Durham UCU

@ducu.bsky.social

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Three UCU banners against the fence at The Sands.
The Sands field as the banners begin to arrive.
Dozens of banners and hundreds of people stretched out down Saddler At.
Four UCU banners, including the Northern Region, Durham.Branch and Northumbria Branch banners, marching along North Road.
Clustered post-it notes filled with suggestions from those present on what to work on over the coming year.
Katie stood beside a screen showing one of her slides.
The Sunday Times bestseller We Are Not Numbers, Ahmed Alnaouq and Pam Bailey. 'Essential' - Ta-Nehesi Coates. 'Brilliannt' - Francesca Albanese. 'A vital book' - China Mieville. 'This is Gaza as it truly is' - Motaz Azaiza. 'Impossible to put down or forget' - Riz Ahmed. 'Their voices will bellow through the ages' - Owen jones. 'A jailbreak and a miracle!' - Naomi Klein. 'Please read this book' - Nikesh Shukla. 'A rebellion against the singular story' - Mohammed El-Kurd. 'Like the story of Palestine itself' - Medhi Hasan.
A crowd of anti-racist protesters.
Durham Students and Staff for Palestine: Teach out session Atrocities in Palestine and International Law Dr Jane Rooney (Durham Law School) 4 December 2025 1-2pm TLC101 In this session Jane will explain how international law has responded to the atrocities committed in Gaza. This information will provide a basis for audience participation in the discussions of the efficacy of international law in improving the lived experience of Palestinians on the ground. WALK OUT! SPEAK OUT! Supported by the NEU, UCU & PC Unions. Stand With Gaza
Join Durham Students for Palestine and very special guest Roaa Elhag, a journalist, graduated from Teesside University with a degree in media and journalism, and a master's degree in international management, on Thursday 27th Nov, at 13:00-14:00 in TLC 101. There is a photo of Roaa, and an image of the Palentine and Sudan flags linked together in a chain, above the words "Palestine-Sudan Solidarity".
Spine points 5 (now real living wage) to 16 + VC salary.
Join Durham Students for Palestine and very special guests Waad Ebrahim (Sudanese activist and human rights defender, with special focus on women's rights) and Roaa Elhag (a journalist, graduated from Teesside University with a degree in media and journalism, and a master's degree in international management) on Thursday 20th Nov at 13:00-14:00 in TLC 101. Pictures of Waad and Roaa are included, as is a picture of the Sudanese and Palestinian flags chained together, with the legend "Palestine-Sudan solidarity".
The Trans Pride flag, flying from the college flagpole.
Graph of spine points 5 (now real living wage) to 16.
How to Talk About Palestine Workshop The workshop aims to provide skills to engage with different audiences, while addressing nuanced talking points presented in the mainstream narrative on Palestine in the west. We will do so through creating a space to participate in discussions about how to argue against common misleading talking points. CLC 101 1pm (after the walkout) Thursday 6th November
Meet and Greet Room A04 Dunelm House Wednesday 15th Oct 3-5pm
WHERE DOES DU MANAGEMENT SPEND MONEY? Waterside Building: £108 million. More expensive staff hired (e.g. new COO) while we're told to cut back! Paying headhunters to find our senior management. Terminalfour: a six-figure bill. Boldon House aka the white elephant office: £4m. Free housing for the VC and College Principals. WHERE MANAGEMENT SPENDS MONEY IS A POLITICAL CHOICE
Marvel's The Beyonder, here assuming a human form with blue-black fuzzy hair, Caucasian skin tone, and a fully unacceptable seventies silver-white suit with, if anything, even worse shoes.
A figure titled "Durham Cuts 250+ Roles". A green pie on a purple background. There are five slices, bearing the text "ca. 250+ lost to Voluntary Severance in 2025", "Key staff in student support lost", "Over £3.8m academic VS in 2025 alone", "Inconsistent "hiring freeze"", and "Chaotic "re-alignments" of staff teams". A missing slice reads "Remaining staff with increasing workload".
Sheila Williams talking atop the front steps of County Hall.
A larger crowd than before, and now with Palestine flags.
A man with a megaphone atop the front steps of County Hall.
A crowd of protesters outside Durham County Councils pride flags, banners, placards about climate emergency, and more
Big crowd at the Gala
UCU banners out on field.
Two UCU banners in a crowd of marchers, just past Durham Market Square.
Picketers stood behind a line of pieces of paper, filled with stick figures (representing lost staff), and with doors (representing vacancies that aren't open for replacement).
A washing line with over a dozen pieces of paper, each representing either five lost colleagues, or five vacancies.
Durham UCU banner with bonus Lucy.
The Durham UCU banner
A Durham Students for Palestine banner, reading "No Pride with genocide".
Professor Lynda Boothroyd addressing the crowd beside the Bill Bryson Library.
