Author Archives:

UCU national elections

Posted on by

You may have already received or will shortly receive a big envelope of papers about voting for UCU National Executive Committee members, trustees, and the next Vice President (who will be from Further Education). Please do use your votes – these are hugely important roles and the successful candidates will make important decisions on behalf of the union. Please read the candidates’ statements carefully to make your decisions. Many of the candidates are sending further information to branches, and we will put such information on the Leeds UCU website for you to read. We are also looking into the possibility of a Leeds hustings. So don’t feel you need to decide immediately, but do make sure you get your votes in by noon on Wednesday 4th March. Perhaps put a reminder in your calendar to post your votes by Friday 28th Feb.  From a Leeds perspective, note that: Dima Chami (our branch Equality Officer) is elected unopposed to one of the two new migrant member posts on the NEC.Ruth Holliday (Sociology) is standing for one of the NE Region seats. For more information see https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10339/UCU-trustee-national-officer-and-national-executive-committee-elections-in-2019-20-ballots If your ballot papers haven’t arrived, or if you have lost them, you can get a … continue reading

Further strikes announced

Posted on by

You’ll have seen from your email on Monday from the UCU general secretary Jo Grady that UCU have announced 14 more days strike action during February and March. Our negotiating team and elected Higher Education Committee think that, despite some real progress in the negotiations, the employers are holding back and are not taking the concerns of staff seriously enough. Leeds University UCU is therefore called to strike on these dates in pursuit of two legally distinct disputes: USS, and #FourFights (see:  https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10621/UCU-announces-14-strike-days-at-74-UK-universities-in-February-and-March ) The dates are: Week one – Thursday 20 & Friday 21 FebruaryWeek two – Monday 24, Tuesday 25 & Wednesday 26 FebruaryWeek three – Monday 2, Tuesday 3, Wednesday 4 & Thursday 5 MarchWeek four – Monday 9, Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11, Thursday 12 & Friday 13 March This is such a crucial moment for higher education in the UK, and every member is needed to make this action successful. Employers have moved a bit in negotiations as a result of our actions so far. We need them to move further, and to put decent, trustworthy offers on the table to resolve these disputes. We know some VCs are already shifting. We need to increase the … continue reading

Who your reps are and where we still need reps

Posted on by

We may well have another busy period coming up so I want to make sure you all know who your UCU reps are and where there are gaps where we still need reps. The current list is at leedsucu/departmental-representatives. For each area the committee would like to have a department rep, an anti-casualisation rep (intended to be someone on an insecure contract), a postgraduates rep, a workloads rep and a health and safety rep. If you’d like to stand as a rep please ask two colleagues in your area who are UCU members to email ucu@leeds.ac.uk nominating you for the role. We’re going to give a deadline of 12pm Monday 17 February (the deadline is in case more than one person wants to do the role, so we’re not doing it on a first-come basis like a race). … continue reading

Members make dispute decisions at Extraordinary General Meeting

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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