This past weekend, Nathan and I attended the National March Against Austerity in London, joining a large contingent from Bristol, including members of the Bristol Trades Council, Stop the War Coalition, and NHS campaigners.
Around 20,000 people gathered despite the rain to oppose cuts to the welfare state, with participants from local councils and other UNISON branches uniting under shared goals.
The colourfulness of our branch banner always attracts attention on a national march.
The march, vibrant and diverse, was filled with chants of “Welfare, not Warfare!” as attendees also showed strong support for Palestinian causes and received favourable press coverage.
We heard powerful speeches from figures like Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Leanne Mohamed, the striking Birmingham bin workers, and John Rees of The People’s Assembly, all calling for an end to austerity and greater investment in public services.
The event highlighted a unified demand for justice and fairness in society. It underscored widespread dissatisfaction and defiance against austerity and a collective demand for a fairer, more compassionate society.
(As a follow up to our report from a few weeks ago, our Women’s Officer, Verity, shares her thoughts on UNISON South West’s recent Get Active event.)
In May I went to the UNISON South West Get Active Weekend in Croyde! It was a super weekend. I attended three workshops across the weekend: Campaigning on new issues and new workplace laws; Collective bargaining for beginners; and Embracing union values and tacking tough conversations.
As a complete newbie to union work and organising, I found the workshops to be a great introduction to different aspects of UNISON’s work and how I can get a campaign off the ground.
On the Friday evening they held the Get Active Awards, honouring UNISON activists for their work. It was a fun social event, allowing us to network with members from other branches across the South West. I found the award winners’ stories to be really inspiring ahead of the weekend!
The South West Regional Council was held on the Saturday afternoon – I attended as a delegate for our branch. It was interesting to see the process for voting in representatives and hearing about the different roles.
The Saturday evening entertainment was a fascinating performance by the Banner Theatre group – a musical celebration of industrial action over the years which was entertaining as well as informative and rousing!
We also had interesting plenary talks on topics such as stopping the far right and hearing from members currently undertaking strike action.
It was a fantastic weekend which I thoroughly recommend to all new members of UNISON who wish to learn more about how to Get Active!
On 3rd June 2025, Vicky Redwood, Nathan Street and Elle Chilton-Knight, all members of the University of Bristol UNISON branch committee, travelled to London to take part in the national parliamentary lobby, representing the branch alongside dozens of other branches across the country.
Nathan Street, one of the branch’s co-secretaries, was able to meet his MP Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) and had what he considered to be a constructive conversation with Kerry and a member of her staff team.
They talked about the importance of UoB as an employer within the city of Bristol, how staff’s pay has not met inflation since 2008, and the possible impact of the upcoming immigration white paper on Bristol’s reliance on international student recruitment. They also talked about Temple Quarter Campus and local student housing, the number of restructures at UoB, and the future higher education white paper.
Kerry was open to talking to UoB staff living in Bristol East about higher education funding in the future.
Despite writing to her MP in advance, Vicky Redwood, the branch’s other co-secretary, was disappointingly unable to meet her MP Karin Smyth (Bristol South) but will continue to try to meet her in the upcoming weeks.
Elle Chilton-Knight, a branch chairperson, lives outside Bristol but also met her MP alongside a number of Unison members at that local University.
We thank the other members of the branch who have written to their MP too but were unable to agree a meeting.
We will continue to campaign by whatever mechanism possible to help fix Higher Education funding, including attending this Saturday’s No to Austerity 2.0 demonstration.
We would also like to encourage members to continue to take part in the campaign and write to their local MPs about HE funding.
We hope you had a wonderful bank holiday (and solidarity with our members who still had to work!). We’re back with our May newsletter, including this month’s members meeting recap, other goings on and upcoming events.
Keen to get involved with the branch committee? We have the following roles open: assistant branch secretary; recruitment officer; social secretary; retired members officer. For more info, email the branch unison-office@bristol.ac.uk.
National Pay Offer Negotiations update
The latest national annual pay negotiations concluded with a percentage increase of 1.4% substantially below RPI inflation this past year of 4.47%, representing a fifteenth consecutive real terms pay cut!
There will be an email consultation on whether to take industrial action in the coming months, possibly as early as June (to be confirmed as we are coordinating with other higher education unions).
Depending on the outcome, we may then be formally balloted on taking action (via post). It is crucial that your contact details are up to date to be able to take part.
A reminder to make sure your details are up to date, especially your primary email contact and address: https://my.unison.org.uk/
Help lobby your MP about the Higher Education funding crisis
This is part of a coordinated advocacy campaign UNISON are undertaking across the country to help stand up for our jobs and save higher education funding.
We’re hoping members can write to their MP for the possibility to meet in parliament on Tuesday 3rd June, which UNISON will support you in attending.
We have invited James Bigwood (Chief People Officer) and Peter Vermeulen (Chief Financial Officer) to attend our branch committee meeting in July – we want your questions to pass onto them. The form closes on Monday 2nd June.
