This week is the first national UCU recruitment week and we will be running several events locally.
On Tuesday 17th we will be recruiting outside the Gulbenkian Café on Canterbury campus from 11.30am until 2.30pm (or the weather intervenes).
On Wednesday 18th we have one of our regular drop-in sessions for individual assistance (which is in the UCU office Rutherford:W3.W9 from 2pm to 4pm).
Also on Wednesday 18th, we have the next meeting of our Film Club, showing ‘Cassandra’s Treasure’ in Keynes lecture theatre 6 (KLT6) @ 5.30 for 6pm.
Then on Thursday 19th, which is UCU’s national anti-casualisation day, we are pleased to announce the following event – please pass this information onto colleagues if you can.
Casualisation is an increasing problem in institutions across the university sector – universities increasingly rely on temporary contracts to deliver a growing proportion of their teaching and research services. UCU (the University and College Union) has been campaigning nationally and at Kent about the impact this has on people who work this way for some time. The University is now carrying out a review. Given these developments, it is all the more important that you are familiar with the protection that the union can offer you – particularly given that membership of the union is free for research students and only £1 per month for hourly-paid staff on less than £5000 a year.
To find out about the kinds of defences that the union can provide, please come along to a free lunch being provided by UCU from 12-2pm on Thursday 19 November. Pop along at any point during this time, to hear about the benefits of UCU membership and what the union is doing to ensure protection for those on temporary contracts. The venue is KBS Extension room 3 (KBSX3)
http://www.kent.ac.uk/timetabling/rooms/room.html?room=KBSX3
I hope to see and speak with many of you this week,
Best wishes,
Owen Lyne
Branch secretary