Brighton UCU voted to lift the marking and assessment boycott and strike after members voted to accept the offers from management to resolve the dispute. There were steps to make progress on all aspects of the Four Fights campaign:-

Additionally, the management abandoned a plan to  cut wages of PGR staff, and committed to not penalise any staff taking part in the boycott.

This is a major step for Brighton UCU, since management have continually refused

to recognise their role in the exaggerating these problems, and would not

negotiate with UCU for years. Now the university management have

committed to work with the branch in a number of areas to improve these

issues.

This is a great success story, since the marking boycott had setbacks from the beginning, resulting in only a handful of university

branches taking action. Even in the University of Brighton, only a small

number of staff seemed to be supportive. The success despite these odds

show that even small-scale actions can be effective.

The threat of

disruption from a marking boycott a potential strike disrupting

graduations, league tables and internal processes were too much to bear

for the university, meaning that a previously intransigent management

have been forced to concede to workers’ demands.