Category Archives: Migration and refugees

Motions for Wednesday’s extraordinary general meeting + other news

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Text of email sent to all members 5 July. (Agenda not published on the website; if you’re a member and haven’t received the agenda please email ucu@leeds.ac.uk) Extraordinary general meeting 12pm Wednesday 10 July The committee called this ‘EGM’ for all members because of a load of urgent issues going on now which they think members should have the opportunity to take a collective position on. It’s 12pm – 1pm on Wednesday 10 July in Michael Sadler seminar room LG15 The attached agenda includes all motions on those subjects for members to decide if they agree these should be branch policies/strategies. The meeting was called to discuss: USS pensions dispute Pay and Equality dispute Head of School appointments Misuse of lecture capture by the university UniForum (another round of collecting benchmarking data on “the efficiency and effectiveness of administration and support services”) Discussion boards for in-course feedback Timetabling (which includes a motion on workloads negotiating principles) Centralisation of admissions Please update your details before the strike ballots If you’re moving institution or changing jobs, or if you’re a postgraduate student who will start doing paid teaching so be eligible for full (free) voting membership, or you want to get your … 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

Report on UCU Congress 2019

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UCU’s annual congress is its supreme policy making body and it met this year over the May Bank Holiday in Harrogate. This report is an attempt to summarise three very full days of intense and important debates on the various areas with which UCU is concerned. Motion numbers are included in brackets for reference: a full account of all motions with decisions can be found here: www.ucu.org.uk/Congress2019 Congress business is ordered according to the business of various committees: equality; education; recruitment, organising and campaigning (ROC) and strategy and finance. There was a further section on democracy and rule changes. On the second day of congress, delegates divide into a Higher Education Sector Conference and a Further Education Sector Conference. The agenda was very busy indeed. As a result, some motions could not be debated. Those relating to rule changes will be sent to the special Democracy Conference to be held in November; the rest are remitted to the National Executive Committee (NEC) for decision. Leeds University UCU sent five branch delegates to Congress: Arunima Bhattacharya; Dima Chami, Laura Loyola, Megan Povey and Chloe Wallace. In addition, Lesley McGorrigan attended as delegate from the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Committee, and Vicky … continue reading

Why UCU needs a migrant members equality strand

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UCU University of Leeds UCU is one of several branches with motions calling for a migrant members equality strand in UCU. We urge branches and delegates to UCU Congress to support our motions. Why is it so important? Three in every ten staff in UK universities aren’t British (29 per cent). Half of research-only staff (mostly postdocs) are from overseas (47 per cent). Migrants constitute a large demography within British academia (both in FE and HE) – and even while we make up a considerable proportion of UCU’s membership, our voice is not always heard. During the strikes, we were on the front lines with our colleagues, but our solidarity came at a price: migrant staff who took ‘unlawful’ absence from work for more than 10 days were eligible for having their contracts ended – in other words, if migrants took strike action for more than 10 days, they were at risk of deportation. It took considerable pressure, and very loudly voiced anxieties, from University of Leeds branch and others to bring this to the attention of UCU national officers who thankfully took this matter seriously. The right to strike is a human right, but the Home Office – until … 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