Solidarity during the up and coming strike action, includes making sure our members who take strike action do not suffer financial hardship as a result.
Any member who takes strike action, and is in financial need, will be able to apply to both the local Goldsmiths UCU hardship fund, and the national UCU fighting fund.
Below we outline, what you can apply for from each fund, and how:
Local Goldsmiths Hardship Fund:
You can apply to this fund, from day one of strike action. There are three categories under which one can claim for support from the fund:
- Low pay
- Insecure employment
- Financial hardship
The amount available will be up to £75 a day to a maximum of £500 (as long as it is not greater than the amount of wages lost). In addition, you can also apply to the national fighting fund – see below.
In order to apply to the local fund, please complete the hardship fund application form (attached) and send it along with payslips showing strike pay deductions to gucu-admin@gold.ac.uk.
Your application will be considered by the branch hardship fund committee and a decision will be made no later than 14 days from request. You will be informed by email as to the decision of the committee – and if your application has been successful we will email you asking for bank details in order to make a payment.
Information included in your application will be treated with the strictest of confidence and will not be seen by anyone other than the branch organiser and the three members of the hardship fund committee.
UCU National Fighting Fund:
The UCU National Fighting fund enables members earning below £30,000 pa to claim strike pay after the second day of action for up to £75 per day, and members. earning above £30,000 pa to claim up to £50 per day from the third day of action.
You can claim up to £500 in total from the national fighting fund, (so a total of £1000 between local and national funds) as long as it does not exceed the amount of money lost during the strike days.
In the national fighting fund financial support will be prioritised to lower paid members and those on insecure contracts. Full information and an application form are available here: https://ucu.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/429/~/ucu-fighting-fund-2019(Please note where it says to be eligible you must be “be paying subscriptions at the correct rate (if any subscription is payable)”, this means you are eligible if you are STANDARD FREE, if you are currently a student who teaches and are on a student membership, please make sure to upgrade your membership to STANDARD FREE before Monday 25 Nov: https://www.ucu.org.uk/myucu).
In both the national and local funds, since you are asked to provide evidence of deduction from your salary or loss of earnings for strike action, you will make the claim after strike action has taken place.
Where possible we encourage members to draw on the national fighting fund first, since they have vastly more resources than the local fund. We recognise, though, that national strike pay may still leave some members experiencing hardship; either because of the level of deductions or because of their personal situation. We also understand that if you need to claim from day one of the strike action, that the local fund will need to be your first port of call.
We strongly encourage you to apply to the fighting fund and hardship fund if you need to. If you can manage without, or claim a lower amount, please do.
We do not want any member to experience hardship as a result of fighting for justice at work. If you still have questions or concerns please do contact the branch on gucu-admin@gold.ac.uk or talk to your department rep: https://goldsmithsucu.org/departmental-reps/
If you are able to make a donation yourself to the GUCU hardship fund, or are in contact with other individuals, community groups or trade union branches that you think would, the account details to make a donation to are:
‘UCU Goldsmiths LA34’ Unity Bank Sort Code 60-83-01 account number 20392303.
Reference. GUCU hardship fund.
In solidarity,
GUCU executive