Although compulsory redundancies were pushed back thanks to strong union action and government intervention, the University’s latest recovery plan still includes significant job cuts. Financial risks remain, trust in leadership is low, and we must be ready to act quickly if further redundancies are proposed. A renewed mandate ensures we can continue to defend jobs, protect workloads, and fight for the future of the University.

Under UK law a mandate for industrial action is valid only for 6 months. Our last mandate ended on 29 July 2025, and that’s why we haven’t been able to call industrial action or engage in Action Short of Strike since then.

Ballot opens: Friday, 5 September 2025

Replacement ballot link opens: Friday, 12 September 2025

Last save posting date: Thursday, 2 October 2025

Ballot closes: Monday, 6 October 2025

The law mandates that a ballot for industrial action must be conducted by post. It is therefore not possible to participate in the industrial action ballot electronically/online.

The law also states that a ballot for industrial action must be supervised by a qualified independent scrutineer, usually Civica Election Services (CES). CES is responsible for the production, posting, and processing of ballot papers. UCU cannot by law produce, post, or process ballot papers. It is not possible for UCU or CES to send out a ballot paper electronically for you to print out at home or at work.

For further information please see ‘Taking part in industrial action and strikes‘ from the UK government website, as well as the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 c. 52 s. 230. You may also find this quick video explainer from the TUC helpful.

The ballot pack/envelope should have the return address for Civica (Civica Election Services, CES) in the top left-hand corner. It may also carry the CES logo and UCU branding.

The ballot pack will contain the ballot paper(s). The ballot pack will usually contain a second-class pre-paid return envelope. Members should use the ballot paper and put the ballot paper in the pre-paid return envelope, and then post that at the nearest post box or post office.

If you have misplaced the pre-paid envelope or the pre-paid envelope is missing from your ballot pack, you can put the ballot paper(s) into a blank envelope, write this address on the envelope – Civica Election Services, 33 Clarendon Road, London N8 0NW – then affix a stamp, ideally first-class, and post it back. It is also possible to hand the ballot back in person at the above address.

Your ballot paper will have two questions:

• Are you prepared to take industrial action consisting of strike action?
• Are you prepared to take industrial action consisting of action short of strike action (which for this purpose is defined to include overtime and call-out bans)?

We urge everyone to vote YES to all questions asked.

Your ballot includes two simple ‘Yes/No’ questions, mentioned above. You should write a CROSS (X) to indicate your preference on the ballot paper – for the avoidance of doubt, a CROSS (X) in a box looks like this. Using anything that is not a CROSS (X)–for example a tick (V)–means that Civica Election Services’ scanning team will look at your ballot paper and make a judgment as to whether the vote is acceptable.

Industrial action ballots are confidential and UCU does not know if an individual member has voted or which way that a member has voted.

As part of our branches ‘get the vote out’ (GTVO) activities, we may ask you – via email, text message or door-knocking at your workplace – whether you have voted, so that we can target our GTVO with precision.

It is always an enormous help to us  if you volunteer this information (on whether you have voted, not how you have voted). This means there will be no need for us to remind you again (for instance via text or phone-banking).

If you do not receive your ballot pack by Friday, 12 September 2025, you can request a new ballot paper. The branch will be able to send you a link to request a new ballot. To use the replacement ballot request form, you need to use your unique UCU membership number which you can find by sending a blank email to mynumber@mercury.ucu.org.uk or email UCU’s membership department.

Once the ballot closes and the results are announced, we will meet as a branch and discuss and vote on the next steps to take. You can get involved with this debate by attending the branch meeting, speaking to your colleagues or even proposing a motion about what next steps you think could be successful in increasing our leverage.