Birmingham UCU

14/09/2026

What follows is a précis of the text at change.org :

In June 2026, the University of Birmingham placed five members of its Translation and Interpreting staff — its specialists in Arabic, Chinese and Italian, each of them from a migrant or minority ethnic background — at risk of compulsory redundancy. In August, the University sent the proposal to Council for approval by e-mail, without a meeting. Our colleagues now face losing their jobs.

This is the sixth redundancy round at Birmingham since July 2025 to affect UCU members. In five of the six, most of the staff placed at risk were migrants or from minority ethnic backgrounds. In this round, it is all of them. Colleagues who taught on the same discontinued programmes, but who do not share those characteristics, were not placed at risk.

We ask current and former staff, students, alumni and members of the public to support us. Please sign your name and help us win this fight.

https://c.org/nVXsHZwYN4

Please read the message in full at the above website.

UCU - University and College Union Birmingham Trades Union Council - BTUC Rhiannon Lockley, HE Midlands rep, UCU NEC Unison Birmingham Uni Branch

Stop redundancies at the University of Birmingham

22/05/2026

A Top 3 spot for UoB

At least 12 Russell Group vice-chancellors received pay rises last year while their universities cut hundreds of academic and support staff between them

16/03/2026

The University has announced major restructuring plans.

BUCU is holding two Open Meetings this week

Members should check their emails for notification details of how to attend the Online meeting:

Tuesday, 17 March, 1-2pm.
In-person only.
Strathcona SR10 (113).

Thursday, 19 March, 12:00 to 1:15pm,
Online only.

Unison Birmingham Uni Branch Rhiannon Lockley, HE Midlands rep, UCU NEC UCU - University and College Union

27/02/2026

The film, Iron Ladies, is coming to Birmingham Mac on Sunday 15 March 2026.

The film tells the story of UK working class women who were at the forefront of the 1984/5 miners strike.

Details in the link:

https://macbirmingham.co.uk/cinema/iron-ladies

Birmingham Trades Union Council - BTUC Guild of Students, University of Birmingham Unison Birmingham Uni Branch Rhiannon Lockley, HE Midlands rep, UCU NEC

03/02/2026

14/12/2025

The Branch is sharing some significant news.

On Thursday, 11 December, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) issued a formal notice of contravention to Vice-Chancellor Adam Tickell, confirming that the University is in material breach of Health and Safety law, specifically regarding work-related stress management.

The decision follows an inspection of the University's arrangements for managing work-related stress in September, which involved a full review of the University’s documentation and comprehensive interviews with staff from across the organisation.

The inspection was triggered by a formal complaint made by BUCU to the HSE in April 2024, outlining the University’s failure to manage stress effectively and requesting the HSE's urgent intervention to protect staff from harm. For over three years, BUCU reps had been raising concerns about unsafe workloads and inadequate stress management.

UCU - University and College Union Birmingham Trades Union Council - BTUC Rhiannon Lockley, HE Midlands rep, UCU NEC Unison Birmingham Uni Branch

For more details:

Multi-Year Campaign by UCU Safety Representatives Leads to Formal Enforcement Action Over Work-Related Stress Management Failures We want to share with you some significant news. On Thursday, 11 De…

30/11/2025

28/11/2025

💥 Stand Up To Racism & the Trades Union Congress (TUC) are hosting a very important national Zoom meeting on Thursday 4 December, 6pm, for the Trade Union Network to Stop the Far Right

👉🏿 Register here: http://bit.ly/3XJ2c26

This meeting is for all trade unionists and anyone in a workplace to come together, share and discuss how best to organise in the workplace and in our unions to effectively counter the racism and dangerous division being whipped up by a growing far right movement.

The meeting will discuss how we can counter these narratives and what we can do in our unions and workplaces to build a strong and confident anti racist and anti fascist current, nationally and in every locality, and how we can mobilise our unions to show the strength of the anti racist majority.

The meeting will also be an important space for organising for a national demonstration in March, and for the TUC & SUTR trade union conference on 21 February.

Come along to this important forum, and share widely to invite union and workplace colleagues to register too: http://bit.ly/3XJ2c26

27/11/2025