Advice about the UCU strike

And June 6th as well. Also continuing pay disputes at various FE colleges, for what it's worth.

Our dispute in FE so far is actually the most militant dispute we've ever had at my workplace.

Do you reckon all the stuff in HE has had any effect on that?

Yes, there are lots of more 'local' factors about our specific conditions but I think seeing a really big militant strike with loads of new workers involved definitely gave us heart

This feels like it could use a big bump. Not seen anything new from Notes from Below/University Worker for this new round of strikes yet, but there's this from the IWW (the attached leaflets look really weird in my browser, but display fine if you actually download them and open in Adobe or whatever): https://iww.org.uk/news/all-out-in-support-of-striking-university-staff/
And some nicely-designed posters here: https://twitter.com/we_are_adg/status/1195780074198503425

Anything else so far?

...Aaand the University Worker is back: https://notesfrombelow.org/article/university-worker-2019

Hah, I just came back to this thread to ask about this very issue, because this time round I'd met some IT staff who were striking as part of UCU, and was kind of confused by it because I'd always thought of UCU as being pretty much just academics, but there you go, turns out my question was answered in this thread a year and a bit ago. Does anyone know of much other non-academic participation in UCU/these strikes? I know there's the IWGB thing tomorrow, but that's a bit different. And more generally, any observations from this time round?

There's a confusion as UCU and Unison have 'no poaching agreements' and in HE these assign iirc Grade 6 and above to UCU and Grade 5 and below to Unison. However no poaching agreements are not the same as a ban on Grade 5 and below workers joining UCU. However this is often either misunderstood as a rule that Grade 5 and below workers cannot join, or is deliberately presented as a ban by academics who believe that the union should only be for academics.
In FE there is something about 'student facing' staff.

I'm an FE rep and don’t work in HE, and shortly before the strike started (just a few days before in some cases) I had non academic staff in HE contacting me asking if they could join UCU to join the strike, and they did do that.

Thanks for that. So, trying to get my head around things, would a UCU member in a Grade 5 or below role have the same protections as a UCU member in Grade 6 or above? And would a non-union member have the same rights as a UCU member in that situation? Industrial relations law is kind of confusing.

Protections, do you mean protection from retaliation by the employer because you went on strike?

There could be an issue if you are not directly affected by the issue the strike is about, eg if you are not eligible for the pension scheme, then I think you could be accused of secondary action (not 100% sure on this point) I think in the case of the ongoing UCU strike there are several issues (pay gap, pensions, workload, casualisation) which helps.

In practice one of the deciding factors is if your branch will defend you, which is very variable.

New bulletin for the new strike up now at: http://libcom.org/library/university-worker-strike-bulletin-2018-lecture...