Advice and information about the strikes, including detailed advice for migrant members with a visa
Reporting strike action, and guidance on action short of a strike
Updated details on the local hardship fund, after members voted to increase the support available at general meeting 3 December
(Link to key information posted in advance of the strike, for reference)
Strike deductions for most members at University of Leeds will be taken out of January’s salary, but some members, most commonly hourly paid postgraduates who teach, will lose money this month instead. So our hardship process is ready to support those members who need it now.
Our local fund is only to request any support you need in addition to what you can claim from the national UCU fighting fund.
If you’re not eligible for support from the national fund because you were only scheduled to do one day’s work over the strike period you can apply to the local fund if you need to.
If you are eligible to claim from the national fund but will still be in hardship because of your circumstances, claim from the national fund and at the same time apply for the additional money from the local fund. (Don’t try to claim the same loss from both funds – that would be fraud!)
More details here about the updated rules for the local Hardship Fund and explanation of how the two funds work together.
Generally we don’t get paid for striking, so please only apply to the national fighting fund if you need to. And please only apply to the local hardship fund if you’re in hardship because of your particular circumstances, for example, if you’ll struggle to get by because of the strike deductions because you’re hourly paid and low paid, or you’re working part time and already struggling because of childcare fees and repaying loans for visa costs to the university. (These are not definitive examples.)
But please do apply if you need to – it’s what they are here for!
First find your UCU membership number, and also check that your UCU subscriptions are up to date and paid at the correct rate for your salary (you can check this on MyUCU – go to ucu.org.uk and click the pink MyUCU button in the top right). Note: those on the full free membership are also eligible to claim.
How to apply to the national UCU fighting fund
To apply for the local hardship fund please fill in a UCU University of Leeds Branch hardship form application and email it with supporting evidence to branch treasurer Jonathan Saha (j.saha@leeds.ac.uk).
We need evidence that you took strike action. This could be screenshot(s) of your report on the Employee Self Service Portal (under Work Profile > Industrial Action), or a copy of an email you sent to industrialaction@leeds.ac.uk to inform them when you were on strike.
We need to see something which shows what you lost due to the strike. For salaried staff that will usually be a wage slip with deductions shown on it and the previous month’s to compare (because strike deductions are taken before other deductions such as tax and as national insurance).
For postgraduates who teach and some other members the evidence will be less clear, so send what you can. For example, a schedule showing when you would have been teaching/preparing/marking, and a timesheet showing the actual hours you claimed pay for. And also, something showing what hourly rate you are paid. We don’t want to make it unreasonably difficult but we do need evidence of what you’ve lost because of the strike.
UCU branch officers are running hardship surgeries to help you fill in the application and to advise on evidence. The first surgery is
Thursday 11 December, 12pm – 1pm, 7.52 EC Stoner Building.
We’ll update this post as we book additional hardship fund surgeries.
If you’re able to donate to the local hardship fund that would really help us to support lower paid members to strike. Please make donations to UCU Leeds LA29 (Hardship Fund), Unity Trust Bank, Account Number: 20391511, Sort Code: 60-83-01
Thank you to everyone who picketed! Some of you are in schools or departments that haven’t elected a UCU department rep, or an anti-casualisation rep, or a postgraduate rep, or a workloads rep, or a health and safety rep. Could you do that role?
If you’d like to do any of these roles, or you can think of a colleague who’d be good for the role, please send your nominations to ucu@leeds.ac.uk by the end of Wednesday 15 January.
If you want to know more, there’s a bit more detail in this post or you can talk to another UCU rep or email ucu@leeds.ac.uk
Here’s the current list of UCU department reps.
(There have been a few additions in the busy run-up to the strike – if we’ve missed one off the website please email ucu@leeds.ac.uk!)
Just a quick email is fine, saying something like “I nominate [name of colleague] to be the [UCU department rep / UCU anti-casualisation rep / UCU postgraduate rep / UCU workloads rep / UCU health and safety rep] for [my school/department].
To be a UCU rep a member needs two nominations from UCU members in the school/department.
If there are nominations for more than one person there’s a possibility of job sharing or the committee will organise an election.
Leeds UCU members seem to enjoy a sing song, judging by your enthusiastic participation in the songs at our strike rallies! It was great to have our ‘woodwind section’ entertaining us and leading us. We are probably the only UCU branch with a bassoonist, flautist and clarinet player on the picket lines! So you’ll be pleased to hear we are getting together again to sing our alternative Christmas carols – you can find them in the Leeds UCU songbook at https://tinyurl.com/t7vsy8e (scroll down). There’s also a rather brilliant ASOS version of ‘Down by the picket line’.
Meet on Friday 13th December at 12:30 by the wavy lines sculpture.
And how about some creative guerrilla baubling? There are many Christmas trees around campus which could be made lovelier with the addition of some UCU baubles, and it would be splendid to see photos tweeted (use hashtags #ucuASOS #guerrillabaubling #UCUchristmas, and tag @leedsucu) Templates are here (various wording) and here (blank) – feel free to adapt them or make your own.
On Thursday 5th December, or on your first day back if you don’t work Thursdays, you should report that you took strike action, via ESS or by email to industrialaction@leeds.ac.uk, as set out in the email from HR on 18th November. You should also report that you are taking ASOS.
If you are on a visa, it’s extra important that you are recorded as having been on strike, otherwise it could count as unauthorised absence which could affect your visa – you might like to report by email and ask for confirmation that your report has been recorded.
We will be doing the ASOS which was set out in the voting papers for the ballot, and which you voted overwhelmingly for. We are asking you to:
Your committee, with the help of the packed General Meeting on 3 December, has put together the a document containing local ASOS guidance, available here: www.leedsucu.org.uk/asos-guidance-from-leeds-ucu/ Also see the national FAQ at www.ucu.org.uk/he-action-faqs
Note in particular that our university management have softened their approach compared to 2018 – they are asking teaching staff to “recover learning” not “reschedule teaching”. We have suggested in the attached document how you should respond to requests for plans on how to recover teaching on your first day back, and ideas for how you might do the recovering. Some local managers are asking staff to reschedule lost teaching – do not do this, because that would be breaking ASOS. Our ASOS guidance document also has guidance for researchers and academic related staff. It has been great to have some Heads of School and other senior staff on the picket lines with us and on strike with us – we recognise they will be in a difficult position, and the document includes some guidance for these members too.
Our ASOS guidance document also includes suggested wording about ASOS to append to your email signature.