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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

So tempting to call out the irony. A trade union that tramples over its own staff union’s recognition agreement has little legitimacy when criticising others following the same path. Sadly it seems UCU management have set an example for other shitty employers. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1464...

ucu.org.uk

University and College Union condemn University of Brighton derecognition plans

The University and College Union (UCU) has today (15 September) condemned plans by the University of Brighton to derecognise UCU on campus.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

UCU has somehow managed to become so toxic and dysfunctional that 'defecating into a waste bin’ incidents are now part of the employee experience. The metaphor writes itself. 💩🗑️🤢 #UCUpoogate

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Jo Grady promised an external review of UCU’s institutional racism in 2024. It never happened. Now she makes another promise that action is coming. It shouldn’t have taken a tragedy. Black members deserve accountability - not recycled commitments. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1462...

Report in the Times Higher from February 2024 about racism in UCU

February 2024 statement from UCU’s Black Members Standing Committee about racism in UCU

Report from UCU Commons about Jo Grady's agreeing to conduct a review into racism in UCU

FE Week article from 2025 about UCU's ongoing failure to do anything about racism in UCU

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

So rather than giving him the Head of Communications job, Jo Grady’s boyfriend has been handed a nice lucrative UCU ‘consultancy’ contract? Very odd. And very Trump. With member subs again used to reward loyalty, I wonder how his ex-employer's “conduct investigation” is going. #JumpedBeforePushed

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Threatening the whole 5 member equality team with redundancy is definitely a new low for UCU. Don’t senior managers have better things to do than attack their own staff - again? The chasm between the equality rhetoric and the toxic reality for staff is truly shocking. #solidarity

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Sorry to rob my UCU troll of his victory dance, but I’ve gone nowhere. *Someone* got me a short timeout because they don't like me exposing how UCU is being run, including sharing “private chats” where the general secretary tells staff to prioritise her re-election. Why might she want to hide that?

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I wonder how the regional officials following UCU’s resident conspiracy theorist on here - those same officials who hide behind the Dignity at Work policy - feel about colleagues being publicly named, defamed and lied about with made up nonsense. I expect they still deny UCU is a toxic workplace.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Seems UCU’s GMB staff (steered by regional officials) threatened a Congress walk out over a motion on how their union is run. After they crossed picket lines, shut UCU meetings & threatened members wanting to talk about the GS bringing UCU into disrepute. Relevant: www.ucu.org.uk/1daycongress...

ucu.org.uk

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Thou shalt not, in fact, ever be allowed to hold a general secretary called Jo Grady accountable.

Jo Grady ahead of her first election claiming she’s happy to be made accountable as general secretary, ahead of repeatedly hiding from accountability.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

The Unite dispute arose in the first place because senior managers utterly failed to protect staff health & safety and bullied, discriminated & victimised. Yet with zero irony UCU rolls out this desperate excuse to quash accountability of mismanagement. uniteucu.wordpress.com/unite-voices/

UCU rules that members discussing how UCU is run at Congress risks legal action being taken by the scabs in the room

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

@uonucu.bsky.social, @sheffielducu.bsky.social & now @goldsmithsucu.bsky.social? Who’d have thought that UCU setting an example by making punitive ASOS deductions against its own staff would lead to VCs doing the same? Given how much UCU senior managers are paid members should expect so much better.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

The “review” into UCU’s culture has now been sent to staff - who were told not to share it. Tell my inbox that! Not surprised Grady wants it kept quiet. Although the review seems to be quite limited in scope & light-touch, it still confirms widespread dysfunction. NEC should demand to see it.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

What with UCU's desperate effort to silence striking staff and prevent its own members from asking about the victimisation of Unite’s H&S rep - including, I hear, telling staff to grass on any UCU member who breaks the ‘rules’ - I thought I'd take a closer look at what UCU rules really say. 🧵

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Staff aren’t allowed to say they’re on strike. UCU members aren’t allowed to mention it to strike-breaking staff. Regional committees can’t talk about it. The NEC can’t talk about it. Congress can talk about it but motions are declared out of order. Is this the accountability Jo was meaning?

Jo Grady’s first election manifesto where she says she wants the GS to be more accountable to members

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Your starter for 10: as well as shutting down the regional meeting, what other role does this particular regional official have in this whole distasteful saga?

