UCU Teach Outs to be held in the Students’ Union

Four teach out sessions will be held on November 24, a UCU strike day, in the Students’ Union.

This series of four informal lectures covers a range of topics. Discussed will be the UCU strikes, climate action, the cost-of-living crisis, and the on-going protests in Iran over women’s rights.

The lectures are on the first of three nationwide UCU strike days, which will affect over 150 universities. Over 70,000 university staff are due to go on strike over pay, working conditions, and pensions. 

The series of lectures is hosted by a range of staff from within the University and have been organised by Robbie Beale, the Students’ Union’s Activities and Culture Officer.

The first session, Why we strike, held from 9:30 – 11am, will be hosted by two lecturers and two doctoral candidates. Professor Louise Dawes and Dr Carl Emery from the Department of Education will be joined by Morgan Powell, studying trade union action, and Allison Briggs, from the School of Environment, Education & Development.

The same panel appear again from 3-5 pm, to discuss the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. The University has recently pledged approximately £9 million to students in in £170 payments to each full-time student to tackle rising prices. 

The second session, from 11-12 pm, entitled Climate Action, will be hosted by Dr Lydia Meryll. Dr Meryll is a trade union representative for UCU and an active member of the Climate Network.

This comes after the recent COP27 summit, which concluded with richer nations agreeing to pay climate reparations to poorer countries most affected by climate change. 

The third talk, Woman, Life, Freedom – an Iranian Revolution, is hosted by Sohrab Rezvani, a PhD student, and Laya Hooshyari, an Iranian activist.

On September 16, Mahsa Amini died in custody after being arrested for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code. This event sparked an on-going series of protests across Iran.