Strength in numbers: don’t be silenced

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Text from email to all members sent 19 February 2019

Dear Members,

The message is very simple. We have even made another song to illustrate it: enjoy!

We need you to vote in the current ballot, and we would ideally like you to vote “YES YES” in support of willingness to take strike action and action short of a strike in the pursuit of a decent offer from our employers on (click each heading for a link):

If you have already voted, THANK YOU for helping to keep our union strong. Please help us to get the remaining votes out by spending 5-10 minutes talking to colleagues and friends in higher education to make sure they have too! We need all votes to be received by Friday 22 February, meaning Wednesday is the last “safe day to post (but if you find anyone yet to post on Thursday, it’s still worth it!

If you have not yet voted, PLEASE dig out that ballot and get it in the post right now. This matters; it is a matter of our collective strength and standing up for one another.

Every single vote, in every single branch, in every single university counts. Every single vote counts towards the important 50% threshold for turnout we now have to meet just so we can have our collective voice heard. Without that, our employers’ will deploy ‘fake news’ tactics that there is ‘no strength of feeling’ over issues of casualisation, equal pay, fair rates for the jobs we do, and the need for a manageable, healthy workload. We know that there is. We know we all deserve better than the status quo.

If you are wavering, please consider:

  • Every posted vote boosts our collective bargaining power in every area, on every claim – whether that’s about secure work, equal and fair pay, workloads, pensions…
  • Every posted YES YES vote drives home the message that we know there is money in our sector, we are on to the interesting financial practices at work, and we want better for our workforce and for our students.

We have written to you already about how the four pillars of this claim intersect, and how the result of this ballot directly affects the strength of hand UCU negotiators take into any meeting with our employers.

Every single member of our union is affected in some way by issues of casualization, workload, equal and fair pay. If you are currently able to “manage” please consider those who cannot, and that any of us can be “next” — post that vote.

A few minutes talking to colleagues and friends can make a difference.

Don’t be silenced. Don’t let your colleagues be silenced. Please VOTE.

In solidarity,

Vicky and Committee

UCU national officer and national executive committee elections

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Members will have received in the post, from the Electoral Reform Society, a ballot paper to vote in the UK wide UCU elections. The mailing included printed election addresses for all the candidates for each position, and a voting form which you need to fill in and send back by post. The voting deadline is Friday 1st March, so you’ll need to post your ballot paper by Wednesday 27th February. Voting is by Single Transferable Vote, which means you can put 1 by your first preference, 2 by your second preference and so on (the instructions in the mailing provide more detail about how this works).

Note: this ballot is not to be confused with voting in the industrial action ballot, which is of course hugely important!

Full details of the national elections are on the UCU website here:
www.ucu.org.uk/article/9677/UCU-National-officer-and-national-executive-committee-elections-in-2018-19

The Vice President post is particularly important as the elected candidate will go on to be President of our union in 2021-22. The candidates for this post, with links to their websites, are:


We held a VP hustings in Leeds on 12th February. Adam was unable to attend, but Vicky and Jo spoke about their priorities for UCU and answered questions. We hope this was useful to members to help them decide who to vote for. Remember that Leeds UCU, at a General Meeting on 10th December, agreed to support and endorse Vicky Blake’s candidacy for UCU Vice President so we would encourage you to vote for Vicky as your #1 preference.

We are also delighted that Lesley McGorrigan, Campaigns Officer for Leeds UCU, has been declared elected to one of the four HE UK-elected seats, because there must be at least one academic related member and she was the only academic-related nomination.

The branch has not taken a position to support any particular candidates for the other positions – Honorary Treasurer, and various other seats on the National Executive Committee. Some candidates have sent the branch their election materials, and these are available to download from the links below. If there is no link, this means the candidate has not sent anything to the branch, and you should check the information on the national UCU website as above. Note that some candidates are supported by UCU Left (listed here), and some are supported by Progressive Left (listed here).

