Pensions – please let us know when you’ve voted

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It would be great if you would let us know when you’ve voted in the pensions industrial action ballot by emailing ucu@leeds.ac.uk with the word ‘voted’ in the subject box. (We’re not asking what you voted.)

This will help us to remind colleagues who may have forgotten to vote, so we can deal with the obstacle of the Tory anti-strike law which says unions have to get a 50% turnout but forbids us from using electronic voting or having ballot boxes in the workplace because these would increase the turnout.

(We will try not to ask you again once you’ve either told us you’ve voted or that you don’t want a reminder.)

If you haven’t received your ballot paper by Monday 4 December, you can request a replacement by going to ucu.org.uk/ussballotrequest

For the latest updates on the pensions dispute see the national UCU website www.ucu.org.uk/uss

 

National action on pensions: inaccuracies in management statement on USS

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Yesterday, our university management posted an update on the USS Pension scheme, under “latest news” which has led to queries from members. The university management’s statement contains a wholly inaccurate claim that the USS pensions dispute is “not a national ballot” and goes on to claim the “University is the subject of a dispute which we have no power to resolve.”

In fact, save for one detail, UCU is following the same process as we always do in a national ballot – which is to serve individual ballot notices to each institution on whose behalf negotiations are being conducted.

The only difference in this ballot is that, as our first national ballot since the unfair, anti-trade union Trade Union Act passed in 2016, every ballot now has to pass a 50 per cent threshold before action can take place. UCU has therefore decided to count each ballot separately in order to maximise the opportunity for branches to take action and minimise the possibility that low turnout in one or two institutions would stop action elsewhere. Every USS branch is being balloted, and this is a national campaign.

Two Leeds UCU officers (Lesley and Vicky) are members of the UCU’s Higher Education Committee. They were both present at the meeting which voted decisively, and with unity, to move to the ballot in this national dispute. We absolutely assure you that the claims made by management to the contrary are erroneous.

Yesterday we wrote to you to suggest you write to the Vice Chancellor (vice-chancellor@leeds.ac.uk) to ask several questions – here they are again:

  • Under the UUK proposals can you tell me what my retirement income will be?
  • Under the UUK proposals will my pension benefits now be significantly worse than those in post-92 universities?
  • Will the University of Leeds please formally request evidence of the modelling that has been provided by Universities UK?
  • Will the VC take action to stand up for staff and for the difficulty we will face in attracting staff to work in a UK university without an adequate pension scheme?

Please note that these questions are important because, contrary to senior management’s assertions in the 29 November update, every University does indeed have power to affect the course of negotiations – we ask that our VC follows the example set by Warwick and Glasgow universities by standing up for our pensions.

Censure and Academic Boycott of University of Leeds

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Leeds UCU is still in dispute with university management over our statutes. Management have refused:

  • to remove ‘some other substantial reason’ for dismissal
  • to reinstate a medically qualified chair for appeal panels for dismissal on health grounds
  • to reinstate an independent chair for other appeal panels

 

Management also intend to move all the pertinent procedures into Ordinances (which can be changed more easily) rather that Statutes, which are subject to government approval.

Consequently we have begun the process of Censure and Academic Boycott of the University of Leeds, as agreed at several Leeds UCU General Meetings and at UCU National Congress 2017. This is a serious step which we hope will encourage management to withdraw their proposed new statutes from Privy Council and reconsider their approach. Censure and Academic Boycott is a UCU procedure which happens in stages. The first stage of this was a letter of censure to the university, which will be sent today, Wednesday 29th November. The University of Leeds will be on a list of employers who are subject to censure as a result of a particularly damaging approach to an industrial relations issue. UCU publicises this list through appropriate media and to other academics.

The university management can respond by meeting UCU again for meaningful negotiations. But if they don’t, we need to move to the boycott stage, where academic and academic-related staff at other universities and institutions are asked not to cooperate with Leeds in various ways. Please read the full UCU policy on Censure and Academic Boycott (PDF, 148k), as agreed at the UCU National Congress 2010.

The boycott will be a gradual process and we will all decide together as a union what should be boycotted and when. The committee will consult members each time we believe it is time to increase the boycott. Below are the sorts of activities we might ask that UCU colleagues from other institutions boycott. The committee will propose starting with those which are straightforward but will have a significant effect on the university. Then, if things don’t improve, it’s envisaged the committee will come back to members and propose increasing the level of the boycott. We want to keep members fully involved throughout, and we’d welcome your views now on what activities to boycott at the initial stage.

  • Applying to become external examiners for taught courses
  • Speaking at seminars or guest lectures
  • Applying for jobs at Leeds
  • Recommending to students considering postgraduate study that they should choose a university that gives proper recognition to academic freedom
  • Peer reviewing Leeds research
  • Speaking at or organising academic or other conferences here
  • Accepting positions as visiting professors or researchers here
  • Writing for any academic journal which is edited at or produced at Leeds
  • Collaborating on new research projects

We would also very much welcome further suggestions from members for activities we could add to this list.

Staff working at Leeds will continue doing their normal academic and academic related activities within our own university – the boycott is for our colleagues elsewhere.

Based on feedback from members we will draw up a plan for stages of the boycott. Remember that university management can at any stage agree to meet UCU again for meaningful negotiations, and thus avoid further escalation of the boycott.

A detailed consultation will follow soon, but in the meantime please email your thoughts to ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

Note that we are also working towards renewing our ballot for further industrial action, and we will be consulting members further about appropriate forms of that industrial action.  General Meetings have suggested a marking boycott and a REF boycott, and we also welcome members’ suggestions on this.

Christmas carolling 5th December

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Leeds UCU will be making our views known about our statutes dispute and about pensions in a very festive way at lunchtime on Tuesday 5th December.  We’ll be singing Christmas carols – with slightly different lyrics – around campus, with a brass accompaniment. The ‘UCU choir’ is great fun, and you don’t need to be a good singer, just come along and enjoy yourself.  Festive costume (e.g. tinsel) entirely optional.

We’ll be assembling at 1pm in room G.03, Baines Wing for a quick practice before going off to sing our hearts out.

We’d love to have suitable lyrics for more Christmas carols – send your suggested wording to ucu@leeds.ac.uk

And how would you complete a Christmas card to management that starts “All I want for Christmas is…”?  Send us your thoughts!

Some festive decorations:

Current ballot mandate expired, preparing for escalation and reballot

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The ballot mandate in the Statutes dispute has expired (new anti-trade-union laws give ballots a 6-month shelf life) and we are now escalating to the next phase in the dispute.

As agreed at the recent all-members general meeting we will be moving forward with the national UCU censure of the University of Leeds, agreed at UCU’s national Congress. This will be followed by taking steps towards a gradual boycott of the institution, and we will be renewing the strike ballot (as required by law). As we build up to this, we will be consulting you on all these issues.

Please check your membership details are up to date by logging into My UCU (you’ll need to register if you haven’t used the new system yet) so we’re ready to go for both a local strike ballot and a national strike ballot over pensions.

So we are not currently working to contract, but we are very much still in dispute. We suggest you amend your email signature to:

Please note: I support UCU in the dispute with management over changes to Statutes, including the introduction of dismissal for “some other substantial reason” (SOSR) and the loss of medical and legal chairs in some procedures. Please sign the petition about this at speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/university-of-leeds-statutes-no-sackers-charter. Latest information from Leeds UCU at leedsucu.org.uk