The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine officially recognises three unions that represent various groups of employees at the school. All LSHTM employees are entitled to join a union even if they are part-time, have other jobs too or are employed on an hourly basis.

Locally and nationally a union can provide a great deal of representation and support for its members. They negotiate terms and conditions of employment, including annual pay increases. But unions do much more than that. Locally, the unions participate in the Health and Safety Committee, helping to ensure that these issues are adequately addressed. The union representatives for this activity provide a direct contact for employees within the School who may wish to voice concerns about these issues.

The union you join depends on the nature of your work at LSHTM. Details of each are listed below.

• UNISON covers clerical, administrative and manual staff. For more information, email unison@lshtm.ac.uk
• Unite principally represents staff working in laboratory settings, but not exclusively. Contact union rep Cheryl Whitehorn (cheryl.whitehorn@lshtm.ac.uk) for further details.
• UCU is the union for both academic and academic-related staff. This means if you are on the academic grades (research assistant, research fellow, lecturer, senior lecturer, reader or professor), this is your union. It is also the union for people on the academic related grades of Admin, Library and Computing (ALC graded contracts) and those on “Other Related” grades. Contact ucu@lshtm.ac.uk for more information.