Dr Rhian Elinor Keyse (she/her)
@drrhianelinor
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Socialist feminist | Historian: 🇬🇭 🇰🇪 SV/psychiatry/medicine | #UCUNEC Rep (London & East)| Own views | "ultra left tactical insanity" - Morning Star
red under the bed, apparently
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Pinned Tweet
Please donate to the organisations I list in this blog post - their work is needed now more than ever. This is utterly devastating.
#RoeVsWade
In light of the devastating news on
#RoeVsWade
from
#SCOTUS
, SHaME sends solidarity to all impacted. We re-share our blog by
@drrhianelinor
on how the judgment abuses history, and encourage you to donate to the vital organisations listed in this piece.
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Passed my PhD viva without corrections. If you need me I am in the pub
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Writing PhD conclusion update: I ate a serving of pasta designed for at least 2-3 people, then burst into tears. Is this normal?
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So the first email I got in my uni inbox after return from
#USSStrike
is about PGR wellbeing. I mean desk yoga is fine, or alternatively you could give me a proper contract for my work and actually pay me for all the work I do?
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Seeing a lot about
#WhyImStriking
over the last 3 days, including stories of precarity. Time to share mine.
A month ago I spoke to The Guardian. I spoke anonymously because of stigma and shame of both gender violence and precarity.
I am "Siân Jones"
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#UCUstrike
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Today I woke up angry. Last night, our VC sent a personal message to all staff. Except he didn't. Casualised staff - hourly paid lecturers and GTAs - were excluded. Just like we've been excluded from all staff comms from HR and SMT throughout the strike.
#USSstrike
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Your regular reminder that some academics need to get it into their heads that our class interests are aligned with other workers, our PhDs do not make us better, we are all at the mercy of capitalism, and we need to organise accordingly.
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Shattering the class ceiling by keeping tuition fees and punishing working class families for having more than 2 children. That's a mighty hammer.
Congratulations to those getting their A-Level results today.
I remember opening that envelope. My results allowed me to become the first in my family to go to university.
That's why I will shatter the class ceiling, so that all young people have the opportunities they deserve.
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If I was a securely employed professor I simply would not use precarious workers' stories as a reason why we shouldn't strike ("some members can't afford strike days"), especially when those members are leading action against awful working conditions.
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To my precarious/fixed term/postdoc/PGR/hourly paid/zero hours/otherwise casualised comrades: many of you will have started or be starting new contracts at new institutions around now. Make sure your details are up-to-date with
@ucu
because we've got a big ballot coming up. 1/
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A riddle for this morning: an unnamed Russell Group Uni is allowing employees time off & reimbursement for flu jabs. Except their TAs, who deliver most of the f2f teaching, because they are "workers". They also don't get sick pay. Please, how does this make sense?
@UCUAnti_Cas
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Unapologetically striking again tomorrow. Proud to stand with comrades and to withdraw my labour from employers that don't care, and I'm not going to wring my hands or apologise for it.
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So I don't usually do posts like these. But I think it's important to discuss illness, PhD study, and casualised work in academia. So, a thread.
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Still processing news that I've been elected to
#UCUNEC
as UK-elected (HE) rep, taking my seat after Congress this year. Thank you to everyone who voted for Ultra Left Tactical Insanity Faction 🖤❤
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I think I'll be revising my PhD acknowledgements in the light of
#USSstrike
. My relationship with academia has been completely changed by the
#academickindness
of my comrades in this struggle, at
@ExeterUCU
and beyond. Solidarity.
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A word on "lecturers strike" misinformation still doing the rounds re
#UCUstrikesback
.
@ucu
is an education workers' union, not an "academics' union". Our colleagues in academic related/professional services roles are as vital to our action, and to our union, as any academic. 1/
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I see the "we're not coal miners, we're professionals" takes are coming from the usual suspects. Nah, we're not the miners, they knew solidarity and organising, and looked after each other.
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We shouldn't be getting rid of the unfunded fourth year for writing up. We should be *funding* it.
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💔 goodbye to my pal of 14 years, pictured here with one of his finest holes, of which he was very proud
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I will not be retweeting the advert for the job my best friend got forced out of, nor would I recommend anyone I like apply.