Honorary Treasurer (1 seat)
– Dr Steve Sangwine (University of Essex)
– Professor Paul Anderson (Queen Mary University of London)

North East HE (1 seat)
– Emma-Jane Phillips (Northumbria University)
– Bruce Baker (Newcastle University)

UK-elected members HE (3 seats remaining; to include at least one post-92)
– Dr Maria Chondrogianni (University of Westminster)(post-92)
– Dr Marion Hersh (University of Glasgow)
– Dr Jo Grady (University of Sheffield)
– Dr Carlo Morelli (University of Dundee)
– Ann Gow (University of Glasgow)
– Patricia Hornby Atkinson (Edge Hill University)(post-92)

Representatives of disabled members (1 seat remaining, HE)
– Ciara Doyle (University of Greenwich)
– Dr Paul Lunn (Coventry University)
– Lucy Burke (Manchester Metropolitan University)

Representatives of black members (2 seats; at least one woman to be elected)
– Maxine Looby (Oldham College)(woman)
– Victoria Showunmi (University College London (IOE))(woman)
– Naina Kent (Hackney Adult Education)(woman)
– Dave Muritu (Sandwell College)

Call for motions for general meeting and UCU Congress

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Do you want to propose a union policy or strategy?

UCU is a democratic union, we make our policies together through branch-level general meetings and then nationally at the annual Congress. Our next general meeting on 13 March will be where we decide which motions our branch will propose to the 2019 UCU Congress.

Please submit all motions by 12pm Tuesday 5 March

Please send motions to ucu@leeds.ac.uk

Any member can write a motion. If you want help in phrasing it, it can be good to talk to a union rep, or to have a look at motions from a previous Congress (PDF).

The general meeting is Wednesday 13 March, 12pm – 1pm, Roger Stevens lecture theatre 11 (10.11). Directions and room information

Leeds UCU newsletter February 2019

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(Printed newsletters should be appearing round campus, or you can download it in PDF form here.)

Use your vote!

We’re balloting again in the dispute over Dispute over casualisation, equal pay, workload and fair pay. It’s vital for our union democracy that you use your vote. Last October Leeds members voted clearly to strike – 70% in favour – on a turnout of 49%. It was the highest national turnout on a pay ballot in UCU’s history. The new anti-trade union law (requiring a 50% turnout) stopped us from striking. We think members should decide, not the government, so we’re re-balloting so that your decision counts.

This ballot is an opportunity to show the employers that we are still strong, which will have ramifications for pensions and current and future local issues, disputes and negotiations. We urge all members to vote Yes to strike and Yes to action short of a strike including a marking boycott. We need to know what the whole membership thinks about taking action, so please vote whatever your view.

We’re asking the employers to work with us nationally to:

  • Tackle the scandal of casualisation (e.g. 65% of Leeds research staff and 36% of teaching only staff are on fixed-term contracts)
  • Recognise and address excessive workloads
  • Take real action on the gender pay gap (22.5% at Leeds)
  • Provide a fair real-terms pay rise (2% doesn’t even cover inflation).

To help us get the turnout needed for our votes to count, please tell UCU when you’ve voted, at https://yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/HEballot (it’s the same link to get a replacement ballot paper).
Useful FAQs at leedsucu.org.uk/pay.

USS Pensions

UUK are currently holding yet another survey of their members, over the recent 2018 valuation that the USS put together in part to seek to address the issues raised by the Joint Expert Panel (JEP) last year. Members will face the first of a number of default contribution increases in April – we hope that an agreement over responses to the valuation can avert any further increases this or next year. The USS executive are reluctant to follow all of the JEP recommendations, and there is further talk of benefit reform which UCU would robustly resist. Keep an eye on leedsucu.org.uk/pensions.

