Category Archives: Gender pay gap

Grow the Action, Build the Strike, Win the Dispute

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Negotiations are at a crucial stage. We need pickets out in great numbers. Thank you so much for all the strength you have put into the action over the last few days. The weather has been shocking, public transport a nightmare, and yet we have seen lots of cheerful and, most importantly, determined picketers every day – and many more a visible presence online. We need to keep up the pressure and grow the action. Because of what we have done so far, UCU’s negotiators were back in negotiations with the employers’ body UCEA today, on the anti-casualisation, workloads, equal pay and pay dispute. They are back in ‘without prejudice’ talks which means they are not able to share details about what was discussed, but we understand the meeting went on much longer than it was supposed to, which has to be a good sign!  The next couple of days are, therefore, crucial. Please come out to picket if you can – if you don’t live in Leeds you can give support to a picket at a university closer to you. Here’s the picket sign-up form (for University of Leeds branch). If you can’t picket, please be as loud and … continue reading

Survey on gender and ethnic pay gaps

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Leeds UCU at our General Meeting on 22nd January agreed to work with the Equality Trust to develop and run a survey of Leeds UCU members, to provide evidence supporting our negotiations with the university on pay gaps. See http://www.leedsucu.org.uk/members-make-dispute-decisions-at-extraordinary-general-meeting/ (motion 3). A working group is being set up for this, co-convened by Dima Barakat Chami (our branch Equality Officer) and Jane Holgate.  If you would like to join the working group, please contact Jane Holgate (j.holgate@leeds.ac.uk). continue reading

Further strikes announced

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You’ll have seen from your email on Monday from the UCU general secretary Jo Grady that UCU have announced 14 more days strike action during February and March. Our negotiating team and elected Higher Education Committee think that, despite some real progress in the negotiations, the employers are holding back and are not taking the concerns of staff seriously enough. Leeds University UCU is therefore called to strike on these dates in pursuit of two legally distinct disputes: USS, and #FourFights (see:  https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10621/UCU-announces-14-strike-days-at-74-UK-universities-in-February-and-March ) The dates are: Week one – Thursday 20 & Friday 21 February Week two – Monday 24, Tuesday 25 & Wednesday 26 February Week three – Monday 2, Tuesday 3, Wednesday 4 & Thursday 5 March Week four – Monday 9, Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11, Thursday 12 & Friday 13 March This is such a crucial moment for higher education in the UK, and every member is needed to make this action successful. Employers have moved a bit in negotiations as a result of our actions so far. We need them to move further, and to put decent, trustworthy offers on the table to resolve these disputes. We know some VCs are already shifting. We need … continue reading

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

News on negotiations, the digital picket line, hot breakfasts and more

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Text from branch president Ben Plumpton’s email to members 27th November Negotiations The most important thing to tell you is that our UCU negotiators on pay and conditions met with UCEA, the employers organization, on Tuesday. See UCU’s statement about that meeting.  This is really important, because it shows it only took one day of solid striking and record breaking pickets to get UCEA to do what they should have done weeks ago; sit down and talk. However, they are still not willing to talk about pay. We need to push them harder on this, because stopping pay erosion is central to our claim and low pay is one of the issues which creates pay gaps and which exacerbates the already impossible position of casualised staff.  UCEA are now consulting with university leaders. We need to send our Vice-Chancellor a clear message that our claims are urgent and that we won’t settle for anything other than substantial change.  For those striking, please stand firm. We need to sustain our action. We want to make our pickets (physical and digital) bigger, louder and clearer, so help us make some noise over the next few days. If you are not yet striking, please come … continue reading