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Let's build a more compassionate academia as a whole, rather than spending an hour doing yoga before going back to the harmful conditions which are contributing to the mental health crisis in HE
#USSStrike
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My lovely Pa (aka Red Dai), ultimate comrade, miners' strike activist, and the man who taught me, aged about 3, never to cross a picket line, is really ill in hospital right now and the next 24hrs are crucial. If you have any spare good thoughts, please send them his way
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This deal is especially awful for precarious hourly paid staff. When are we meant to reschedule our teaching? We've already forgone the pay so this is unpaid overtime. Yes institutions are meant to minimise impact on GTAs. What about HPLs?
#NoCapitulation
#ussstrike
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New news as promised: really happy that in the summer I'll be joining
@UWTSD
as Lecturer in Global Historical Studies. Extraordinarily aware of how lucky I am in the current context, and looking forward to designing my modules!
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But casualised staff do a lot of teaching. And the fact we are not being seen gives us more resolve. So thanks, VC, for your polite request to stop striking. But you didn't ask me. And I'm angry. And I will keep striking. For pensions, but also against precarity.
#USSstrike
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Also sending solidarity to our amazing
#FourFights
negotiators as they go back in for talks with UCEA today. This round of negotiations has happened because of strong picket lines. Striking gives negotiators more power.
#UCUStrikesBack
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I'm delighted to say I'll be joining
@shme_bbk
in October as a postdoc, working on psychiatric & medical responses to sexual violence in colonial & postcolonial Ghana and Kenya. I'll miss colleagues
@exeterclio
but super excited for new project and joining such an incredible team
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Consultation on
@ucu
disputes begins next Tuesday. HEC voted to "note" progress on USS (no recommendation) and to recommend members REJECT the pay and conditions proposal. Pleased my motion with
@zenscara
@ArisKatzourakis
@gbuttars
and others made this option available
#ucurising
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Unclear why my union is RTing 'I don't want to strike' sentiments but: I want to strike because frankly I've had *enough* of precarious contracts and declining working conditions for over a decade and I'm proud to stand with colleagues withdrawing their labour to fight this.
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My second supervisor said my thesis is "lovely" and I'm bloody thrilled tbh. It's been a long old haul. Couple of extra bits to do, and then it's submission time (and drinking Spoons pitchers time) 🍹🥃🍾🍷🍸🥂
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Seeing quite a bit of UCU discourse suggesting that the ballot results indicate "now isn't the time" for action on casualisation, workload, equalities...I don't know when is the time? It's urgent. Casualised workers keep getting told it's not the time. I'm done with patience.
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A propos of absolutely nothing: acceptance of casualised contracts doesn't imply that one is happy with one's contract of employment. It's voluntary only in so far as the choice is between income and no income. Hope this helps.
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Before Jo was elected, she stayed at mine for a local hustings. I told her that she'd have my support for as long as I believed she had the interests of - especially precarious - members at heart. My critique of her is based on the fact that I believe she does not. Not misogyny.
‘Ineffective’ strike action - are misogynists trying to oust
@DrJoGrady
, one of the few female union bosses as universities union wages open warfare over lack of pay deal ? Wikipedia page changed to dub her a traitor. My story
@thetimes
@_ollielewis
@ucu
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Made it to the end of my first week at my new job. After 11 years of precarity I'm still pinching myself that it's permanent (as far as anything is in the current climate). Everyone was super nice, I have my own office, can't wait to start teaching in a couple of weeks.
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Big news of the day is that I don't have leukaemia. I'm calling this enough achievement for today. Celebrating by lying on the sofa watching marvel movies. Thank you to pals who have been patient with my anxiety over the last little bit. 🥳
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So I guess in short, what I'm saying is
PhD students are people, they get sick, and they need money to live. Their study should be funded - and funding extended over periods of ill health. It shouldn't be a choice between having time off to get better and having money to live on
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Worth saying that even in a very divided HEC, when we were asked to consider the UCEA pay offer, the vote was 32 to reject, 3 to accept, and 1 abstention.
#UCURising
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Right, so we're not going to mention how this is getting funded, then? It's not a win for other unions and we shouldn't be presenting it as such. Especially not when it pushes migrant members further into precarity and hardship. What we needed was a strong condemnation.
The public sector pay award has put UCEA under huge pressure.
Its position on pay is untenable. It's time to get realistic.
We meet tomorrow, for the first time since we launched the marking boycott.
#ucuRISING
Full statement:
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This article made me furious. PS comrades are overworked, underpaid, and work in the same environments as academic staff do. Maybe instead of attacking those without whom we couldn't do our jobs, and sowing division, we could see them as fellow workers and fight with them.
