Email to students 17 November 2021

Important update - dates announced for industrial action

Dear students,

The national University and College Union (UCU) has announced that industrial action will take place in universities across the UK in the form of three days of action accompanied by continuous action short of a strike.

• Strike action will take place on Wednesday 1, Thursday 2 and Friday 3 December 2021.
• The action short of a strike is intended to be continuous and will start on Wednesday 1 December 2021 and will finish no later than 3 May 2022.
• The action short of a strike is staff working their contracted hours and duties and not volunteering to do more.

I know a lot of these terms may be baffling, and when I wrote to you last week, I outlined that ‘action short of a strike’ is where staff may limit some of their activities, for example, not covering for absent colleagues, not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled as a result of strike, or not undertaking voluntary activities.

Answering your questions

I joined a YUSU student forum this week to answer any of your questions. Together with York UCU, we each submitted statements in advance, which you can read.

As I expressed to students joining me at this event, it is incredibly disappointing and frustrating that it has come to this, but my priority now is to make sure we have the right support and procedures in place to minimise any impact on you.

Staff are not required to tell us in advance if they plan to take part in industrial action, so it is difficult to assess the potential scale and impact; some students may feel more impact, but others may feel little or none at all.

A key message I would like to make is that you should assume your teaching and learning activities will go ahead as normal. We don’t know how many staff will be taking part, or to what extent, so it is very important that you engage with your scheduled teaching, labs, assessments and other learning activities, unless you have been told otherwise by your department.

We have created a Frequently Asked Questions page for you, which covers lots more information and guidance.

Why this is happening

I also understand that you would like us to try and stop this. We have added information on the industrial action web pages including what the dispute is about and what the University is trying to do within its powers to influence the national situation. The national representatives in the disputes continue to negotiate where they can - and so much progress has been made and there is a lot of common ground - so I’ve been making it clear to all involved that industrial action is not the answer, especially when so many of you have faced such upheaval over the pandemic.

However, I absolutely understand that your main concern will undoubtedly be the impact on your own studies, rather than the background and history of the dispute.

Again, I am very sorry that industrial action has been called. I know that the differences of view we will experience over the coming weeks means we face yet more difficult times. York’s ethos is built on community and compassion, and I ask that we continue to respect views, opinions and decisions. I also continue to meet regularly with our local UCU branch and our student unions to carry on our very constructive conversations about how we best support you.

Best wishes,

Charlie Jeffery

Vice-Chancellor