- Union Branches:
- UNISON University of Birmingham
- UCU University of Birmingham
Messages of solidarity sent by supporters who’d signed our petitions in the past: https://boycotteph.org.uk/messages-petitions
Individual supporters:
| Academics | Students/graduates | Non-academic union members | Politicians & TU reps | Local residents | Other |
| Onur Acaroglu | David Allen | Samuel Benham | Cllr Alex Aitken | Matthew Raine | Sam Lowe (union supporter) |
| Vincent Boyer | Emily Adams | Darcy Luke | Claire Breeze | Luisella O’Shea | Dr Tricia Jones (retired academic) |
| Clelia Boscolo | Grace Ashworth | Derek J Baldwin | Councillor Jayne Innes | John Stokes | Raymond Power (Retired lecturer, member of UCU) |
| James Brackley | Dr. Susan Blackwell | Gary Hilton | Delcan Downes | Patrick Highton | Jonathan Haining (academic-related member of staff) |
| Dr Amy Burge | Joshua Harris | Derek Baird | Kelly Grehan | Lynda Thompson | Dave Watton (Academic-related trade union member) |
| Melany Cruz | Katherine Jones | Francis Clarke | Carl Greatbatch | Joan Hosfield | Claudia Campbell (citizen of Birmingham) |
| Máiréad Enright | Elio Di Muccio | Lesley Gabriel | Roger McKenzie | Jax Lockyer-Barrett | Dr Carl Chinn MBE (A retired academic and citizen of Birmingham) |
| Stan Papoulias | Lorraine Burn | Ioana Cerasella Chis | Ravi Subramanian | Sally Haybes-Preece | Roshni Sahota (academic support administrator) |
| M Conroy | Matthew Mckenna | Mike Moore | Nixon Tod | Jenny Bond (Non-academic staff) | |
| Hannah Boast | Georgina Fitzgibbon | Duncan Maggs | Michael Kirkman | Gale Dawson (Academic related) | |
| Stephen Bates | Chelsea Reynolds | Amarjit Sathi | Deepa Govindarajan Driver | Mary Locke (Councillor) | |
| Dr. Aisling O’Beirn | Phil Lance | Joseph Ward | Brian Grice | Bee Hughes (LJMU Sessional Lecturer / LJMU UCU acting Branch Organiser) | |
| Anthony Keating | Phoebe Gill | Julita Hille | Stefan Lehneke | ||
| Alex Christoyannopoulos | Abby Gilsenan | Julie Rudd | Owen THOMPSON | ||
| Ben Costello | Jenny Nolan | Joe Finn | Stuart Richards | ||
| Lena Wanggren | Christopher Featherstone | Caroline Smith | Gavin Williams | ||
| Dr Pierre Bocquillon | Mike Macgregor-Fairlie | Rory Shannon | Cllr Olly Armstrong | ||
| Hermann Aubié | Samina Rangwala | Sharon Nairn | Councillor John Cotton | ||
| Maria Elena Carpintero Torres-Quevedo | Chelsea Saxby | Vera Kubenz | Kate Gorton | ||
| Feyzi Ismail | Elaine Mitchell | Erin Withers | Pauline O’Rourke | ||
| Gary Fooks | Henry Snowball | Andy Byrom | |||
| Eleanor Wilkinson | Freya Watkins | David Wilson | |||
| Jessica Johnson | Marcie Winstanley | Mark Summerfield | |||
| Matthew Brett | Polly Green | Salma Yaqoob | |||
| Vanessa Heggie | Julia Pakai | Sarah Hayes | |||
| Afrasiab Mirza | Sophie Delves | Xen Lu | |||
| Amy Walker | Maggie Bruce | Jordi López | |||
| Dr Bob Jeffery | J Saunders | Stella Hart | |||
| Katie Tonkiss | Shannon Oates | Margaret Conway | |||
| Paul Richardson | Ailsa Mummery | Robert Greatrix | |||
| Andrew Jolly | Lauren Peach | ||||
| Tom Cutterham | Alex Yates | ||||
| John Mohan | Niall Gallen | ||||
| Eric Shiu | Catherine Bawtree | ||||
| Alex Wood | Ben Siebertz | ||||
| Tianshu Zhao | Marlien | ||||
| Sarah Kenny | Sonja Bloch | ||||
| Daniel Malt | |||||
| Dalida Agri | |||||
| Claire Jones | |||||
| Richard Langley | |||||
| Jacqui Ward | |||||
| Nat Queen | |||||
| Luckman Rachel | |||||
| Louise Lowton | |||||
| Dr Lucie Ryzova | |||||
| Kate Ince | |||||
| Bene Bassetti | |||||
| Andrew Kirkman | |||||
| Tony Dobbins | |||||
| Dorothy Butchard | |||||
| Geoffrey Dolman | |||||
| Fabrice Pierron | |||||
| Roberta Roberts | |||||
| Scott Taylor | |||||
| Melissa Dickson | |||||
| Valerie Leick | |||||
| J. Langdon | |||||
| David J. Bailey | |||||
| Hannah Cornwell | |||||