A big national People’s Assembly Against Austerity demonstration is happening on Saturday 7th June in London.
This is supported by UNISON nationally and by our branch’s recent Anti-Austerity Demo resolution – University of Bristol UNISON. It’s really important that as many people across the country attend as possible in order to put pressure on the Labour government not to escalate austerity and for us to ensure Higher Education funding and staff pay in particular is central to these demands.
As this image shows, our offer is the worst of all public sectors:
Coach tickets from Bristol & Weston Super Mare are available via Headfirst: https://hdfst.uk/e129422
Our branch donated to help subsidise these coaches, so if you are a UNISON member please contact the organisers if you require any discounted tickets.
Some of our Branch Committee will be there with our branch banners and we hope to see you there too!
ACT NOW: UNISON survey on PIPs
The government has announced sweeping changes to how Personal Independent Payments (PIPs) are paid. The eligibility criteria for people claiming daily living support will be tightened. UNISON needs to hear from disabled members about how the proposed changes will affect them.
Our international officer Eleni and women’s officer Verity attended the South West Get Active weekend in Croyde Bay at the start of the month. Read Eleni’s summary.
Branch social! 🎉🍸Thursday 19th June, 5:30pm, Watershed cafe & bar
Next National Demonstration for Palestine on Saturday 21st June End the Genocide, Stop arming Israel, Stop starving Gaza. Coach tickets from Bristol & Weston Super Mare are available via Headfirst – https://hdfst.uk/e131187
We have two WhatsApp groups: ‘Conversation’ for informal chatting for the whole branch and ‘Announcement’ for announcements, where only admins can send messages. If you’d like to join either or both, email the branch unison-office@bristol.ac.uk.
With very best wishes, The comms team (Mia & Alex T)
Fri 25 – Sun 27 July in Bristol (Delta Marriott hotel)
Event programme and registration– deadline 23 June – please email unison-office@bristol.ac.uk to let us know if you’d like to attend, then sign up to register.
This is an opportunity for Black members to connect, learn, and lead. The programme includes workshops, guest speakers and lunch.
In UNISON, Black is used to indicate people with a shared history. Black with a capital ‘B’ is used in its broad political and inclusive sense to describe people in Britain who have suffered colonialism and enslavement in the past and continue to experience racism and diminished opportunities in today’s society.
We Demand Change is fighting back against Starmer’s Labour government: debating, organising and mobilising the collective actions we need. They work to make sure Labour’s betrayal doesn’t open the door for the far right.
The Bristol faction of We Demand Change is hosting a summit on the 22 June to assist with local organising – they’d love our direction and input to ensure the community gets the best out of the summit.
They are also hosting an planning meeting on the 27 May. The venue will now be Easton Community Centre, 6.45pm – 8.45pm. Please fill in this form to confirm your attendance.
Following the UK’S Supreme court ruling that ‘woman’ refers to biological sex under equality laws, the University released a statement that was unacceptable, inviting ‘respectful debate’ on this topic under the guise of ‘free speech’.
We responded to this by encouraging members to reply to the internal comms mailbox, saying how shocking and disappointing this response was. Trans identities are not something that can be debated. Existence cannot be debated.
In response to both the Supreme Court ruling and a planned talk from a noted “gender-critical” speaker at the School of Policy Studies, our branch held a bake sale to raise money for Trans Aid Bristol (final total £472.33!). We also rallied alongside students in front of Senate House to show our support for trans colleagues, students and friends. The School of Policy Studies’ event was postponed.
Meetings with the EDI team
Our branch will be having regular meetings with the EDI team to discuss what the Supreme Court ruling means for trans staff.
If you notice your workplace changing policies around trans, non-binary and gender diverse issues, please get in touch with us: unison-office@bristol.ac.uk
Future plans
We are planning to create badges to make our trans allyship visible, especially with what the Supreme Court ruling means for single sex spaces and toilets. The initial design is below, intended to let trans colleagues know we’re happy to go into a single sex space with them for support.
UNISON South West’s annual Get Active event returned to Croyde Bay in Devon earlier this month. This year’s theme was “unity in action”; our branch’s International Officer Eleni and Women’s officer Verity went along for a weekend of learning and comradery.
Over three days of inspirational talks, training and networking, they learnt new tools and methods to help tackle issues and campaign for change.
Some words from Eleni:
My first time in Croyde Bay has been fantastic. I enjoyed the sea, the food, the jacuzzi… and the workshops – OF COURSE. Verity and I went together representing our branch, and it was a great opportunity to meet each other better. There was a variety of talks and activities and so many people to chat with, from different branches, different professions but with a common goal, to improve our working conditions united.
We have invited James Bigwood (Chief People Officer) and Peter Vermeulen (Chief Financial Officer) to attend our branch committee meeting in July.
During this meeting we will be asking them questions from branch members.
We will discuss the results of the meeting with members at the next branch meeting.
If you have a question you would like us to ask, please let us know using the form linked below.
Your questions will be asked anonymously. The form asks for membership number only to help us check that the questions received are from UNISON members.
