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Author Archives: Alan Smith

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Emergency General Meeting

Posted on 31 August 2017 by Alan Smith27 September 2017

The President of the local association has convened an Emergency General Meeting to discuss the next steps in the Statutes dispute.  Here are some suggestions: Assessment boycott Strikes – one day/several days/indefinite Other action – what do you suggest?   If you have a proposal for the meeting, please send it to ucu@leeds.ac.uk It is vital that we get a representative view of our members, so please do make an effort to attend this important meeting. The meeting will be on Thursday 14th September at 1pm in Mechanical Engineering Lecture Theatre B (2.37). Directions: Go through the main door of the building, up the stairs to the second floor, turn either left or right through the double doors, LT B is at the top of the small flight of stairs. Accessibility directions: Go through the main door of the building. The lift is situated to the left of the staircase. Take the lift up to the second floor, turn left and go through the double doors, lecture theatre B is on your right. The meeting is for all UCU members. (Published 6 September but text is of convening notice sent by email to all members 31 August.)

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Posted in Dispute, General Meetings, Statutes

Membership system unavailability

Posted on 22 August 2017 by Alan Smith27 September 2017

There central UCU membership system is currently off-line. UCU is moving to a new, easier to use, online membership account system. We’re expecting the new system to be up and running shortly. You can join UCU by phone 0333 207 0719 or by filling in a paper form available from your local UCU rep or the UCU office, 7.51 EC Stoner Building.

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Posted in Administration

Legal advice available on working in the UK for EEA and non-EEA nationals

Posted on 17 August 2017 by Alan Smith17 August 2017

UCU advice on working in the UK for members who aren’t UK nationals is available through the UCU support centre web pages. As well as general advice explaining terms and processes, individual legal advice is available for members through the support centre. For problems relating to the University of Leeds it may be best to request a local UCU caseworker first by emailing ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

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Posted in Migrant members, Support

Website being updated

Posted on 14 August 2017 by Alan Smith17 August 2017

We’re making some updates to the website during August so there may be some temporary faults and mismatches. If there is any content you can’t access, or if you spot any problems which are still there in September, please email ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

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Posted in Administration

New elected UCU committee

Posted on 1 August 2017 by Alan Smith18 August 2017

Members elected to the UCU committee for the 2017-2018 academic year are in post from today. The committee members for this year are: Elected committee officers President: Vicky Blake Vice-president: Tim Goodall Treasurer: Nigel Bubb Honorary secretary: Brendon Nicholls Recruitment and membership secretary: Ben Plumpton Equality secretary: Gabriella Alberti Campaigns secretary: Lesley McGorrigan Health and safety secretary: Neil Maughan Elected committee members Alaric Hall Andy Stafford Andy West Charles Umney Gavin Reid Hugh Hubbard Jonathan Saha Malcolm Povey Mark Taylor-Batty Mark Walkley Paul Steenson Simon Hewitt* Stephen Lax Steven French The committee can appoint up to four additional committee members, and will be emailing members to seek nominations for those posts. There were an unusually high number of nominations for men when we asked for nominations before the annual general meeting, so if you’re thinking about whether to nominate someone or seek nominations for one of the four posts, please bear this in mind. (*The incoming committee has agreed Simon Hewitt will fill the elected vacancy created by Anna Fleming leaving the university for another job, this is subject to approval of the next ordinary general meeting.)

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Posted in Branch

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Library staff receive no reply from VC about safety concerns

Posted on 27 January 2021 by Alan Smith27 January 2021

On 18 January over 100 library staff at University of Leeds wrote to the vice chancellor about the decision to keep library study spaces open when the risk from covid-19 is so high. Following a weekend which has seen thousands more students return to Leeds, they have still not had a reply, other than: “Thank you for your email.” Email to the vice chancellor Subject: Concerns about keeping study space open in the Libraries Dear Professor Buitendijk, The two unions representing Library staff, UCU and Unison, have jointly written a letter to you setting out our concerns about the use of the Libraries as study space during this national lockdown. We believe Library staff are being put at risk by the decision to keep study spaces in the Libraries open, when there are opportunities to provide safer un-staffed study spaces elsewhere on campus or in halls of residence. The decision to keep the Library study spaces open is putting enormous pressure on Library staff and is taking its toll on staff mental health and wellbeing, due to the stress and worry about being infected with the virus while at work. Over 110 Library staff members have signed this letter, plus … continue reading