| Emma Flint | |||||
| Simon Jackson | |||||
| Andrew Hawke | |||||
| Shahmima Akhtar | |||||
| Marian Mayer | |||||
| John Munro | |||||
| Stephen Young | |||||
| Katie Robertson | |||||
| Alastair Wilson | |||||
| John Gibney | |||||
| Charlotte Ross | |||||
| Benjamin Bland | |||||
| Sean Wallis | |||||
| Donna Arrondelle |
Messages of support:
Dalida Agri: Absolutely shocking to see how staff is treated on the university grounds. What kind of example is the university setting up for other institutions?
Alex Aitken: You have my full support and solidarity. Keep up the good fight.
David Allen: Support their fight for secure employment on union negotiated terms and conditions.
Hermann Aubié: Shameful and immoral
Derek Baird: Fair and equal rights for all workers. Without a guaranteed income, workers cannot budget properly for basic household items and creates uncertainty and worry for low paid workers. This has a severe and negative impact on family life and applies pressure to vulnerable workers which is completely unacceptable in a rich country such as the UK.
Derek J Baldwin: The relentless drive to squeeze every ounce of value out of HE workers needs to be halted. I send my best wishes and solidarity to all the staff involved in this campaign. We appreciate your standing up for yourselves because we know that one day they may come for us too.
Dr. Susan Blackwell: Disgraceful conduct by UoB.
Dr Pierre Bocquillon: Solidarity!
Clelia Boscolo: This outrageous exploitation of people must stop!
Claudia Campbell: Everybody deserves to be paid a wage they can live on.
Dr Carl Chinn MBE: In solidarity.
Francis Clarke: It is completely unacceptable that the University of Birmingham, which describes itself as a civic university, and is an educational charity in receipt of large amounts of money, decided to establish its hotel and conference activities as a subsidiary company. Worse still, the transfer has been accompanied by an attack on staff pay, terms and conditions, including: paying new hotel staff less than directly employed university staff; offering worse sick pay and holiday entitlements; and opposing union recognition, making it harder for ordinary members of staff to secure fair pay and have a meaningful voice at work. As an officer for the University of Birmingham branch of UCU and a proud member of UNISON, I urge the University’s leadership to listen to what staff, students, politicians and the wider community are telling them and bring all hotel staff back in-house as direct employees on equal pay and terms and conditions with all other University of Birmingham staff. I also call on the University to show civic leadership and commit to real Living Wage accreditation in order to end the scandal of in-work poverty.
M Conroy: If such a transfer of staff was to happen either way then why are staff not being paid exactly the same and having exactly the same T&Cs? Especially if they are doing the same work as other UoB staff members in equivalent jobs.
Delcan Downes: Solidarity to the outsourced workers.
Deepa Govindarajan Driver: Solidarity with our comrades at Unison University of Birmingham branch who are bravely taking credible action to correct an appalling situation. The VC and unaccountable senior managers at the University of Birmingham are willing to aggrandise themselves while underpaying and outsourcing others. They should be ashamed of themselves. Their two-tier treatment of fellow staff members is unacceptable. It is also not the only instance of mismanagement at this institution; it is just the latest protest against privileging those further up the hierarchy while preying on those further down the chain. Enough is enough! Deepa Govindarajan Driver, NEC, UCU
Christopher Featherstone: Boycott the EPH! Fully supportive of this!
