  Each day we are running a competition for placards. We will be judging based on artistic merit, humour, and ‘unexpected’ criteria. Winners will be advertised each day.
   Friday 18th – ‘bring your dog day’ (or borrow one from a friend). We hope to have many four-legged comrades on the picket lines on Friday (and other days too!).

7. Communications during the strike
   Information will be communicated via emails and on Twitter. Please get in touch with any questions and if you are on the pickets, do share pictures and stories on Twitter, tagging them with #OneOfUsAllOfUs and @UcuYork. Do also share on other social media; it is important that the strike action is visible.

   We hope to see many of you on the pickets next week.
   UCU UOY Executive

There will be a branch meeting on Monday 7 February at 12:30 pm.  This will be held online and further details will be sent to members in due course.