Posted in Covid19, Health and safety

Jeremy Toner

Posted on 20 January 2021 by Alan Smith26 January 2021

With great sadness I’m writing to inform you of the awful news that Jeremy Toner has died of cancer after a short illness. Jeremy was our first openly-gay local president, then our treasurer; he was one of the activists who transformed Leeds AUT/UCU into a branch that actively fought back against managerialism, marketisation, casualisation and injustice. Above all, Jeremy was a truly kind and considerate person, loved and respected by many and he will be greatly missed. In sadness, Ben PlumptonBranch PresidentUCU University of Leeds Branch We have opened this post for comments in case you wish to leave a message or memory. (There will be a delay before your comment appears.) Update: Donations in Lieu of flowers to St Gemma’s www.st-gemma.co.uk/in-memory-donation

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Posted in Branch | 30 Replies

Formal dispute lodged over Medicine and Biological Sciences potential redundancies

Posted on 18 January 2021 by Alan Smith25 January 2021

UCU has formally lodged a dispute with University of Leeds over potential redundancies in the Faculty of Biological Sciences and the School of Medicine. Full text of the dispute letter: Declaration of dispute Professor Simone BuitendijkVice ChancellorThe University of LeedsLS2 9JT 15th January 2021 Dear Professor Buitendijk Re: Declaration of dispute – Risk of Potential Redundancies in the School of Medicine & Faculty of Biological Sciences I wrote to you on 7th January registering a failure to agree on the following issue(s): Failure to rule out the need for compulsory redundancies. Failure to provide full financial transparency and disclosure regarding the need for financial cuts in the School of Medicine and Faculty of Biological Sciences and opportunities to consult about alternative strategies that could protect jobs. Failure to provide information about roles/areas that may be in scope of redundancy and the proposals that are being considered for the future work and operation of the two areas.   In order to resolve this failure to Agree, UCU are requesting the following immediate action: That the University commits to no compulsory redundancies That after the outcomes of the current VLS exercise are communicated no further action is taken by the University during the … continue reading

Posted in Dispute information, Redundancy

Petition against redundancies in Biological Sciences and Medicine

Posted on 13 January 2021 by Alan Smith25 January 2021

Please sign and share this petition link with your contacts in Leeds and beyond. Anyone can sign – universities are for the whole community. University of Leeds senior management are insisting on reducing staff to cut costs in the School of Medicine and the Faculty of Biological Sciences, and they refuse to rule out compulsory redundancies. UCU reps have argued the widespread belief that the university’s opaque funding allocation model under-funds many STEM* subjects which are more expensive to research and teach, and called upon the senior management to be more open about the funding model and improve its approach, to properly fund all subjects instead of cutting jobs. Update: UCU has sent a formal letter to the VC to register a dispute with the university. You can read the full text of the letter here. More details (*Science, technology, engineering and mathematics)

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Posted in Redundancy

No to all job cuts at the university!

Posted on 13 January 2021 by Alan Smith25 January 2021

Email sent to branch members 11 January 2021 As you are probably aware, the university started a voluntary redundancy scheme in the Faculty of Biological Science and the School of Medicine last semester and the deadline for applications to the scheme has now passed.  For more on the history of this, see the leeds.ucu.org.uk article: leedsucu.org.uk/vls-in-fbs-and-medicine    Here is what has happened since we wrote that article:  Our regional UCU officer wrote to the VC to ask that compulsory redundancies are ruled out  The VC replied to say that she was unable to rule out compulsory redundancies   Our regional UCU officer replied with a ‘failure to agree letter’ saying we will not accept compulsory redundancies and asking to pause the consideration of any further voluntary redundancies until we are out of the current COVID crisis and until we’ve been properly consulted with full financial information.  If an assurance cannot be given by the end of Monday, the regional officer will send a letter, entering into dispute with the university.  We’re planning a press release to make public that the university is planning to get rid of staff in some of the areas that might be considered most essential at this time.    We’ve also … continue reading

Posted in Redundancy
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  • Library staff receive no reply from VC about safety concerns
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