Digraceful employment pratice by British university @universityofessex.bsky.social
13.03.2026 15:21
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Digraceful employment pratice by British university @universityofessex.bsky.social
In 2023, the Conservatives cut the bank surcharge tax from 8% to 3%.
Restoring this to 8% would raise £9 billion over the next four years.
Last year, banks made over £35 billion in profits, with average bonuses of £20,000.
It's time for banks to pay their fair share.
Today, we're shining a spotlight on Language & Linguistics - one of the founding departments of the University of Essex, and a very strong department on the national scale, and - as part of a cynical and short-sighted cost-cutting exercise - a department slated for 50% cuts by VC Frances Bowen.
Meanwhile, one university VC is engaging in a rare bit of valuable public communication.
"... higher education is not simply a cost to the public purse – it is one of Britain’s most productive investments."
Well said, Amanda Broderick, University of East London.
inews.co.uk/opinion/i-ru...
We will take strike action next week unless the University rules out compulsory redundancies.
The executives we have lost confidence in continue to forecast the need for another £20m of savings. All from staff losses.
We’ve already lost over 600 colleagues. When will the job cuts end?
💪🥁📣PLS SHARE! @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social ON STRIKE 16, 17, 25, 26, 27 March AND 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 April. 👉👉👉25 March = NATIONAL RALLY TO PROTECT PAY AND PENSIONS 1PM at Monument in NEWCASTLE with UCU GS Jo Grady and President Elect Dyfrig Jones. All welcome.
Starting early on the picket lines in Aberdeen #StopTheCuts #SaveHE✊🪧🩷💜
Aberdeen University staff to strike in dispute over cuts www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Solidarity with @ucuaberdeen.bsky.social on strike to save jobs #SaveHE
Today, in a branch meeting with unprecedented attendance, Essex UCU overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in our VC Frances Bowen and her senior management team for their appalling handling of the current financial shambles.
Poster titled "May Day 2026" with large red text reading "Turn London Red.” Features images of a bus, Nelson's Column, and a crowd with flags. Event details: 4 May 2026, 12 noon at Clerkenwell Green, march at 1 PM to Trafalgar Square.
🔴 We're joining @ldnmayday.bsky.social on the streets for London #MayDay on Monday 4 May.
#WorkersMakeHistory marks #GeneralStrike100, honouring the generations of workers who fought for rights, dignity, & #Solidarity.
RSVP - http://bit.ly/LDNMayDayRSVP
Turn #London red 🌹
#4May2026 #GFTU
For two days this week our members at both Manchester Met and RNCM have once again made a stand against real terms pay cuts and a funding model for HE that is unfair, impractical and out of date.
Thank you to all other union branches the amazing students who sent their solidarity this week.
SHAC - Sheffield Hallam Against Cuts meeting next week. Defend your university from further staff cuts & changes to your uni experience.
Our #SaveHE #StopTheCuts call on the front of today’s Herald
It's just heart-breaking hearing about students from the Sudan, Afghanistan, and elsewhere who wanted to come to the UK to study and build themselves a future, suddenly denied that possibility.
Oh, I agree with @myfanwytristram.bsky.social. The work you all do is important and positive. We march at moments of crisis. We learn from beautiful books at other times, and that learning strengthens our resolve to march when we need to. Indeed we learn even that we need to march. ✊🏻✊🏾
This week, professional service staff at several universities across the UK are on strike due to the insulting pay cut received in the 2025/26 pay offer.
Every year university staff face pay cuts - they deserve better.
Solidarity with all those taking action today.✊
#fundourpay #fundourfuture
Strike threat at University of Staffordshire
While staff are on strike at some UK universities, more are being balloted
"Staff have seen their pay collapse by 20% in the past decade. They think it's nothing short of an insult for bosses to come to the table with just 1.4%"
University of Bristol staff are on strike today - solidarity with those taking action ✊
Staff salaries have dropped by 20% in real terms over the past decade and no pay uplift has matched inflation since the financial crash in 2008 - 18 years ago.
Event 200 Wednesday 27 May 2026 11.30am Sophie & Scarlett Rickard and Myfanwy Tristram Placards & Panels: Graphic Novels as Protest
We’re going to be at Hay Festival @hayfestival.bsky.social chatting with @myfanwytristram.bsky.social about protest in graphic novels!
Wanna come and heckle us? www.hayfestival.com/p-25291-soph...
I've never been. But now I'm tempted this year - especially if heckling happens. 😎
📷Great picture of some of the participants from our Women's Voices course celebrating #InternationalWomensDay yesterday with La Pasionaria 💜🤍💚
#GFTUET #IWD #IWD2026
⬇️ People worrying in a BBC editorial meeting what a lobby group would think about journalists' reporting. An insight into what's wrong in the BBC. ⬇️
Have a listen online here: www.podchaser.com/podcasts/rev...
AMAZING AWARD NEWS!
This year marks the first ever Book of the Year: Graphic Novel category at the #BritishBookAwards, and we're delighted to announce that #ThisSlavery by @rickardsisters.com has been shortlisted!
Congrats to the shortlisters, and fingers crossed for May 11th!
🔗 buff.ly/sj83lyv
I hope This Slavery wins the award (obviously). Very chuffed for you.
The cover of This Slavery graphic novel on a black background, with the British Book Awards Logo and the text Shortlisted Book of the Year Graphic Novel
A photo of the six shortlisted books in the graphic novel category: InvestíGators by John Patrick Green, Dog Man: Big Jim Believes by Dav Pilkey, Bunny v Monkey: Intergalactic Monkey Business, Who Killed Nessie by Paul Cornell and Rachael Smith, This Slavery by us and Ginseng Roots Craig Thompson
We’re flabbergasted to see This Slavery shortlisted for Book of the Year: Graphic Novel at the Nibbies!
What an incredible list to appear on, and isn’t it great to have a graphic novel category
... and rich colours ensure the story is even more relevant today than it was a century ago." - @thebookseller.com
Congratulations to @rickardsisters.com, @selfmadehero.bsky.social and all involved.
www.thebookseller.com/british-book...
Well deserved recognition ⏬️
Sophie's "words pack as much of a punch as the original from pioneer Holdsworth (commonly regarded as the first female working-class British novelist), while Scarlett’s line work...
A book cover: on a dark inky blue background a five women stand together holding up an ornate protest banner which reads Constance Maud’s No Surrender, a graphic novel by Scarlett & Sophie Rickard. They are dressed in Edwardian clothing and VOTES FOR WOMEN sashes. The girl in the centre, who wears the shawl of a working woman, holds a loud-hailer
A book cover. The text reads ETHEL CARNIE HOLDSWORTH’S THIS SLAVERY, a graphic novel by Scarlett & Sophie Rickard. The full page illustration shows two women standing back to back in a steep terraced street at sunset. The blonde woman holds a violin, the dark haired woman wears a man’s coat. A young man looks at them from an upstairs window on the left, and on the right there is a perky white and brown dog. In the distance the factory chimneys smoke. It’s all very ‘mills & doom’
Looking for something to read during Women’s History Month?
Both these graphic novels explore authentic experiences of women’s place in early 20th C Britain - and told in pictures.
No Surrender is about civil rights and This Slavery is about industrial capitalism. Enjoy!
In Sheffield tomorrow night, and then every night through to Saturday. ⏬️
Great radical theatre! ⏬️