Following the first two days of strike action on 31 October and 3 December 2013 UNISON’s Higher Education Service Group Executive has called a further strike day to be held on the 6th February 2014. This will be a joint strike with other HE unions.

For further information on the strike or to help out on the day please email Dave Thomspon, Chair of the York St John Union Branch d.thompson@yorksj.ac.uk or reply direct to this email which one of the branch officers will pick up.  Please access the UNISON website for more detailed information too.

Please support UNISON in its fight for a fair and affordable pay settlement for us all.

We are currently creating a page dedicated to Health and Safety and would welcome any ideas on what members would find usefull, so please get intouch with your thoughts

Dear Member

Unison are asking you to take strike action on 3 December 2013 as, unfortunately, last minute talks that took place on November 26th between the Joint Unions and UCEA, the employers’ representatives, failed to resolve the Higher Education pay dispute. UCEA said the employers could not afford more than this even though their own accounts show differently. Universities appear to have plenty of money for improving facilities and increasing Vice Chancellors’ wages but not to pay our members a fair and affordable pay settlement.

As we have stated before, this strike is not just about our low paid members but about the annual attack that all our members have suffered on the value of their pay due to well below cost of living pay rises. We know that because of that it is not easy to take strike action but Unison, along with the other unions who are taking strike action, believe that if we do not take action now then this devaluation of our members wages will continue year after year.

Unison York St John branch members will be picketing university entrances between 8.00 and 12.00 on 3 December 2013. Please join us if you are able to. We will be meeting in front of the Fountains building just before 8am. If this is too early for you then please join us later at one of the entrances to the University. There has been an offer of tea and coffee from the Students’ Union.

Please support Unison in the fight for a fair and affordable settlement for all our members in Higher Education.

Best Wishes
Dave Thompson
York St John Unison Chair

York St John Unison branch Committee are holding a number of short meetings to keep members fully up to date with this year’s pay settlement and also to discuss the planned industrial action on December 3rd.  Please try to make it to one of the meetings as this is an extremely important issue that affects all our members no matter what grade they are on.

Please come along to one of the sessions listed below where Unison Executive staff will be able to provide advice on the reasons and preparation for the industrial action.

You can also use the sessions to ask the Unison Executive about any other Unison matters.

Monday 25 November 2013

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Members who cannot make one of the above meetings can access the Unison blog for the latest information http://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/unison/

As you may have heard via email, further strike action will be taken on 3 December 2013 unless agreement over this year’s pay settlement is reached.   

Please visit the Unison webpages for more information http://www.unison.org.uk/news/university-staff-announce-3-december-for-second-date-of-strike-action

We will be in touch shortly to keep you updated with any developments.  If anybody has any queries please contact the YSJ branch executive – members are listed on this site. 

Best wishes
Dave Thompson, Chair of York St John UNISON branch

Hi,

Just a quick message to say that we have updated the list of local branch representatives.  If you need to speak to someone from the branch, you should see there details here:

http://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/unison/your-reps/

Hi,

Just a quick update to let you know that the branch accounts are now available on the AGM documents page.

Hi,

UNISON Branch AGM is on the horizon – here are the details:

• When: 10:00 to 11:30 on Wednesday 6th February 2013
• Where: DG017 (ground floor of the De Greys building on the Lord Mayor’s Walk campus)

We hope to see you there 🙂

The minutes from last year’s AGM and other documents can be found in our document area.

Hi,

I’ve done a bit of a refresh of the web site.  Everything that was there before still is but I have switched the focus onto the latest branch news and I’m hoping to get a bit more information out this way 🙂  If you’ve got any comments or questions please do fire them my way: g.jenkins@yorksj.ac.uk