Another example of UCU management hypocrisy: complaining about an employer using strike breakers when this is what they did when their own staff walked out. It's a fact that the amount spent on temps tripled over the course of the year significant strike action took place.

So tempting to call out the irony. A trade union that tramples over its own staff union’s recognition agreement has little legitimacy when criticising others following the same path. Sadly it seems UCU management have set an example for other shitty employers. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1464...

University and College Union condemn University of Brighton derecognition plans

The University and College Union (UCU) has today (15 September) condemned plans by the University of Brighton to derecognise UCU on campus.

ucu.org.uk

UCU has somehow managed to become so toxic and dysfunctional that 'defecating into a waste bin’ incidents are now part of the employee experience. The metaphor writes itself. 💩🗑️🤢 #UCUpoogate

Jo Grady promised an external review of UCU’s institutional racism in 2024. It never happened. Now she makes another promise that action is coming. It shouldn’t have taken a tragedy. Black members deserve accountability - not recycled commitments. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1462...

So rather than giving him the Head of Communications job, Jo Grady’s boyfriend has been handed a nice lucrative UCU ‘consultancy’ contract? Very odd. And very Trump. With member subs again used to reward loyalty, I wonder how his ex-employer's “conduct investigation” is going. #JumpedBeforePushed

Threatening the whole 5 member equality team with redundancy is definitely a new low for UCU. Don’t senior managers have better things to do than attack their own staff - again? The chasm between the equality rhetoric and the toxic reality for staff is truly shocking. #solidarity

Sorry to rob my UCU troll of his victory dance, but I’ve gone nowhere. *Someone* got me a short timeout because they don't like me exposing how UCU is being run, including sharing “private chats” where the general secretary tells staff to prioritise her re-election. Why might she want to hide that?

I wonder how the regional officials following UCU’s resident conspiracy theorist on here - those same officials who hide behind the Dignity at Work policy - feel about colleagues being publicly named, defamed and lied about with made up nonsense. I expect they still deny UCU is a toxic workplace.

Seems UCU’s GMB staff (steered by regional officials) threatened a Congress walk out over a motion on how their union is run. After they crossed picket lines, shut UCU meetings & threatened members wanting to talk about the GS bringing UCU into disrepute. Relevant: www.ucu.org.uk/1daycongress...

Thou shalt not, in fact, ever be allowed to hold a general secretary called Jo Grady accountable.

The Unite dispute arose in the first place because senior managers utterly failed to protect staff health & safety and bullied, discriminated & victimised. Yet with zero irony UCU rolls out this desperate excuse to quash accountability of mismanagement. uniteucu.wordpress.com/unite-voices/

@uonucu.bsky.social, @sheffielducu.bsky.social & now @goldsmithsucu.bsky.social? Who’d have thought that UCU setting an example by making punitive ASOS deductions against its own staff would lead to VCs doing the same? Given how much UCU senior managers are paid members should expect so much better.

The “review” into UCU’s culture has now been sent to staff - who were told not to share it. Tell my inbox that! Not surprised Grady wants it kept quiet. Although the review seems to be quite limited in scope & light-touch, it still confirms widespread dysfunction. NEC should demand to see it.

What with UCU's desperate effort to silence striking staff and prevent its own members from asking about the victimisation of Unite’s H&S rep - including, I hear, telling staff to grass on any UCU member who breaks the ‘rules’ - I thought I'd take a closer look at what UCU rules really say. 🧵

Staff aren’t allowed to say they’re on strike. UCU members aren’t allowed to mention it to strike-breaking staff. Regional committees can’t talk about it. The NEC can’t talk about it. Congress can talk about it but motions are declared out of order. Is this the accountability Jo was meaning?

Your starter for 10: as well as shutting down the regional meeting, what other role does this particular regional official have in this whole distasteful saga?

Lucy Burke@lucyburkemcr.bsky.social · 8mo ago

But it didn’t happen. The meeting was closed immediately by the regional official leaving items of business unaddressed. It reminded me of Congress 2018 on the back of which the current GS was elected. 9/12

No “trade unionist” should ever cross a picket line. But there’s a special place in trade union hell reserved for union managers who intimidate or encourage staff into doing so in order to protect the vindictive bullies in their midst. They actively sow deep and damaging division. Beyond shameful.

Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 8mo ago

University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady has denied any wrongdoing during her 2024 victorious leadership election campaign, saying that she has been “misquoted” and “misrepresented”, reports Juliette Rowsell #HigherEd #UCU https://ow.ly/9EOx50Ycsue

I’ve just been reading a copy of the latest email sent to UCU staff by SMT (ie, unelected Greg). There’s a lot to unpick, but referring to the website as if it’s SMT’s personal property is revealing.

Trade union victimisation is notoriously hard to prove. Unite wouldn’t back Marie without clear evidence. So is SMT blindly backing a vindictive manager? Why? Greg Barnett is the manager’s line manager - what’s his role in this? Shit behaviour and toxic ‘leadership’ any way you look at it.

Unite UCU@uniteucu.bsky.social · 8mo ago

📣 Hands off Marie! Tell @drjogrady.bsky.social and @ucu.org.uk to stop victimising Unite UCU's safety rep. ✍️ jgrady@ucu.org.uk #HandsOffMarie #UniteTheUnion @unitetheunion.bsky.social

Also, not being funny, but where the fuck are @unitetheunion.bsky.social and @unitesharon.bsky.social? Have I missed the vocal support for their members at UCU facing ongoing blatant attacks? Does being part of the trade union GS clique mean turning a blind eye to the shit employers in your ranks?

Unite UCU@uniteucu.bsky.social · 10mo ago

News. Solidarity comrades. uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/12/18/s...

UCU management are destroying the union under cover of branches too busy fighting against sector meltdown. It’s about time those NEC members and UCU branches horrified at what’s being done in their name demanded accountability. Oh, and maybe take a closer look at the accounts while you’re at it.

Unite UCU@uniteucu.bsky.social · 10mo ago

News. Solidarity comrades. uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/12/18/s...

Another thing the “excellent employer” UCU has in common with bad university employers. Has Birmingham Uni also heavily implied that staff are well paid so they should simply suck it up?

Dr Vanessa@hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Oh hey it finally made the media, only a week after the letter was actually sent. FWIW despite being legally obliged to share with all staff, he so far hasn't. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/birming...

Wow! I hear we need to send massive Christmas cheers to UCU, the toxic trade union employer which has today succeeded in bullying three Unite reps into leaving. At least Grady can be proud of one thing she’s achieved this year. Because fuck knows she’s done nothing significant for UCU members.

Even if it was always doomed to failure, outsourcing your entire HE ballot strategy to a print & events company, whose main idea was to put Grady front & centre, all underpinned by terrible branding, really won’t have helped! But why did UCU even need outsource one of its core functions?

After all this time it’s calling out the management hypocrites that finally gets me blocked by @ucu.org.uk Symbolic.

Being encouraged to vote for strike action by individuals willing to cross picket lines while their boss is engaged in full-on union busting. The same boss who has undermined any future action short of a strike taken by UCU members after deducting pay from its own staff. Toxic hypocrites.