This motion was agreed by the branch at an emergency general meeting 17 March 2022

This branch notes that:

• traditional picketing strategies given the nature of our work (stretched and dispersed, in person and online) do not always work as effectively as in other industries
• there is a need to build on and expand our powerful pickets lines to diversify the in-person impact of striking and strike protests
• we have been picketing only the external borders of campus because of customs rather than based on a branch policy
• the whole of campus is our workplace also when we strike
• other union branches such as Glasgow and Leicester have staged powerful protests on campus without consequences for individual members nor their branches (e.g. over alleged “trespassing”) and which send strong messages that “we are the university” 
• the Leeds Student Staff Solidarity group has shown willingness to organise joint action on campus with UCU and considers it an effective and visible strategy
• solidarity with students, currently affected by extended debts and significant fees, is critical to increase our bargaining power and win the disputes and to support their actions

We resolve

• to diversify our pickets strategies including protests on campus (with students where relevant) to make our action more visible to our university community
• to make our actions more creative including flash mobs, dance and theatre around and inside campus
• to draw from the cultural diversity of our diverse membership in developing these tactics

Proposed by Gabriella Alberti and Kate Hardy, moved by Gabriella Alberti, seconded by Draško Kašćelan, motion carried.

This page was last updated on 1 April 2022