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27th February 2018 Issue 349
The official student newspaper of the University of East Anglia | concrete-online.co.uk
Campus food 'endangering students' with allergies Emily Hawkins Editor-in-Chief
as quickly as possible so we can all get back to doing the work we’re passionate about,” he said. Staff were dissatisfied with UEA’s Vice-Chancellor Professor David Richardson for not putting pressure on the UUK to enter negotiations with their union. The students’ union said they encouraged students to email the VC “to ask him what he is doing to reopen negotiations and end the strike”. After the first two days of action, the UUK said they would meet the UCU for talks on Tuesday 27 February. However, at the time of writing the next days of action were still set to continue. The UUK said they were not prepared to discuss the decision on changing pensions, something the
Students have described terrifying experiences of buying foods containing their allergens from campus outlets because ingredients information was not more readily available. Thomas Howard, a second year History student, spoke of his experiences with buying food on campus. Thomas is allergic to mayonnaise and so asked one outlet if a sandwich contained any. Despite being told the cheese sandwich did not, Thomas found it did when he bit into it. “I could have been hospitalised,” he said. He said he suffered with bad stomach pains for the rest of the day. Under a new ‘May Contain Nuts' policy, the students' union said both university and SU outlets were "endangering students". The motion included a boycott of Campus Kitchen's services for SU functions "until the organisation improves its practice and is compliant with both the spirit and the letter of the law". Chris Ball, who advocated the motion, said he was not told a brownie contained peanuts at one cafe on campus. “Luckily it was only a few crumbs,” he said at a Union Council meeting, “otherwise I could have gone into anaphylactic shock as I’m really allergic to peanuts”. Passed at the end of last month, the motion also committed the SU to a review of their own outlets. It called for "new practices put in place to decrease cross-contamination and that guarantees allergen information is readily available." SU Non Portfolio Officer Chris Ball said it was shocking that food containing allergens was sold without labels on campus. “Food allergies are life and death for many students,” he said. “We’ll be putting in place practices to decrease crosscontamination and guarantee that allergen information is readily available in the SU, and be calling
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Staff pension strike begins Wages put into fund for students
Emily Hawkins Editor-in-Chief The first two days of industrial action from UEA staff last week saw students join staff on two picket lines, to protest plans to change pensions. On Thursday 22 February and Friday 23 February, staff belonging to the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) did not turn up for work. The first week of the strike fell during UEA’s Do Something Different week, when most courses did not have classes anyway. The action scheduled for next week, set to occur on Monday 26 February, Tuesday 27 February, and Wednesday 28 February is being regarded by many at UEA as the first real week of action as it will involve scheduled lectures not taking place. The university employers
Staff say they're unhappy with uni's handling of dispute
body, Universities UK (UUK), said their changes are necessary as the present scheme is in a deficit worth billions of pounds. However, the UCU disputed this and argued university staff could be up to £10,000 a year worse off after they retire.
"Going on strike is a really hard thing to do" UCU members voted to back action by a strong majority, with 88 percent nationally supporting the strike. 87 percent of the union’s members at UEA voted in support, with a turnout of 66 percent.
The union’s regional officer Lydia Richards said that nobody at the university wants to action, “but staff at UEA feel they have no choice”. “These hardline proposals would slash staff pensions and are simply uncalled for. “It is staggering that the universities have refused to engage with the union and a real insult to staff and to students. We hope students will continue to put pressure on the Vice-Chancellors to get their reps back round the negotiating table.” Brett Mills, president of the UCU branch at UEA, said they had been “bowled over” by support from students so far. “At UEA we place great emphasis on giving students the best experience we can, so going on strike is a really hard thing to do. “We hope this can be resolved