Kate Gorton: Pay the living wage! The staff make the business successful so should share in the profits.
Brian Grice: UNISON Branch Secretary of Liverpool and Hope Universities Branch
Jonathan Haining: Outsourcing at Edgbaston Park Hotel to a ‘wholly owned’ subsidiary company represents a duplicitous tactic to drive down wages and employment terms to some of the lowest paid University staff and divide the workforce. I hope that the University gets the message that this smokescreen tactic does not fool anybody and we see it for what it really is.
Andrew Hawke: I have stayed in UoB accommodation on campus before, but I shall certainly not do so again until full union recognition is accepted. This type of behaviour reflects very poorly on the university management.
Patrick Highton: One of the reasons I did not attend an old colleague’s leaving ‘do’ is because it was organised at this outsourced venue.
Dr Tricia Jones: Our CLP (Erdington) has been supporting Unison’s campaign and we are delighted to hear that UCU is also taking supportive boycott action
Anthony Keating: ‘Outsourcing’is just a vehicle for exploitation once removed. Public funds should not be used to line the pockets of senior managers by abusing those below their grossly inflated pay grades.
Andrew Kirkman: Thoroughly agree.
Michael Kirkman: On behalf of Aston UCU we support our trades union colleagues at UOB in their campaign to end outsourcing at the Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre.
Vera Kubenz: The university claims to be a civic institution, but its refusal to pay the Real Living Wage to all members of staff and its exploitation of hotel staff through outsourcing and changing them to worse terms and conditions is shocking evidence that the university cares more about making profit then looking after its staff.
Mary Locke: As a trade union member. A councillor I feel that all workers deserve a living wage. Not breadcrumbs. Birmingham city council pay a Birmingham living wage its time the workers at EPH had decent pay.
Jordi López: Excellent job!
Roger McKenzie: Stop outsourcing now!
Fabrice Pierron: I wanted to book a room there as we have a meeting with colleagues at UoB next March but I will not proceed until the matter is (hopefully) resolved, or otherwise will book somewhere else.
Raymond Power: Important to protect rights of employees and important that there is trade union recognition
Stuart Richards (GMB): Outsourcing to undermine decent pay, terms and conditions and trade union recognition is a trick straight out of the “Worst Employer” playbook. In normal circumstances, this is unacceptable. For one of the region’s leading universities, it is a scandal. Until this is out right, I will not organise or attend any event at the University Of Birmingham’s Edgbaston Park Hotel.
Julie Rudd: Keep going! We’ll get there in the end. We don’t want Victorian conditions for modern day workers.
Chelsea Saxby: Solidarity to the Edgbaston Park Hotel workers from a casualised Postgrad TA!
Ravi Subramanian: The University of Birmingham is only a world-class university because of the hard work and dedication of all staff, academic and non-academic. A world-class university should pay all of its staff fairly. The University is also an important anchor institution in the city of Birmingham that is a role model for other organisations. It should show leadership by paying al staff fairly.
Joseph Ward: The terms & conditions of many staff working at EPH are exploitative and draconian. The University of Birmingham – as a supposedly ‘civic’ university – should be ashamed and all staff should receive respect and dignity in the workplace.
David Wilson: Disgraceful anti-worker, anti-equality anti-trade union behaviour from a wealthy institution.
Marcie Winstanley: The university of Birmingham is a problematic institution at best and outsourcing is one of the greatest problems in its treatment of workers. Union membership must be valued, and it is a choice of the management to discourage this. Low pay is also a choice and never a necessity. I’m fortunate that I’m empowered to speak about this, which is not safe for everyone, but the management are the ones empowered to act. They must act now to make this University a fairer place for everyone.
Salma Yaqoob: I fully support this boycott of EPH until all outsourced workers are transferred to University of Birmingham as direct employees with pay and conditions protected alongside all other University of Birmingham staff. The university is extremely well resourced, and can afford to treat the fantastic staff and workers who make it such a world-renowned institution a fair wage. There is no excuse for the indignity and insecurity loyal hardworking staff are subjected to through insecure contracts and poverty wages.