Category Archives: Campaigns

Members make dispute decisions at Extraordinary General Meeting

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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

Newsletter – summer 2019

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University of Leeds University & College Union USS Pensions There seems to be no comfortable end in sight for the USS dispute. USS have proposed three options as solutions to the ongoing valuation, all of which mean members and employers paying more, and none of which implement the Joint Expert Panel’s recommendations. Employers prefer option 3 which would increase member contributions to 9.6% with possible imposed additional increases after later valuations. It has recently been revealed, after whistleblowing from a USS trustee, that USS misled employers and members about the 2018 valuation, claiming wrongly that The Pensions Regulator had said the JEP recommendations would be too risky. UCU believes we can’t trust these people any longer, has called for the resignation of USS CEO Bill Galvin, and is exploring the possibility of legal action against the USS Trustee Board. We reject any members’ contribution increases, we call on UUK to pick up any imposed extra costs, and we plan to ballot on industrial action in September if they do not agree. See leedsucu.org.uk/pensions What’s happening on pay? 2019 pay negotiations with the employers began in early May and the Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) offered 1.8% (increased to 3.65% … continue reading

USS pensions – emergency motion passed at AGM

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Members of UCU University of Leeds branch passed the following emergency motion at our AGM on 16 May 2019: This branch notes that: The 2018 USS dispute was suspended with an agreement that Defined Benefit pensions should not be scrapped and that a Joint Expert Panel (JEP) should be set up to reconsider the USS valuation.This Joint Expert Panel reported in September 2018 (see http://www.ussjep.org.uk/report-of-the-joint-expert-panel/) and largely vindicated the UCU position on the USS valuation.The University of Leeds broadly supported the JEP recommendations, including the levels of contributions proposed. (see https://www.leeds.ac.uk/forstaff/download/downloads/id/1536/uss_leeds_response_to_uuk_consultation_re_jep_october_2018)To Maintain current benefits, USS have already imposed a default increase in our contributions from 8% of salary to 8.8% in April 2019, with a further increase coming in October if an agreement on valuations cannot be reached. If the JEP recommendations were implemented in full, there would be no need for further contribution increases or benefit reductions.The position of UCU nationally is ‘No Detriment’ i.e. that there should be no further increases to our pension contributions and no reductions to our pension benefits.The USS board issued a statement on 9th May (see https://www.uss.co.uk/how-uss-is-run/2018-valuation/2018-valuation-updates/9-may-2019) saying they are now consulting with university employers about three new options that they have identified, … continue reading

Workers’ Memorial Day

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Every 11 seconds, a person dies because of the dangerous conditions in which they work. On Workers’ Memorial Day, every 28 April, trade union members across the world remember the dead and remind ourselves why we fight hard for the health and safety of people at work. People who go to work should come home again. The theme of Workers’ Memorial Day this year is cancers caused by work. There will be a memorial wreath laying today (Monday 29 April) 12.55pm, at the workers’ memorial tree in St George’s field. … continue reading