Hello, and welcome back to Commons Mail.
This one is very short (and we will be back in touch soon with a new slate of candidates for NEC elections, and with some strike swag in the event of industrial action), as really there is only one thing right now that we all need to do:
Please vote in the current ballot over pay and pensions:
If you have yet to return your ballot, please do so as soon as you can. we respect that there is a range opinions on the current proposed industrial action (our collective is very strongly in favour of voting YES and YES), but regardless of what your views are on taking strike action in this instance, we simply cannot afford to miss the 50% turnout threshold required by anti-union legislation. Strike ballots must be returned in the post. We strongly recommend avoiding internal mail for this, as it can be slow. Here is a useful link if you're not sure where your nearest post box is: Find Your Nearest Postbox (dracos.co.uk). The ballots need to be with CES (the independent scrutineer) by midday on Thursday 4th November, which is when the ballot closes.
To be certain that your completed ballot will be counted, you need to post it on or before Tuesday 2nd November. There are some FAQs on the disputes available here: UCU - HE disputes FAQs.
Ultimately it is in all of our interests to return a resounding number of ballots and smash past the 50% threshold, regardless of what the result is.
For a gentle explainer, in good humour of course, on what is at stake, you might also check out our recent post on the rather shady language being used to minimise the attack on USS pensions, called ‘massaging the figures’, here.
In solidarity,
The UCU Commons Collective.