Agenda: UNISON Extraordinary Branch Meeting agenda September 2025.docx (required UoB login)
Meeting Minutes:
Called as we have lots of overlapping timelines for important things coming up – we wish we could have talked about these sooner, but as is union bureaucracy, we were waiting for various things to occur at a regional and then national level:
- National strike/industrial action ballot
- UOB Branch secretary election
- UNISON general secretary election
National strike/industrial action ballot:
Update from HESGE (Higher Education Service Group Executive): we were waiting for the 5 HE unions to reject the 1.4% pay offer so we can coordinate for joint industrial action. 4/5 have now rejected, so we can move forward (UNISON, Unite, UCU, EIS; not GMB).
Next steps will be receiving a postal ballot: open 20th October – 28th November. PLEASE ENSURE YOUR HOME ADDRESS IS UP TO DATE ON MY UNISON. There will be a ballot hotline to call if you still don’t receive it.
For strike action to be legal, our turnout must be 50%. The majority must then be in favour of strike action for it to go ahead.
Last date to join UNISON and take part should be mid-Nov: will double check so you can recruit colleagues!
Strike pay: £50. Has previously been higher (£70): the HESGE will fight for this again.
Last time we were 27 votes short of being able to take strike action. Reassuringly, we’ve grown exponentially since then as a branch, and we’ve consistently been one of the highest turnouts in the region.
How can we pass the 50% turnout this time?
- Support each other! Talk about the union! It’s an easier fight with more of us.
Join our action group on teams – currently 40+ members! (message Alex Kidd if interested). We are a huge institution and our branch committee can only do so much – we need you too! - Have a member of the committee come and do a talk in your workplace – email union-office@bristol.ac.uk
- Pitch any recruitment ideas to us – the branch is in a stable financial position, and we can spare money for cakes to help you talk to colleagues.
Phone banking – as much as we all hate call centering, this is one of the most successful ways of reminding people to post their vote. Please volunteer!
Member Questions (paraphrased/combined for efficiency):
Q: Can we have some posters and resources sent to our workplace?
A: We can have some open office days for people to collect posters, send through internal post (let us know your addresses!), or send out to print via email. Mia (comms officer) is also organising badge and placard making sessions so we can create our own resources.
Q: When/how long will we be on strike for? Why can’t it be over key academic dates?
A: This is quite a finicky part of action – we will have an option locally over how long we strike, but there will likely be days when action will happen nationally that we will want to coordinate with (as the more unions on strike at the same time, the more powerful our message).
This may mean that unfortunately we can’t strike on important dates like open days as we have previously – because of when the ballot is, we will likely go on strike in the New Year (dates TBC). It has to go through so many steps of signing off, so as annoying as it is that it might be when no big events are happening/students aren’t here: this is our option.
Q: Would it be possible to have a point of some talk or presentation about these national processes mentioned, and how they might hamper strike action?
A: Definitely! We want to be as transparent as possible about what happens behind the scenes. As much as strike action is what the workers do, it is unfortunately still an administrative process.
Q: If we get a mandate to strike but our comrades in other unions don’t, will we still go ahead with action?
A: Yes
Q: In the round of strikes a couple of years ago, we called off the last few days (over summer open days) because of a promise of good faith negotiations, which did not result in any significant improvements. Is there anything in place to help stop this happening again?
A: Hopefully the answer to this is transparency: the committee that will be having these discussions with senior management will actually share with members what’s going on this time. We believe this was an issue with the committee at the time, and now we have new faces. We will always consult you when things happen with SMT, or explain why we can’t if things are confidential.
UOB Branch secretary election:
Vicky has left the university (🙁) to work at a trade union (😊)
As Vicky and Nathan were co-branch secretaries, we are now looking for a new co-branch secretary to work with Nathan, who will continue his role.
We’ll be running a nominations process almost like our AGM. There’s no official UNISON process about this, so we’ve decided on:
Our current elected Co-Branch Secretary Nathan Street intends to remain in post, so will have the option to select run as ‘Co-Branch Sec’ (Alongside Nathan Street). The elections will proceed as follows depending on the nominations:
1) If there is only a single co-branch sec application by closing the election will be won by default by that candidate. This will then move to a committee vote for approval.
2) If there are multiple co-branch sec nominations, discussions will be had by candidates as to who they wish to run between the candidates, followed by a contested election or uncontested depending on the outcome of discussions with a full branch vote on the final tickets. Following the closing date of Friday 10th October, candidate packs will be sent the following week for 2 weeks of review, followed by a branch vote on Friday 24th October.
More information about this will be sent out at the end of the week (before 26th Sept).
If you have any questions or are thinking about running, email the branch unison-office@bristol.ac.uk
UNISON general secretary (GS) election:
As a branch, our committee unanimously voted to support Andrea Egan in her running against Christina McAnea (current GS who is running again).
This isn’t us telling you how to vote, this is just our committee backing her.
This decision is in the hands of members. There is usually only ~10% turnout, really important we vote because as far removed as it might feel from us, this impacts the union’s directions next 5 years and how we are able to operate. Especially specifically as HE members – Andrea has our back where Christina doesn’t.
See why we’re backing her here: We’re backing Andrea Egan for general secretary – University of Bristol UNISON
Member Q: Re: turnout, I do vote in these things but the national stuff just feels so absolutely removed from the stuff that’s happening at a local level and the work that you guys on the committee do that I don’t actually care who wins – is there a way to address that?
A: It’s kind of like how the person who leads the country affects the country. The union is kind of a mini country and government that we are part of – whoever runs the union influences who gets on various committees, decides if we can strike, how much strike pay we get etc. Our current gen sec said we need to ‘rethink our strategy’ for HE – they think we’re wasting unison resources by striking! If it feels like we don’t have much support from national UNISON at the moment, it’s because we don’t (at the recent National Delegates Conference Vicky and Nathan attended, Christina walked off stage while HE was being discussed!).
AOB:
Call for stewards: Great way to get more involved with the union and feel like you’re making a difference. Involves working with individual members to support them through workplace issues e.g. raising grievances against managers or fighting against denied flexitime requests.
Alex is happy to do a presentation and workshop sessions about what this job looks like in practice – email Alex.Kidd@Bristol.ac.uk if you’re interested!