UCU: MAB TIMELINE IN UK HE 2006: National MAB successfully pressured employers to grant a proper pay settlement 2021: Goldsmiths local MAB. Guarantee of no compulsory redundancies until 2022 and other commitments to protect staffing budgets for Associate Lecturers; greater transparency around Fixed Term Contracts due to expire, and Equalities Impact Assessments to be carried out on any future redundancies. Employer later reneges on promises. 2021-22: Uni of Liverpool local MAB. Backed up with strikes, put a stop to over 40 proposed redundancies. 2022: Durham, threat of local MAB. Thread of MAB leads to joint statement on USS, "a matrix of priorities", including a £1000 payment to all staff. 2023: National MAB. Reversed pension cuts that had reduced guaranteed benefits by 35%. No national progress on the Four Fights campaign. 2023: Durham, threat of local MAB. Secured a local package of measures including additional VISA support, assistant professors starting at grade 8, Real Living Wage (RLW) accreditation and two year Career Development Fellowships. 2023: Royal College of Art, local MAB. Following 41 days of strike action since 2020, deal secured included full employment rights for all staff, an end to zero-hour contracts, new routes to permanent contracts. and caps on teaching workloads. 2025: Cardiff University, threat of local MAB. Compulsory redundancies being taken off the table. 2025: Durham, threat of local MAB. ?
The gathered Durham UCU picketers.
The Durham UCU picket line outside of Bill Bryson library
Should I cross a picket line? A: "Don't cross a picket line" can mean not going to work if your colleagues are on strike or not giving money to a business if its workers are on strike. It doesn't mean you need to disrupt your studies! To support the strike you could stop by the picket line on your way to the library, or email Uni management to ask them to work with us.
Jamie speaking to the picketers and supporters at the Durham UCU strike rally, the branch banner in the background.
A picket line outside the Palatine Center
Picket line by The Map.
Durham UCU members on picket line.
Another Durham UCU ballot envelope going in the post.
A human person interacting with a mailbox, through the medium of putting an envelope in it.
Three UCU ballots going into the mail, as part of Durham UCUs current IA ballot.
"We have performed very strongly in the prestigious QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025, with our best-ever 21 subjects ranked in the world top 100 and three in the top ten. This success is a testament to the dedication of our academics, researchers and students."
A picture of a hand holding a ballot envelope as its placed in a mailbox.
Screenshot from Duo: "Il faut voter!" Translation: You must vote.
A DUCU branch member posting their ballot.
REDUNDANCIES AT DURHAM ARE NOT INEVITABLE! JOIN A UNION, PROTECT JOBS, PROTECT WORKLOADS! Senior management at the university are trying to make around 200 professional, technical and operations staff redundant to save costs. Durham University University and Colleges Union does not accept that this is necessary or inevitable. We believe that management has a choice about how they make savings and they are choosing to cut from essential, mostly lower paid staff who keep the university running. If this goes ahead workloads will increase for many staff. Management are likely also planning another round of redundancies next year from both professional, technical and operations staff and academics. If you want to defend your job and your workload, your best way to do this is by joining a union and getting active in it. Durham UCU has voted to support a formal strike ballot and UNITE may do the same soon. Any member of staff can join UCU or UNITE, it doesn’t matter what your job type is or where you work. Scan the QR codes for the link to join UCU or UNITE.
A line graph showing staff cost as percentage of income over four years, with the phrase "Lower is better" on the left hand side, with a huge arrow pointing downward (presumably for those needing help on the definition of "lower").
Bar chars throwing number of Vice Chancellors per thousand FTE across the Russell Group, with Durham's bar higher than the Russell Group average.
Another photo of the protests (image courtesy of Tim Packer)
Photo of protest at South College (image courtesy of Tim Packer)
Stand with Palestine! 1-2pm Thursday 28th Nov. UCU ceasefire now. Staff and student work out. Join the UCU National Day of Action to call for an end to government and corporate complicity in Israel's atrocities and demand ceasefire now. Gather at "What Lies Beneath Us" map, Durham (opposite Whitechurch). Info stall throughout the day. Speakers and demo 1-2pm.
The Predator handshake meme. Academic journals and senior management handshake over "Make academics do our job!"
Let's Talk Palestine. An evening on Palestine past, present, and future with: Jason Hussein, Ahmad Ashqar, and Dalya Saleh, & food to follow. Thursday 17th Oct 6:30-8:30pm Elvet Methodist Church, Durham. PSC, County Durham.
Stand With Gaza. Workplace Day of Action. Durham University. Staff and Student Walk Out. Wednesday 9 October. 1-2pm. A commemoration of lives lost this year. Gather at `what lies beneath us' map (opposite Whitechurch) WALK OU! SPEAK OUT! Supported by NEU, UCU & PCS Unions