Anti-Casualisation Claim

Our anti-casualisation working group has been looking at what changes members on casualised contracts want to see. We kicked this off with our “Anticas: Ignition!” event which fed into producing our Leeds Anti-Casualisation Claim and which we have now submitted to university management. The claim underlines the need for a joint review of working practices, demands UCU’s right to negotiate for all who provide teaching and research including PGRs on teaching contracts and research fellows, and aims to ensure fractionalisation of hourly paid staff and remove unequal treatment while also providing sufficient resources (people and money) to achieve the agreed objectives. Time-limited negotiations will take place, and meanwhile the issues have been taken up in specific schools. See leedsucu.org.uk/ucu-anti-casualisation-claim-submitted-to-university-of-leeds

UCU is running a UK-wide survey ‘counting the costs of casualisation’. If you’re on an insecure contract, please fill it in and encourage colleagues to – https://t.co/nYVycEVNDk

IT Dispute

Thanks to everyone who has continued to let us know about issues surrounding the IT reorganisation. We remain concerned about the morale of staff in IT and some of the effects of the reorganisation on our members across the university, particularly the removal of local IT support. Thanks, also, for your contributions to our ‘alternative’ Senate IT paper, which sparked a robust discussion at Senate. We have arranged meetings with various senior staff to discuss this further and will continue to push for improvements. Our paper to Senate is at leedsucu.org.uk/ucu-paper-for-senate-on-it

Gender pay claim

Work continues with management to implement effective policies for closing the 22.5% gender pay gap at the University of Leeds. Management responded to our Gender Pay Claim with a commitment to work with the 3 unions through dedicated meetings over the next year. Our claim asked for further data on the extent of the gap and how it affects different groups of staff. In December, a BBC Freedom of Information Act request revealed the Russell Group ethnicity pay gap and how the “gender pay gap is more pronounced for ethnic minority women”. The BBC interviewed colleagues at Leeds and Warwick about their experience: www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/education-46473269. The data from the FOI is damning, and reinforces the urgency of our action to combat the gender pay gap locally at Leeds.
To download the full claim, and for more info, see leedsucu.org.uk/genderpaygap

Vote in upcoming UCU elections

Elections are now running for Vice President and other national positions. The Vice President post is important as this person will go on to be President in 2021-2022. The 3 candidates are Vicky Blake (Leeds!), Jo McNeill (Liverpool) and Adam Ozanne (Manchester). Full details at www.ucu.org.uk/elections. You will receive a ballot paper in the post from the Electoral Reform Society, and voting is by Single Transferable Vote, so you can give a first and second preference. The ballot mailing will include election addresses, but nothing beats hearing the candidates speak and asking them questions! So we have arranged a hustings on Tuesday 12 February 12 noon – 1 pm, in Michael Sadler LG19. Note that the Leeds UCU General Meeting on 10th December passed a motion endorsing and supporting Vicky’s candidacy, see leedsucu.org.uk/members-agree-new-policies-at-general-meeting/#motion5

International Staff Survey

We’re delighted to announce the launch of our anonymous International Staff Survey. It will enable us to have a better understanding of the experience of international staff at Leeds. We hope to gather evidence to inform our local negotiations with the University management and to strengthen the UCU nationally to be more responsive to the concerns of International staff. It takes approximately 10 minutes to answer the survey which you can complete here:
https://yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/leeds

Student Counselling

We’ve had intensive negotiations, both collectively and individually, to move casualised, sessional student counsellors on to permanent, fractional contracts. We’ve worked constructively with management to get the best outcome possible for our members.

Next UCU Meetings

The next Leeds UCU members meeting is our General Meeting on Wednesday 13th March, noon – 1pm
All members welcome, venue and agenda will come by email.

Solidarity with Queen Margaret UCU strikers

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We are all with you in solidarity as you strike today to defend jobs and to defend each other. Stand firm! 

You have much to be proud of! Not only have members at Queen Margaret University refused to take any threat of staff cuts lying down, you have also smashed the anti-trade union act 2016’s threshold barrier with 72% turnout! May your pickets be massive, fun, and enlightening for all around you! 

In contrast, Queen Margaret’s senior management should hang their heads in shame. That management prefer to terrorise staff with the threat of the axe rather than to properly explore alternatives with UCU negotiators is a disgrace.

The proposed cuts would steal livelihoods and intensify workload pressure on staff who remain in post. Your local strike is all our fight. Nobody strikes lightly, so as you stand together for jobs, for education, and for decency and hope: know that we are with you. 

In Solidarity,

Vicky Blake (President) on behalf of us all at Leeds UCU