Dear University of Kent UCU members,

Those colleagues who were at Kent during Spring 2018 may recall that some departments organised donations to top-up union hardship payments for precarious staff taking part in industrial action. Due to changes in management policy that the branch achieved, some of the proposed pay deductions never took place and not all of the funds were disbursed. In some departments, it had been made clear from the start where any unused funds would go (such as to national or local hardship funds, or precarious worker campaigns), but in others this was not foreseen. In liaison with those organising the funds, the local UCU branch, and the local Precariat group, we’ve now made the following decision.

“We, the UCU University of Kent Branch and the Precarious Workers at the University of Kent Group, agree that what is left of the funds, raised in order to sustain precarious staff during the 2018 strike in different departments (and which has been partly used to supplement their Strike Pay), will be transferred to the Precarious Workers Club Bank Account. These funds will be used in order to sustain further campaigns on precarity and casualisation, as well as to supplement Strike Pay in forthcoming strikes, as agreed with donors during the crowdfunding campaigns in spring 2018.”

Thanks again to all who donated, and to all who participated and supported, in any way, that action.

Best wishes,

Owen Lyne
Branch secretary
University of Kent UCU