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Important Upcoming UCU Equality Meetings

Oct 15th, 2026
by uopucu.
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You are invited to attend a Portsmouth UCU meeting to discuss issues affecting migrant colleagues at 1.30pm on Tuesday 27th October (joining link here).

Also please be aware of UCU’s annual equality conferences: Black, disabled, LGBTQ+, migrant and women members to include various workshops and guest speakers for each conference

UCU’s Equality Groups Conference 2026 will be held at Crown Plaza Hotel, Newcastle from Thursday 26 November – Saturday 28 November.  All conferences will be held in a hybrid format using Zoom.

Calling notice can be downloaded here [148kb]

Delegates must register before the deadline of Monday 26 October, 5pm.

REGISTER HERE

The conference will hold four separate half-day conferences for migrant, LGBT+, women, black & disabled members, and a plenary session for all equality strands. Not all delegates will need to be at the conference for the full three days.

This year the equality groups conference will be focused on turning equality priorities into organising and action, developing strategies to oppose the far right, advance workplace equality and build stronger networks of activists.

Thursday 26 November, 09:30 – 13:00 – Disabled Members’ Annual Conference Conference Theme: Intersectionality and Disability News Service

Thursday 26 November  14:00 – 17:30 Migrant Members’ Annual Conference  Positioning Migration as an Equalities Issue

There will be a dinner for all delegates attending from all strands on Thursday evening from approx 19:00.

Friday  27 November, 09:30 – 13:00: plenary session

Friday 27 November, 14:00 – 17:30 Women Members’ Annual Conference  From awareness to action: combatting gender-based violence in hard times

Saturday 28 November 09:30 – 13:00 Black Members’ Annual Conference

Saturday 28 November 14:00 – 17:30 LGBTQ+ Members’ Annual Conference

When Our Branch Called for BDS over Gaza Genocide

Oct 9th, 2026
by uopucu.
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Back in December 2024, our branch voted for BDS, calling on the university to divest from war crimes and genocide.
Portsmouth UCU voted overwhelmingly for a motion calling for Portsmouth University to “sever all ties – financial and otherwise – with all external bodies, businesses and organisations complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and rapidly escalating regional war.”
In a statement the union specifically highlighted the university’s investments, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds, in BAE Systems and Caterpillar, two companies renowned for their complicity in Israel’s abuses of Palestinian human rights.
The statement also highlights the recent rulings by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice that state preventing or ending complicity with genocide is a legal obligation.
Image reproduced from the BDS Movement. 

Portsmouth Union Branch Calls on University to Address Pension Inequality

Sep 17th, 2026
by uopucu.
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The Portsmouth branch of the UCU has passed a motion calling on the management of the University of Portsmouth (UoP) to address pension inequality.

The Branch contends that UoP has been using a subsidiary company to evade its obligation to grant new employees access to the TPS and LGPS pension schemes. The Branch believes that this arrangement is divisive, creating a two-tier workforce whereby some colleagues risk finding themselves without adequate pensions when they come to retire.

The Branch notes the months of industrial strife that have occurred at Southampton Solent as a result of their management introducing a similar subsidiary arrangement. The Branch further believes that the government’s recent decision to reduce the HE employer contribution to TPS opens up an opportunity to end the current divisive arrangement without significant financial loss to UoP, while securing a reliable pension for all its staff.

The Branch calls upon UoP to follow the example of Sheffield Hallam University management by winding up the subsidiary company.

 

Picture ‘International Women’s Day and Leeds UCU signs, 2018’ re-used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 licence.