Anonymous academic in 'thinks Professional Services is much easier' shocker. Honestly, will someone point me to this magical PS gravy train? If I want promoting I have to get anothet job. Full stop.
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How I spent my solstice. Growing flowers out of thread, and devouring a lovely book.
@AnneLouiseAvery
such a gorgeous retelling.
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Finding this whole narrative of "we're still trade unionists if we break a strike" utterly devastating, ngl. Cleverer and more knowledgeable folks than me have critiqued *that article* in various tweets.
#UCUStrikesBack
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Just highlighted the need to resist the language of "wellbeing" and initiatives designed to make us more docile and able to cope with our working conditions. Reject the system that needs such initiatives, and overhaul it instead
#USSStrike
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He's home, I'm home, he is making me show him pictures of
@ucu
picket lines. All is well in the world.
My Pa got taken back into hospital at 3am. He's still stuck in an ambulance outside the emergency department now at 8.30am. I'm really frightened.
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Update: Pa has had a stroke, he is conscious and able to speak. He's being kept in. No visitors in Welsh hospitals because covid. He says I'm not allowed to miss the picket lines anyway. What a bloody comrade. Doesn't remember my d.o.b., always remembers strike days ❤🖤
My lovely Pa (aka Red Dai), ultimate comrade, miners' strike activist, and the man who taught me, aged about 3, never to cross a picket line, is really ill in hospital right now and the next 24hrs are crucial. If you have any spare good thoughts, please send them his way
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PhDs are not unaware that job prospects in the sector are dire, actually, we've not been misled. We're not daft. We're at the sharp end of precarity and exploitation. Largely as a result of our union colluding with managed decline of our sector. Time for a change
#Grady4GS
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Ok but hear me out: winning ballots isn't an industrial strategy in and of itself
Just two unions have won back-to-back national ballots for strike action since the anti-trade union bill was made law in 2016
Tomorrow at 3pm we find out if our union can become the third. Join us for the LIVE announcement
📺
#ucuRISING
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So result of having been v ill (not that I get sick pay), have missed deadline for teaching pay this month - don't get reminders, deadline changes each month. Despite teaching same hours each month, have to claim as we got kicked off payroll. Casualised contracts are a scourge.
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Securely employed
@UCU
members - please, please use your vote to vote yes to strike, yes to action short of a strike, in the casualisation, gender equality, and pay ballot
@ExeterUCU
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Not reposting that Times piece here, because it's desperate, but political critique is not misogyny and I'm baffled by these claims in a week when the union has shown it's whole backside in relation to staff-student relationships.
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Consultation to ask for a mandate to do this isn't a done deal. This could lead to mass sackings in the name of ending casualisation and "variable hours" contracts with a minimum number of hours in single figures. Detail is important, and I'm concerned as
@UCUAnti_Cas
co-chair
Thanks to you, the most toxic form of employment can be eradicated from our sector
UCU and PROUD
#ucuRISING
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Morning
@ExeterUCU
members. Quick update: UCEA (employers' body responsible for pay, casualisation, equalities, workload) met with
@UCU
negotiators and UCU Head of HE. They had been refusing to meet before the strike action. They are now consulting their members.
#UCUStrikesBack
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But HEC were told in an HEC briefing today that we would be asked to consider the "single question" asked at the BDM. We've not been permitted to put proposals of our own and crucially we've received *no papers* for the meeting tomorrow (also an accessibility issue).
#ucuRISING
@annapjudson
Hi Anna,
The poll closes before HEC meets at 3pm. The consultation format will be decided by HEC
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I'm definitely not in UCU Commons. I'm an independent socialist feminist candidate. Pity they didn't do their research and I hope this is corrected immediately. Other than that, I am opposed to transphobia masquerading as "academic freedom" all day every day.
If you're wondering who to vote for in the current
#UCU
elections, here's our list of which candidates do, and don't, support
#academicfreedom
.
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Not going to engage in the UCU discourse further tonight, except to say that HEC/NEC reps are elected, unpaid, don't get facilities time to enable them to do their jobs. Several of us elected as independents, campaigning without factional machinery...
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In sum, to universities and research councils everywhere: look after your students and workers.
And to PhD students: join your union lads
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Ok so there are things to unpack here: reallocating marking is top level scab behaviour. But we don't need to denigrate the PGRs referred to in this article as "students without training or experience"
PGR labour is labour, PGRs should be recognised as staff.
