Yep - against my better judgement but unfortunately our employers' behaviour has been so hideous that our union (local branch) is desperately needed right now. They are a lot more effective on their own than UCU national and have already won local disputes.
But I'm reliably informed that there are a lot more GC employees around than you might think. Some of my colleagues, I'm pleased to say, did sign the leter in support of Kathleen Stock, although interestingly enough all the signatories were on the cusp of retirement or have now left on the VS scheme. Those not able to leave because of the changing HE climate have for understandable reasons not signed.
But even in our captured union/HE system I would confidently predict that there is no way would they achieve a 50% turn out over this. Aside from anything else people have strike fatigue and have already lost a fortune.
I'm still open-mouthed over the images posted by our incompetent GC, who was initially elected on the mandate that she would stand up for women's rights. Just awful - and an embarrassment to the lot of us.