Censure and Academic Boycott of University of Leeds

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

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

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

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

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

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

EU staff rights and the Brexit negotiation – notes from today’s meeting

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Notes from today’s open meeting on EU staff rights and the Brexit negotiation are available as a powerpoint presentation: Brexit Summary Resources Nov 2017 (download)

Latest advice from the university

The next university EU Immigration Information Session for staff is 11am Wednesday 29 November, Clothworkers Central building, Speakman lecture theatre (G.89). Individual advice can also be booked, see the university link above.

Immigration legal advice from UCU (both general briefing papers and individual legal support is available for UCU members)

Here are some of the documents referred to in the discussion:

The letter to the EU heads of state from The 3 Million (only available as PDF download)

‘Technical note’ from the UK government

European parliament rejects UK response as inadequate and outlines its red lines for EU citizens

UCU policy ‘we are international’

Statutes dispute – new poster

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

We have a new poster for our statutes dispute.  Copies will be available at meetings to take and put up, and you can also

Download a printable PDF here (print it on A3 or A4, in colour).

Previous posters seem to have disappeared from some areas of the university, so we need to replace them.  Please put this poster up in your school or department on any suitable noticeboards, on your office door or window etc.

Members’ meeting 14 November – Academic Censure & Boycott

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

This meeting is a chance for all members to come together to discuss the implementation of the Academic Censure and Boycott procedure, which we voted to invoke in our dispute over changes to Statutes, and which was agreed by UCU Congress last summer. We will outline how the stepped procedure works, various ways it can be adapted to suit our campaign, and what it means for us as members and as academic and academic related staff. Leeds UCU Committee are hosting the meeting and we will be joined by Paul Bridge (UCU’s national Head of Higher Education Bargaining and Campaigns) and Douglas Chalmers (UCU’s national Vice President).

There will be cake!  The venue is in recent emails. See you there.

Update from Leeds UCU President 13th November about SOSR and academic freedom:

When we look around the wider Higher Education sector, it’s worrying to note that moves to introduce “Some Other Substantial Reason” into statutes have started to appear in clusters, almost 30 years after it was explicitly excluded from University Statutes that arose from the Education Reform Act, (1988). It was excluded with a view to maintaining protection of academic freedom. Other universities have rejected the introduction of SOSR into Statutes, as we are calling on our senior management to do. There are also other institutions looking closely at “what is happening at Leeds” – ours is a large and influential university – be in no doubt that the fact our dispute has a nationally significant status in UCU is meaningful.

As a backdrop to this, we’d like to recommend a recent report on academic freedom in the UK, which was produced by Terence Karran and Lucy Mallinson’s: Academic Freedom in the UK: Legal and Normative Protection in a Comparative Context (Report for the University and College Union). It is a long document but the executive summary is only one page long. The report makes clear why it is vital to defend and improve our concept of academic freedom, why it matters to all academic and academic related / professional and managerial staff, and gives examples of personal experiences when it has been threatened.

Action Group meeting 7 November

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

All members are welcome to the next Action Group meeting on Tuesday 7 November from 1-2 pm (see email for venue).  Please come along to work on the next steps in the Statutes campaign, including discussing future action and to help develop the inspiring ‘University of the Aire’ theme which emerged in the ‘Striking Insights’ teach-out.

Open meeting: casualisation and gender pay gap

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Wednesday 8 November, 1pm – 2pm
Baines wing 1.13

As part of our work putting together a claim on the gender pay gap at the University of Leeds and tackling the casualisation of jobs at the University of Leeds we’d like to invite you and any other staff to a meeting on Wednesday to discuss these issues.

Please pass this on to any colleagues who may have an interest in these issues (and who doesn’t have an interest in equal pay and permanent jobs?!).

This meeting is open to non-members as well as members.

Concerned about the gender pay gap? Fixed term? Hourly paid? Agency? Variable or Zero hours? All of the above?
We want to hear about the experiences of staff at Leeds on these kinds of contracts.

Permanent, salaried member of staff?
This meeting is also for you to learn more about issues facing your colleagues & to share ideas.

UCU is committed to equal pay and to fighting the abuses faced by staff on casualised contracts within further and higher education. We hope that all members will support these campaigns and stand with colleagues on casual contracts to put an end to such abuse.

Casualisation + Gender Pay = key issues for UCU
These are issues for all staff.
Be part of the UCU campaign!

Poster for this meeting available to download so you can let more people know: UCU pay gap and anticasualisation meeting

Postgraduate students –membership and support

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Postgraduate students who do some teaching or carry out other paid academic work are entitled to free membership of UCU, for up to 4 years. This confers full employment support from the union, and the right to vote in union elections and industrial action ballots. For more details see
https://www.ucu.org.uk/free-faqs

You can join online or by phone – see https://www.ucu.org.uk/join  (in the online form, choose ‘Standard full membership’ to activate the free membership offer option, and then tick the ‘yes’ box for ‘Eligible for Free Membership’).

There is also a free student membership category available for any student considering an academic career, but this doesn’t give employment support or voting rights. This membership is suitable for students who don’t carry out paid academic work for the university.

We are actively campaigning (in conjunction with Leeds University Union) for improvements to conditions and contracts for postgraduate students who teach and undertake other paid work at this university. If you have concerns regarding PGR pay and working conditions, or if you’d like to get involved with this work, please contact ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

If you can display a poster encouraging postgraduate students to join UCU, you can download a selection from the UCU website or pick them up from the UCU office (email ucu@leeds.ac.uk to arrange to collect some).

We look forward to welcoming more postgraduate students to the Leeds UCU branch. You are the future of universities!

Agenda for general meeting 25 October

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

1. Next steps on Statutes, including discussion of academic censure and boycott.
Including:
1.1. Motion on the continuance of our dispute with the university (link)

2. Motion: adoption of modified UCU model local rules (link)

3. Motion: donation to UCU University of Manchester branch fighting fund

This local association agrees to donate £200 to the UCU University of Manchester who are striking over job cuts.

Proposed by the committee

4. Election of UCU congress representatives
Please submit nominations to the branch administrator by 24 hours before the start of the meeting.

5. Motions to (1) the Higher Education Special Sector Conference to determine national UCU industrial strategy and (2) the decision-making conference of pre-92 branches to determine a response to proposals in respect to USS.
These conferences have been convened by UCU at short notice so we won’t be able to give the usual deadlines for submitting and circulating motions. Please submit motions by 24 hours before the general meeting so that we can print copies; you can submit motions up to the start of the general meeting but you will need to bring sufficient copies for members at the meeting. Two motions have already been submitted by the committee for discussion at the general meeting these are:

5.1. Motions to the Higher Education Special Sector Conference to determine national UCU industrial strategy
5.1.1. Motion: Campaigning alongside other disputes and campaigns (link)

5.2. Motions to the decision-making conference of pre-92 branches to determine a response to proposals in respect to USS.
5.2.1. Motion: Challenging the terms of debate (link)