The very same people telling our members a pay deal is unaffordable are now begging students - without training or experience - to mark each others work.
We will expose these vultures. Every. Single. Day.
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"UCU and embarrassed" doesn't quite have the same ring but what a debacle
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So, low-key announcement that I'm standing for
@UCU
NEC. Thanks to amazing comrades across the labour movement who have sent endorsements already for website going live in the new year - my DMs are open if anyone wants to get involved with the campaign or has nice things to say!
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At work today:
Colleague: "Teaching children about war will hopefully turn them off it, because war is a bad thing".
Me: "Except class war".
*SILENCE FALLS IN THE MEETING ROOM*
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A reminder that for every heartbreaking
#precaritystory
on the timeline, there are many others that are too dangerous to speak about, stories of bullying, victimisation, and withdrawn work that the most vulnerable workers can't risk making public
#UCUStrikesBack
#UCUASOS
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*convicted domestic murderer Oscar Pistorius
Former athlete Oscar Pistorius is trying to offer meaning and hope to fellow prisoners by sharing Christianity.
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UCU's most precarious members aren't allowed to comment on this, of course. A reminder for the morning crowd that the elected committee for casualised workers have had their democratically agreed statement of support censored by
@ucu
and been locked out of their twitter/X account
Unite members will not stand by while their colleagues’ hours are slashed and the provision for UCU’s most precarious members is gutted. This dispute is about people’s jobs and livelihoods - whether our colleagues afford to pay the bills and put food on the table.
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"lecture theatres, libraries and laboratories"
Not a single mention of workers. You know what is also essential to research culture, Alistair? Workers. People, not buildings. But I guess shiny new buildings don't need pay and pensions.
#USSStrike
Universities are not hoarding cash. Important letter from UUK’s
@AlistairJarvis
in today’s
@thetimes
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...vicar strike was not on my bingo card
NEW: Church of England clergy, represented by
@unitetheunion
, have for the first time in their history submitted a formal pay claim, as members struggle with the cost of living.
Vicars call for a 9.5% pay rise. Unite says the Church of England has billions in the bank & can pay.
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The most important thing Boris Johnson can announce later, which he's not going to, is proper sick pay. People need to be able to afford to take time off when they're sick/self-isolating. This should be the priority for the labour movement.🧵
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Maybe, just maybe, white women should be quiet and listen to women of colour when they call us out for racist colonialism. Take the critique, pause, reflect, and do better. Solidarity
@PriyamvadaGopal
Thanks for all the retweets and supportive notes, much appreciated. They are coming at the rate of 200 every five minutes and twitter won't let mesee all of them so I've missed many, apologies. I wish I could just skip the racist ones from white women.
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"Accelerated" PhDs would be actively dangerous and discriminatory. Increasing pressure on students - and the University workers who supervise them - would exacerbate the mental health crisis we all know exists in UK academia
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I'll probably redo the pseudo-macramé into something more intricate but I'm pretty happy with how this has turned out!
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Delighted to have been elected to
@UCU
National Anti-Casualisation Committee this morning. In my speech I promised to bring casualised workers to the heart of the union and to advocate robust direct action on anticas. I'm gonna do my best, comrades
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Very excited that my first single-authored journal article has been accepted and will be published soon!
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"Capital is an historical necessity, but, so too, its grave digger, the socialist proletariat."
Happy 151st, Rosa Luxemburg.
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postdoc starts tomorrow and I have that "first day at big school" anxiety feeling
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3 emails to branch officers and members re: consultation today, and official tweets, but no mention of HEC recommendation to reject on pay/conditions. Motion passed explicit that recommendations must be communicated in all electronic/postal comms. What's happening?
#ucuRISING
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The boy has gone. 🌈
No dogs, no masters.
Hisses and claws for the bureaucrats.
#ComradeBevan
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Red Dai update: he's home from hospital!
My lovely Pa (aka Red Dai), ultimate comrade, miners' strike activist, and the man who taught me, aged about 3, never to cross a picket line, is really ill in hospital right now and the next 24hrs are crucial. If you have any spare good thoughts, please send them his way
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This but also: precarious workers without adequate office space are absorbing these costs *all the time* and not just when there's a pandemic. Essentially this stuff is asking permanent staff to work in same conditions as casualised staff and it's not ok for anyone
@UCUAnti_Cas
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I don't know how it is at all defensible not to call a meeting of UCU's HEC to discuss the MAB in the current circumstances, to be honest. I'm on sick leave, I don't know if I could be there, but not to call the meeting in the name of democracy?!
