UCU’s annual congress is its supreme policy making body and it met this year over the May Bank Holiday in Harrogate. This report is an attempt to summarise three very full days of intense and important debates on the various areas with which UCU is concerned. Motion numbers are included in brackets for reference: a full account of all motions with decisions can be found here: www.ucu.org.uk/Congress2019 Congress business is ordered according to the business of various committees: equality; education; recruitment, organising and campaigning (ROC) and strategy and finance. There was a further section on democracy and rule changes. On the second day of congress, delegates divide into a Higher Education Sector Conference and a Further Education Sector Conference. The agenda was very busy indeed. As a result, some motions could not be debated. Those relating to rule changes will be sent to the special Democracy Conference to be held in November; the rest are remitted to the National Executive Committee (NEC) for decision. Leeds University UCU sent five branch delegates to Congress: Arunima Bhattacharya; Dima Chami, Laura Loyola, Megan Povey and Chloe Wallace. In addition, Lesley McGorrigan attended as delegate from the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Committee, and Vicky … continue reading

Members will have received in the post, from the Electoral Reform Society, a ballot paper to vote in the UK wide UCU elections. The mailing included printed election addresses for all the candidates for each position, and a voting form which you need to fill in and send back by post. The voting deadline is Friday 1st March, so you’ll need to post your ballot paper by Wednesday 27th February. Voting is by Single Transferable Vote, which means you can put 1 by your first preference, 2 by your second preference and so on (the instructions in the mailing provide more detail about how this works). Note: this ballot is not to be confused with voting in the industrial action ballot, which is of course hugely important! Full details of the national elections are on the UCU website here: www.ucu.org.uk/article/9677/UCU-National-officer-and-national-executive-committee-elections-in-2018-19 The Vice President post is particularly important as the elected candidate will go on to be President of our union in 2021-22. The candidates for this post, with links to their websites, are: Vicky Blake (currently President of Leeds UCU) – website and downloadable leafletJo McNeill (currently President of Liverpool UCU) – website and downloadable leafletAdam Ozanne (currently Secretary of Manchester UCU) – … continue reading

TThe university’s lists system doesn’t seem to be sending this email out to our members – so here is our latest email for all to read! UCU local news: remember to vote; international members survey; improving the adverse weather policy; lots more! Dear UCU members – A few brief updates for you: Strike ballot – remember to vote, don’t be silenced Need a replacement ballot paper? Want to know how this ballot applies to you? Want to tell us you’ve voted? See our frequently asked questions Election for UCU national vice president – our Vicky Blake on the ballot paper The election for UCU national vice president opens on Friday 1 February. Our fantastic president Vicky Blake is one of the candidates. We’re holding a hustings on 12 February at 12pm. International staff survey Our international staff survey is live now. It’s open to non-members too, so pass it on to your friends and colleagues! leedsucu.org.uk/international-staff-survey New adverse weather policy We’ve made improvements to this policy before the university published it, to emphasise staff health and safety over keeping the university running. You shouldn’t feel pressured to come into work if it’s not safe to. leedsucu.org.uk/unions-improve-new-adverse-weather-policy Help us beat casualisation … continue reading