Category Archives: Equality

Minutes of general meeting 2 May 2019

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Thursday 2 May 2019, 1pm – 2pm Roger Stevens lecture theatre 4 (8.04) Minutes Agreed Amendments to motions on the UCU congress agenda Amendment to EQ17 Gender Identity after the 2018 Gender Recognition Act (GRA) consultation Line 3: At the end of the first sentence add ‘and modern evidence indicates that neither are binary’. At the end of the last sentence add ‘and formal recognition of non-binary status for data gathering purposes.’ Motion carried. Amendment to EQ 18 Respectful dialogue on gender/gender diversity in Congress notes 1, delete from ‘potentially … practices’, add after ‘have’; ‘the potential to significantly improve trans people’s lives’.in 3. insert ‘trans and other’ between ‘feminist’ and ‘scholars’.In Congress believes a. add after ‘equality’: ‘under the Equality Act 2010 and other legislation, and supports proposed changes to the 2004 GRA.’in Congress believes c. delete ‘potential conflicts of’, insert ‘the’ before ‘rights’, and insert ‘of oppressed groups’ after ‘rights’.In ‘Congress calls on UCU to ii; add ‘and trans people’ after ‘academics’.In final sentence, add ‘underpinned by solidarity with all oppressed groups and promote unity in action of women and trans people in the face of attacks on either group.’ Motion carried. Amendment to HE7 UCU must remain … continue reading

Minutes of general meeting 13 March 2019

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Wednesday 13 March 2019, 12pm – 1pm Roger Stevens lecture theatre 11 Minutes and matters arising from previous meeting not elsewhere on the agenda Including updates on gender pay claim and anti-casualisation claim Request for reps in schools without reps. Minutes agreed. USS pensions: update on website, will have a members meeting about this soon. IT: took to Senate and in discussion with HR Timetabling: some departments resisting (successfully). Meeting with HR today. Gender pay claim: claim submitted in August. Not had a diligent response form the university. First working group the university didn’t provide us with any data. We’re going to say we can’t meaningfully meet with them until they provide us that data. Anti-casualisation claim: first negotiating meeting 26 March. Would like to organise some more anti-casualisation meetings before then, ideally next week. Recent media controversy about a job ad pulled, which was indicative of a culture of Election of Congress delegates: Dima Chami, Laura Loyola Hernandez, Chloe Wallace, Megan Povey, Arunima Bhattacharya. Reserves: Gabriella Alberti, Ben Plumpton, Tim Goodall. Motion 1: Amend Congress Standing Order 18 Moved by Ben Plumpton, seconded by Nigel Bubb. Carried unanimously Motion 2: Representation of migrants in UCU structures Moved by Dima … continue reading

Update on gender pay gap talks

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UCU submitted our gender pay claim in August 2018. For background information see leedsucu.org.uk/genderpaygap In the gender pay claim we asked the university senior management to share with us the detailed information behind the headline figures, to provide us with more detailed information – some of which already exists – including intersectional data on ethnicity, age group and disability, so we can work with them to show where the problems are and make effective plans to end the gender pay gap. We asked the university to produce this information within 4 months. The university met with UCU negotiating team on 20 February 2019. They have not provided us with the detailed information we asked for in advance or at the meeting, and instead talked us through the actions they have taken to reduce the gender pay gap from 22.5% to 20.1%. (Which includes recruiting more men into relatively lower paid roles, which improves the mean average, which would not have been our priority!) The university has proposed to meet us again for further talks in two months. We welcome any progress so far but have impressed upon university management that we want to end the gender pay gap and they … continue reading

International Women’s Day events in Leeds

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Women’s Strike The Women’s Strike Assembly has organised two women’s strike events in Leeds for 8 March: 12pm rally in Briggate4.30pm assembly at Bridge Street Church. More details on their facebook page. For the avoidance of doubt: UCU is not explicitly or implicitly calling for members to take strike action, but please go along to the events if you can. Some staff and students are meeting at the Parkinson building steps at 11.30am to walk down together. International Women’s Day event on Saturday Saturday 9 March 10.30am – 12.30pm Momentum have issued wide invitations to their Women and Socialism event on Saturday from 10.30am – 12.30pm, in Leeds Civic Hall (the one with the golden owls). Speakers include Leeds TUC president Jane Aitchison (who spoke at our strike rally last year). Celebrating 100 years of women in engineering and science 7th – 8th March, Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery. Feminist Archive North mark the centenary of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) with a display of material from their collections related to women in science and engineering. Please support this event if you can: when we were on strike this time last year Feminist Archive North phoned us to say they … continue reading

Standing up to racism – support for Nita Sanghera

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UCU vice-president Nita Sanghera has been subject to horrendous abuse online by members of a far-right white supremacist group. We stand alongside Nita. UCU stands for the kind of unity and equality that the far right despises. UCU London Region have published a statement and are encouraging all UCU members to put our names to it: uculondonregion.wordpress.com/2019/03/03/ucutransformed-defends-nita-sanghera UCU has published a statement nationally, which also gives details of international day of action against racism demonstrations on 16 March in London, Glasgow and Cardiff https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/9985/UCU-statement-in-support-of-Nita-Sanghera … continue reading