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it's encouraging to hear senior staff talking about precarity. We also talked about it in the last strike. It's dangerous to talk about this stuff for precarious workers. We need senior staff to talk about it when they get back to work too
#exeterteachout
#UCUStrikesBack
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Got an article accepted in a journal with only minor edits today :) unfortunately I have flu, wine is therefore out, and I'm telling twitter instead.
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Mostly I pushed through and completed my PhD cos I was hoping someone would ring me in Bugs Bunny voice and say "What's up doc?". So far no luck.
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It would also make it impossible for working class students to work and finish their PhD in the time allowed, given the need to earn money to support themselves.
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I haven't felt as well in a long time as I did standing on a freezing cold picket line in solidarity with my colleagues, who are now comrades and firm friends, imagining a new future for the sector we all love. More of this, please
#USSStrike
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Dreamt I submitted a box of raccoons instead of my thesis.
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We knew this was coming, so we need to be ready for defiance of this and all anti-trade union legislation
University students are being let down by relentless strikes
We want to end this disruption and the resulting impact on their education
So today, I’m announcing that we will consult to introduce minimum service levels in universities so students get the teaching they deserve
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An entirely normal response to industrial action. Cool. Cool cool cool.
This is why we strike hard.
And why we fight to repeal all the anti-union legislation that has emboldened our employers to this disgraceful extent.
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
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Is "massively over-emotional" the expected state of affairs a few weeks before submitting the PhD? I'm talking proper sobbing because there's no biscuits in the house, that sort of thing. Asking for a friend.
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I've not been saying much the last few days about the
#USSStrike
ballot. But I have to say I'm deeply disappointed in how it's been conducted. However you voted, surely there are questions of democracy and governance in our union which are now urgent
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It was clear that HEC wanted a reballot immediately. I'm baffled that this still hasn't been called. It's union policy that we should have balloted over the summer. We were denied a ballot and denied an HEC meeting to solve this mess in time. A lot of this is unforgivable.
The HEC has also voted to launch another national ballot on this year’s pay offer.
Only by renewing our mandate with another massive YES vote we can force our employers to make the type of pay + conditions offer that members deserve.
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I should also note here that whilst I was nominally paid £15 an hour, my contract didn't include the time it took for prep, marking, answering student emails, unpaid training courses. I worked it out once and it was more like £4 an hour.
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
#UCUStrike
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#UCUOfMyDreams
:
1) A leadership that realises it represents members rather than telling them what to think
2) A union that sees precarious staff as comrades, not cannon fodder to use in disputes
3) A union that makes demands and strikes for them, rather than a reactive union
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PhD studentships should also allow for periods of ill health. When I had to interrupt my study the first time, I had no source of income for months after surgery, because the funding stops while you are not actively studying. Fine if you've independent means but otherwise...
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Today was my last working day at
@shme_bbk
, my post is being made redundant at the end of the month as for so many casualised researchers over next few months. It's been a fascinating, insightful 3.5 years. Sad to leave
@BirkbeckHCA
and especially
@BirkbeckUCU
. New things ahead.
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NEC election results are out. Thank you to those who voted for me, and good luck to the incoming NEC. No time to be sad, I'll be doing what I do best: organising in my branch and with national anticas committee to tackle oppression and discrimination in the workplace.
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Heartbreaking thread on the pressures of the REF and how we urgently need to put humanity and empathy at the heart of our universities, resist nonsense metrics, and fight for working conditions that allow us space for a life outside academia. Solidarity Andy.
#WeAreTheUniversity
Everyone is sharing REF stories, so I think I am going to share mine. It’s pretty emotional and I’ve never spoken publicly about it. Going to try to pick my words with care. Solidarity to all colleagues who have been damaged by the REF.
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It's that time of year: announcing candidacy for UCU NEC Women's seat in the upcoming elections as independent (socialist feminist) candidate. Keen to ensure representation for the most precarious members of our union on decision making bodies. More to come shortly...
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Absolutely bloody delighted to have been reelected to
@UCUAnti_Cas
for another term and look forward to working with the incoming committee and continuing the work we've been doing in FE and HE!
#OneOfUsAllOfUs
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