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

No “trade unionist” should ever cross a picket line. But there’s a special place in trade union hell reserved for union managers who intimidate or encourage staff into doing so in order to protect the vindictive bullies in their midst. They actively sow deep and damaging division. Beyond shameful.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I’ve just been reading a copy of the latest email sent to UCU staff by SMT (ie, unelected Greg). There’s a lot to unpick, but referring to the website as if it’s SMT’s personal property is revealing.

Just SMT claiming ownership of UCU’s website

So called trade unionists encouraging strike breaking.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Trade union victimisation is notoriously hard to prove. Unite wouldn’t back Marie without clear evidence. So is SMT blindly backing a vindictive manager? Why? Greg Barnett is the manager’s line manager - what’s his role in this? Shit behaviour and toxic ‘leadership’ any way you look at it.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Also, not being funny, but where the fuck are @unitetheunion.bsky.social and @unitesharon.bsky.social? Have I missed the vocal support for their members at UCU facing ongoing blatant attacks? Does being part of the trade union GS clique mean turning a blind eye to the shit employers in your ranks?

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

UCU management are destroying the union under cover of branches too busy fighting against sector meltdown. It’s about time those NEC members and UCU branches horrified at what’s being done in their name demanded accountability. Oh, and maybe take a closer look at the accounts while you’re at it.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Another thing the “excellent employer” UCU has in common with bad university employers. Has Birmingham Uni also heavily implied that staff are well paid so they should simply suck it up?

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Wow! I hear we need to send massive Christmas cheers to UCU, the toxic trade union employer which has today succeeded in bullying three Unite reps into leaving. At least Grady can be proud of one thing she’s achieved this year. Because fuck knows she’s done nothing significant for UCU members.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Even if it was always doomed to failure, outsourcing your entire HE ballot strategy to a print & events company, whose main idea was to put Grady front & centre, all underpinned by terrible branding, really won’t have helped! But why did UCU even need outsource one of its core functions?

An outsourced strategy which delivered only misplaced confidence.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

After all this time it’s calling out the management hypocrites that finally gets me blocked by @ucu.org.uk Symbolic.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Being encouraged to vote for strike action by individuals willing to cross picket lines while their boss is engaged in full-on union busting. The same boss who has undermined any future action short of a strike taken by UCU members after deducting pay from its own staff. Toxic hypocrites.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

Will Grady listen to UCU members? That’s funny. She’s far too busy chasing camera crews around. Word has it UCU is now so dysfunctional they’re paying an external company to run the latest HE campaign. So it’s now a trade union that can’t even fulfil the most basic of its core functions.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

It’s good to see how Grady’s right hand man thinks universities should be managed. Shame he can’t apply those same principles to the trade union he manages.

Greg Barnett, who chairs the Natfhe coordinating committee at the university, said: "We believe that management by imposition is the antithesis of the true function and nature of a university where respect for rights, informed discussion, transparency and management by consent are essential if academic life is to prosper.

"Management by intimidation and bullying is even more unacceptable."

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

After well over five years of the majority of staff proving they don’t need to attend the office while still delivering for members, this is how their employer now chooses to behave: explicit threats rather than negotiating a proper, fair, & equality proofed hybrid agreement. Stay classy @ucu.org.uk

Email from UCU SMT -
We would like to ensure that you are getting the correct information when it comes to legal terms and your contract of employment. If your employment contract states that your role is office-based (for example Carlow Street or a regional/devolved nation office), then that is your place of work. That is regardless of any full working from home that has taken place, which has always been on a temporary, and lately voluntary, basis.

Effective from 1 September, all staff are expected to return to working from the office as outlined above.
You need to be aware that if you do not comply with this requirement, it could be considered a breach of contract and may result in disciplinary action, it is your responsibility to adhere to the terms of your contract.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Just found out that so bad is UCU’s staffing crisis & the dysfunction & paranoia at the top that instead of replacing a UCU staffer, first appointed from Grady’s election team, they’ve been kept on as an external contractor - working from abroad. As for UCU’s now regular use of FTCs & even ZHCs….

