Dear comrades,
We hope you’re having a great welcome week (and if you’re feeling overworked and underpaid, now’s the time to get energized to fight for a better pay rise – join our pay action group, more info below!)
Take a well-deserved break and catch up on our latest news, including strike ballot updates, our upcoming social and UNISON’s General Secretary nominations:
❎ Strike Ballot – October and November
The Joint Higher Education unions met recently to review the outcome of their respective consultations on UCEA’s 1.4% pay offer for 2025/6.
All unions have rejected the offer, and UNISON, UCU, EIS and Unite have agreed to ballot members for industrial action on the offer.
The UNISON Higher Education Service Group Executive (HESGE) has decided to run a disaggregated ballot of members in those universities covered by the New JNCHES pay bargaining arrangements (other than in a small number of branches where we have limited membership).
The ballot will be for strike action alone and will run from mid-October to the end of November.
The other unions, including UCU, will be running a ballot on a similar timeline with the aim that any action agreed by the higher education unions will be organised jointly.
The joint unions have written to UCEA calling on them to re-open negotiations and to improve the pay offer to higher education staff and have issued a joint statement.
Joint Statement: Higher Education Unions to Launch Industrial Action Ballots over
UCEA Offer.
It is essential your home address is up to date to receive the ballot and not to be disenfranchised from voting.
We will be in touch with more information about the ballot closer to the time.
If you are not already part of the 💪PAY ACTION GROUP 💪 then contact your workplace contact or a branch activist to be added.
Read more on our strike information page.
📅 Branch meeting – Wednesday 24th September
There will be a Branch Meeting from 12:00-13:00 on Wednesday 24th September on Microsoft teams. This will be a chance to discuss the upcoming strike ballot, as well as other important updates.
View the agenda (requires a UoB login)
You’ll notice that there isn’t the usual open floor for general queries as the agenda items are quite meaty, but there should be some time for AoB.
Minutes from August’s branch meeting (requires a UoB login)
Recording of August’s branch meeting (requires a UoB login)
🍻 Pay rise social – Tuesday 23rd September
Tuesday 23rd September at 5 p.m.
Arnolfini Café Bar
https://arnolfini.org.uk/cafe-bar/
Accessibility information: https://arnolfini.org.uk/plan-your-visit/accessibility/
August pay cheques were bursting at the seams after our 1.4% pay rise. Yes, this is lower than all other public sector pay rises. Yes, after inflation this amounts to a 3% pay cut. But the question on all our minds is: what can we do with all this extra cash?
Come and join us at the Arnolfini bar on Tuesday 23rd and spend your new wealth on a drink (maybe even two)!
🫨 Branch Secretary Election
Our co-Branch Secretary Vicky Redwood will be shortly departing the University for pastures new. It is a massive loss to the branch, but fantastic news and a great opportunity for her.
The branch committee has been working on interim arrangements to ensure there is cover for all the great work Vicky has been doing. But given the seniority of the position, replacing Vicky as Co-Branch Secretary would create a democratic deficit without a vote from members.
As a result we will be running an election for a new co-Branch Secretary alongside our existing elected co-Branch Secretary Nathan Street.
We will discuss this more in the upcoming members meeting and send out more details about the timelines and process for this in due course. Please get in touch with unison-office@bristol.ac.uk if you want more information, or if you are interested in standing for the role.
👍 General secretary Nomination – Andrea Egan
The decision over who will be UNISON’s general secretary for the next five years lies with its members. The ballot period will run from 28 October 2025 to 25 November 2025. The vote will be conducted by postal ballot, which will include the candidate manifestos.
At our most recent branch committee meeting we voted unanimously to back Andrea Egan for General Secretary.
As a branch, we are backing Andrea because she:
- Has shown real commitment to Higher Education for fair funding and pay, with a clear plan to end the stagnation of the last 15 years, and a plan to increase our strike pay.
- Opposes UNISON’s subservience to Starmer’s Labour. UNISON members will come first, not the Labour Party.
- Will take the wage of a social worker, not the £181,000 package our current General Secretary receives.
- Will free up and resource branches so we can better support you, giving you access to legal advice when needed.
Delegates from University of Bristol branch will attend a regional committee hustings and nomination meeting. We will have an opportunity to ask all candidates a question.
📢 Are you a UNISON Disabled Member? – From Nat, our Disabled Members Officer
People with disabilities make up 20% of the workforce and around 10 million people in Britain have a disability or long-term health condition.
Equality Act 2010
In Great Britain, the 2010 Equality Act protects the rights of disabled people (anyone with a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out day-to-day activities ) in the workplace.
Citizens Advice Bureau – Check if you are Disabled under the Equalities Act 2010
Social model of disability
UNISON supports the social model of disability. This means we believe it is the way society organises itself and people’s attitudes that stop disabled people from taking an equal part in life, rather than their physical or mental conditions or ailments. As a union we campaign on important issues such as:
- inaccessible workplaces;
- information systems that are not designed for disabled people;
- negative attitudes and prejudice from employers.
Sign up to updates
UNISON’s work on disability discrimination is often led by our disabled members. Sign up below to receive a monthly email* from your branch Disabled Members Officer – Nat Imlay (they/them).
University of Bristol UNISON branch – Disabled Members Contacts
*on rare occasions additional emails may be sent, for example if there is an urgent update for Disabled members that cannot wait for the next scheduled email.
💪 Power up training – November and December
Our branch is currently organising a group of members to take part in an online training session on the fundamentals of organising to build union power in your workplace.
“Organizing for Power is an online training program that teaches organizing methods and campaign strategies to groups seeking to win righteous justice in this world on fire. Since 2019, O4P has trained more than 45,000 people from 2,100+ organizations in 120 countries.”
The UNISON Organising to Win model is built upon the same principles, so this is an excellent training opportunity for UNISON members.
The training is over four sessions of two hours each, on 18 & 20 November and 2 & 4 December at 5 p.m.
If you would like to take part (perhaps to prepare for possible strike action 👀) please contact comms officer Alex Tissandier on Teams.
✊ Passed motions
Motion Passed: Reinstate Julia Mwaluke – University of Bristol UNISON
Sign the petition
Motion Passed: Reinstate Steve North – Defend Democracy in UNISON – University of Bristol UNISON
We encourage members to sign the petition calling for the reinstatement of Steve North
🍞 Food fund – from UNISON South West
If you’re a UNISON member on a low income, you can apply for a £30 voucher per qualifying person in your household towards the cost of food. You can apply for a voucher for yourself, your partner and your dependent children.
We want to make this fund go as far as possible and help as many members as we can. Please only apply if you are in financial difficulty.
🚨 National March for Palestine
Join us on 11 October to march again for Palestine to mark two years of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people and to demand that our government take immediate action to stop arming Israel.
🚌 Bristol & Weston coach tickets via Headfirst – https://hdfst.uk/e137807
Two years on, we need to make this march absolutely massive – all to London‼