Solidarity with Sheffield UCU – Open Meeting Monday 12 January, 3:30pm

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Our colleagues at the University of Sheffield find themselves in a bitter dispute with their university management which has implications for all of us.

They have called a public meeting for union members to which you are invited.

No to the Lock Out! Solidarity with Sheffield UCU!
Open Meeting for UCU members
Monday 12 January, 3:30pm
(UCL UCU members have been emailed a registration link)

Sheffield UCU took 16 days of strike action in the Autumn Term, and they say they are ready to take more, but their management have escalated to threatening a complete indefinite lockout of the subset of our members who teach if they refuse to reschedule teaching (part of Action Short of Strike). 

A ‘lockout’ is when staff are forced onto unpaid leave – even if they do their other duties the employer will say that they are not working and will not pay them. 

This is the first time that a UK university employer has threatened a lockout over teaching rescheduling. If the university management are successful in breaking the resolve of union members, other employers are liable to follow suit.

The branch has called a solidarity meeting on Monday 12 January at 3:30pm open to UCU members to “share information about our dispute, ask for support, and to facilitate a wider discussion about the implications of the recent OfS guidelines and the upcoming Employment Rights Act for UCU disputes in HE particularly.” 

This is a very important dispute, so if you can attend, please register and put it in your diary!

Other things members can do

  • Make a personal donation to Sheffield UCU’s Solidarity Fund. There is also a parallel GoFundMe page (for international donations in particular).
  • Sign the Megaphone petition calling for the threat of lockouts to be rescinded.

We will invite Sheffield UCU colleagues to our next branch meeting. A speaker from Sheffield UCU came to our last branch meeting on 10 December 2025, and we agreed to make a donation of £5000 to their branch.

UCL UCU Executive Committee

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