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Solidarity ✊ It’s shameful that @ucu.org.uk has chosen to undermine this dispute by imposing a full return to offices on their own staff with no hybrid agreement in place. UCU’s silence on this strike and their lack of public support suggests even its leadership sees their own hypocrisy on this.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Questions are being asked, but the answers, if they come, are lies and spin. If UCU’s rules can be deliberately subverted and misrepresented, and accountability is shut down at every step, including at NEC and Congress, then maybe it’s time to start asking different questions in other places.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

UCU’s annual congress starts tomorrow, its key policy-making event. Yet from their posts on here you wouldn’t even know it’s happening. Is this the same game plan as with the staff strikes? Ignore & wait for it to end? The silence is pretty symbolic of the current disregard for UCU democracy.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

UCU threatening to sack a Black member of staff for referring to its “white power structures” seems entirely on brand right now.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

It’s common knowledge that UCU uses scab labour to enable them to limp through the strikes by @uniteucu.bsky.social. But I’m hearing that alongside multiple staff now on opaque fixed-term contracts, UCU also appears to be employing staff on some kind of zero hours contract. Shocking if true.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

After refusing to meet for weeks Greg Barnett has “invited” Unite back to the talks he walked away from - now the strikes are over. Predictable attempt to assert power by the fragile ego running UCU. Doubtless he’s being egged on by his not-so-principled regional officials in their little fiefdoms.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Oh, I’m a troll now. What fun. As is my being schooled on being a Bad Trade Unionist because I expect my union to follow basic union principles. Anyway, UCU’s been using scab labour for several weeks now so I’d like to know if that’s also justifiable - speak up for the employers listening in.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

@uniteucu.bsky.social members are still on ASOS, which, as I understand it, includes no out of hours work, so this is actually a ‘three cheers for crossing a picket line’. An NEC member quite literally supporting UCU’s union-busting. This is how far UCU has fallen.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

UCU Congress 2024. A general secretary, directly responsible for UCU staffing, allows the @uniteucu.bsky.social dispute to get as far as strike action before ‘personally intervening’, then obviously fails abysmally to resolve it. If she can’t make UCU a decent place to work what hope for members?

Jo Grady declaring she’s going to ‘personally intervene’ in the dispute with her staff.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

UCU management is behaving in a way not dissimilar to the worst abusive partners you occasionally hear about. If the gaslighting doesn’t work they get so angry and fixated at a perceived wrong they’re prepared to burn the entire house down out of pure spite, unconcerned with the collateral damage.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

There’s a theory that mad GDPR logic isn’t the real reason UCU won’t let staff say they’re on strike - it’s because it hides the fact staff who do reply are crossing the picket line. Seems on par with closing every office for similar reason. At least the GS openly ditched trade union principles.

Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, openly admitting she crossed a picket line

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

I’m hearing this is getting better. SMT are now actually threatening staff with disciplinaries if they dare to mention strike action in future out of office replies. Citing some rubbish about GDPR? Fucking nuts.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Where can you go when a trade union employer refuses to attend talks unless all strike action is called off? Not only are they shitting over their own members & branches, but this precedent betrays every other trade union. I hope they’re all protesting to UCU over the playbook that’s been adopted.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Does UCU not get how dispute resolution works? Why put preconditions on further talks when it’s you that most needs them to happen? But then, walking away a week before strikes start, with attack-comms lined up, then rushing to call off key events, don’t evidence an employer acting in good faith.

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Secret UCU @secretucu.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Alarming. Damning. It also sounds an awful lot like UCU management are now doing that thing all shitty employers do, where they try to silence those exposing their toxicity by attempting to discredit them. uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/03/17/u...

Excerpt from Unite UCU black members’ statement -
“We note the alarming fact that every staff member who spoke up about racism at Unite UCU's strike rally at Congress has now been targeted and subject to victimisation by UCU's SMT, leading to some staff leaving.”

Excerpt from Unite UCU black members’ statement - “Equally troubling are the recent attempts by UCU management to attack black staff and officers of the Unite staff union. In doing so, UCU management has further highlighted their abject failure to recognise that racism is indicative of systemic power rather than merely individual relationships.”

Excerpt from Unite UCU black members’ statement - “Over the past two years, we have witnessed Black staff departing UCU for the sake of their own mental health and wellbeing, facing disciplinary action and dismissal from UCU. This 'purge' of Black staff does not inspire the remaining Black staff with the hope that UCU, as our employer, will or indeed wants to do the right thing.”

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