Black Lives Matter: UCU

There is “very much to do to show that Black staff matter”, said the University College London (UCL) branch of the UCU lecturers’ union this month.

The branch held a minute’s silence “for George Floyd and all Black people and members of other racialised minorities who have been killed or otherwise harmed by racist institutions” at an extraordinary general meeting held to discuss concerns around workload and the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown at UCL.

The executive committee said that the most precariously employed staff at UCL, the UK’s third largest university by total enrolment, are outsourced cleaning, catering and security staff, “predominantly from Black or other racialised minorities”. And, it said: “The higher in salary and status one goes up the UCL grades, the fewer members of Black or other racialised minorities that are represented.”

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucu/news/2020/jun/statement-black-lives-matter-and-structural-racism-ucl