{"id":580,"date":"2018-05-24T21:27:06","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T21:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=580"},"modified":"2018-07-30T21:31:13","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T21:31:13","slug":"ucu-agm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/24\/ucu-agm\/","title":{"rendered":"UCU AGM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: 'courier new', courier, monospace\">The Annual General Meeting of Lancaster UCU on Wednesday 16 May in the Elizabeth Livingston Lecture Theatre passed off without incident. Rumours of coups and tantrums (prams and toys) and factions were groundless or forgotten. The meeting voted through several amendments to the local branch rules and listened to a report from the Chair and the Membership Officer, plus an update from the Treasurer. There was also a report on the anti-casualisation workshop (see below). The \u2018results\u2019 of \u2018elections\u2019 to the executive were announced (none of the posts were contested and most officer positions were already taken.) Members were assured that this situation would be handled by the new executive with co-options into these positions. This all seemed rather odd but there were no dissenting voices so with a feeling of \u2018nothing much to see here\u2019 the meeting moved on. In a sign of changing times, the executive had instructed members that in the interests of minimising our environmental impact, they would not be printing multiple copies of the documents for the meeting. Members were advised that if they would like to have them in front of them during the meeting, then a digital device would be a good idea. They also displayed them on the lecture theatre screen at relevant points in the meeting. Woo save the planet!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'courier new', courier, monospace\">***<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'courier new', courier, monospace\">CHALLENGING CASUALISATION &#8211; A ROADSHOW REPORT<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'courier new', courier, monospace\">An event organised by the Lancaster UCU anti-casualisation working group took place on Wednesday 2nd May in George Fox Lecture Theatre 2. There, more than thirty colleagues reported a range of contractual situations: teaching colleagues employed on hourly-paid contracts; researchers on a succession of fixed term contracts; colleagues often juggling two or more contracts and other colleagues who had experienced casualised employment contracts in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'courier new', courier, monospace\">Speakers included Dr Catherine Oakley, a researcher based at the University of Leeds, a new member of the UCU national anti-casualisation committee. Catherine is a founding member of The Academic Precariat collective, an \u2018&#8230;activist-led platform uniting education workers employed precariously in UK HE\u2019 and co-author of a report \u2018The Precarious Post Doc\u2019 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.workingknowledgeps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/WKPS_PrecariousPostdoc_PDF_Interactive.pd\/\">https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/y8kqthjc<\/a>. Lancaster University\u2019s Dr Joanna Kostka led a discussion on the challenges faced by international colleagues and their precarious employment experiences. UCU\u2019s Jonathan White, a national pay and bargaining official with a specific focus on the union\u2019s anti-casualisation work, talked about what the union is doing at a national level to challenge casualisation. The final session was led by Craig Jones and Dr. Joao Nunes de Almeida, both of Lancaster University, asking what we can do now to move forward within this University to challenge the increased casualisation of employment contracts. A number of practical steps were suggested in addition to the work that the union is already doing through supporting colleagues through casework. Members attending the workshop proposed setting up an anti-casualisation network with face-to-face meetings and a virtual presence and organising regular one hourly drop-in sessions for colleagues to discuss specific issues around casualised employment and experiences of precarity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'courier new', courier, monospace\">If you are interested in finding out more about what local staff are doing to challenge the increasing casualisation of academic work, or in joining the anti-casualisation working group, please contact <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/users\/ucu\/ucu_committee.htm\">Clare Egan, the UCU anti-casualisation rep<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Annual General Meeting of Lancaster UCU on Wednesday 16 May in the Elizabeth Livingston Lecture Theatre passed off without incident. Rumours of coups and tantrums (prams and toys) and factions were groundless or forgotten. The meeting voted through several &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/24\/ucu-agm\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[333,332,70],"class_list":["post-580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-anti-casualisation","tag-issue-178","tag-ucu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-9m","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":666,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/06\/21\/musical-ucu-chairs\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":0},"title":"MUSICAL UCU CHAIRS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"June 21 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Following our report in subtext 178 on the rather confused goings-on at the Lancaster UCU AGM we can report that things appear to have been sorted. Well, clarified. The bewilderment arose regarding the election of officers on the Lancaster UCU executive. Those attending the AGM were told that the actual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":899,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/02\/01\/get-the-vote-out-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":1},"title":"GET THE VOTE OUT&#8230; AGAIN","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 1 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The University and College Union is yet again balloting its members over industrial action - not over pensions this time, but rather over casualisation, workload, pay inequality, and... well, pay. Union members are said to be scratching their heads as they walk around campus in a daze (that's just the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1209,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/02\/19\/subtext-192-strike-while-the-subtext-is-hot\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":2},"title":"subtext 192 &#8211; &#8216;strike while the subtext is hot&#8217;","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 19 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Every so often during term time. Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk Back issues & subscription details: http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/about\/ In this issue: editorial, strike, casualisation, lancaster exchange, student politics, emeriti, gender stereotyping, new build, spineless, university future, widden's review, penguins, letters. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL 'Ultimately our aim is to protect our community's wellbeing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;editorial&quot;","block_context":{"text":"editorial","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":814,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/11\/08\/union-silo-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":3},"title":"UNION SILO BLUES","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 8 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Every year the five main UK Higher Education unions (including the three recognised at Lancaster University) haggle and bargain over pay rates for staff in the sector with the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA, acronym fans!). This year the unions' joint claim was for an increase of 7.5% or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":610,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/04\/24\/deep-dive-casualisation-and-precarious-working-practices\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":4},"title":"DEEP DIVE: CASUALISATION AND PRECARIOUS WORKING PRACTICES","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 24 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"PRECARI-R-US The casualisation and precarious working practices of academic staff are issues that universities are loath to acknowledge, let alone address, and are a far bigger issue than they would admit. However, as universities become more competitive for students, reputation becomes more important, and they are vulnerable to charges of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;special feature&quot;","block_context":{"text":"special feature","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/special-feature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":123,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/26\/ucu-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":580,"position":5},"title":"UCU + A","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 26 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The first (in this academic year) General Meeting of Lancaster UCU took place yesterday. The meeting took place in the ironically named Welcome Centre Lecture Theatre 1 \u2013 cold, airless, almost windowless, accessible only via a building site and acoustically unfriendly to boot. The gathering was an modestly well\u2013attended affair\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}