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Members make dispute decisions at Extraordinary General Meeting

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Members of UCU University of Leeds Branch met today (22 January 2020) to discuss and make decisions about the current disputes. Members agreed on the following motions: USS pensions dispute and ‘Four fights’ dispute Motion 1 This branch acknowledges the need to fight back against increasing casualisation, damaging workloads, antiquated gender and race pay gaps and a decade long erosion of our pay. This branch notes the decision of the HEC to coordinate ballot distribution and strike days for the Four Fights and USS disputes. This strategy allowed for UCU’s most successful ballot turnout results on pay ever and led to eight days of impactful strike action which is empowering our national negotiators. This branch recognises the need to increase pressure at this point and that in order to win we have to move towards escalating our industrial strategy. This branch supports this existing strategy towards our two ongoing disputes in HE, and believes that strike action in pursuit of the Four Fights should continue to escalate simultaneously with action over USS, beginning with the 14 days endorsed by HESC in December 2019. Motion 2 Motion about the Formulation of Strategy for the Next Round of Industrial Action This branch … continue reading

Nita Sanghera

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We are saddened to learn of the death of Nita Sanghera, president-elect of UCU. Nita was a fierce and passionate campaigner for workers everywhere, always supporting union branches across the country, and a tireless campaigner against racism. Her support and encouragement for many black women activists will not be forgotten. Nita was about to become the first black woman President of UCU. The photos show Nita visiting the picket lines at University of Leeds to give us her support. Branch president Ben Plumpton says: “Nita was solidarity personified.” Rest in power. … continue reading

Extraordinary general meeting 22 January: disputes + organisational change policy

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The branch committee has called an extraordinary general meeting to discuss a number of urgent issues which won’t wait until the next scheduled general meeting. The meeting will be: 12pm – 1pm on Wednesday 22 January Roger Stevens lecture theatre 16 (which is on level 12). Members are invited to submit motions on the subjects on the agenda. These should be received by 2pm on Tuesday 14 January, after which the motions received will be circulated to members. The agenda will be: DisputesUSS pensions dispute‘Four fights’ dispute (pay, anti-casualisation, equal pay, workloads)Organisational change policy Please send any relevant motions to the branch administrator Alan Smith using ucu@leeds.ac.uk. (The next scheduled general meeting, open to motions on any subject, is Monday 2 March.) … continue reading

Hardship applications and surgeries

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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. National UCU fighting fund and the local hardship fund 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. Should you apply? Generally we don’t get paid for striking, so … continue reading

Enthused by being on the picket line? Want to be a UCU rep?

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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 Unsure if all the roles are covered in your school/department? 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!) How to nominate someone to be a UCU department rep 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 … continue reading