One Day Without Us

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

On Monday 20 February many UCU members will join colleagues in our university and others, and in all sorts of workplaces across the country, in taking a day off work to show how important EU nationals and migrants from around the world are the this country. As university staff we know our work is international. So does the University of Leeds, which has agreed to be as supportive as it can be to requests to take annual leave to support the action this Monday. For more about the campaign, see 1daywithoutus.org UCU, Unite and Unison are all supporting the day of action, and we are helping to arrange activities on the day. In Leeds city centre there will stalls on Briggate from 12.30 to 5pm, including a big group photo at 1pm. Organisers are predicting a large turnout. Then at 5pm there will be a march to celebrate migration, anti-racism and freedom of movement. At the university, there will be stalls in the Parkinson building from 11am to 12.30pm. If you can’t make it down, you can show your support by taking your photo with one of this sign or the one below and posting it on social media. Spread the word!

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Our migration and free movement motion passed by UCU NEC

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

At our all members general meeting on 29 September we agreed to send a motion to the UCU national executive committee (NEC) on migration. The union’s NEC met on 25 of October. Brexit, anti-immigrant scapegoating and the normalisation of racism were a major topic of discussion. The NEC condemned the popularisation of racism by the Tory government and their supporters. Some delegates argued too many in the trade union and labour movement are pandering to these ideas by accepting immigration to be a ‘problem’ and ‘controlling numbers’ being the answer. NEC overwhelmingly passed the motion to make the defence of free movement of labour central to our defence of EU migrants and migrant workers more generally. It was suggested that branches should use this motion to link up with the Campaign for the Free Movement of Labour post Brexit and to mobilise for the one-day strike called by the ‘A day without us’ campaign. Motions supporting the Stand Up to Racism trade union conference on 4 February and demonstration on 18 March were also passed. Both are also supported by the TUC. Full text of the motion from our local association reads: (Several branches submitted similar motions on this issue; … continue reading

Free Movement motion passed

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

The motion below was passed unanimously at the Leeds UCU General Meeting on 29th September: “The UCU local association notes that existing UCU policy on migration and labour markets recognises the social, cultural and economic value of migration and opposes all forms of racism and the Points-Based Immigration Scheme. By approving motion 5 at the last congress 2016, UCU has asserted its commitment to “campaign with other trade unions, NUS and community groups for the overthrow of restrictive legislation which affects international students and staff and no change in the immigration status of EU residents if UK leaves EU (point 7: “Treatment of international staff and students at the last UCU congress”). This policy, however, does not explicitly refer to a commitment to defend the free movement of labour, including for all workers in higher education. The UCU local association further notes that the existing free movement of labour within the European Economic Area (EEA) is seriously threatened by the EU referendum vote to leave. If this is ended, EEA staff will be drawn under the Points-Based Immigration Scheme, meaning that they will be subject to the same continual visa restrictions, employer-sponsorship arrangements, and monitoring mechanisms that our international colleagues … continue reading