Leeds Members of Parliament have written to the vice chancellor
Leeds MPs have written to the vice chancellors of University of Leeds and Leeds Trinity University expressing their full support for the demands of UCU members and asking for universities to act positively to resolve the dispute. Professor Margaret A House Sir Alan Langlands 12 March 2020 Dear all As Members of Parliament in Leeds, we are writing to express our full support for the University and College Union (UCU) in their ongoing disputes over pay, conditions and pensions. In particular, we would like to make it clear that we support the UCU demands for universities to address the 17% decline in the value of pay in real-terms since 2009; the increasing gender pay gap and race pay gap; the rise in unsustainable workloads; and the increase in casualisation and insecure contracts. We also support the UCU campaign to reverse the changes made to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which would leave a typical member of staff around £240,000 worse off in retirement. Our university staff do incredible work, and failing to meet the UCU’s reasonable demands for fair pay, secure contracts and reasonable workloads undermines that work. We believe that universities must always put the interests of hardworking staff … continue reading