A UCU conversation with the vice chancellor

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Full transcript

Vice Chancellor Simone Buitendijk: We’re going into 10 days of strike action and yeah I must say I’m a bit sad about it.

Leeds UCU: Of course, nobody is happy to have to participate in industrial action. Colleagues much prefer to be teaching, supporting and advising students. But when employers will not enter into meaningful negotiations with employee representatives on issues that have needed addressing for years, and when negotiating opportunity after opportunity is thrown away by employers, staff are left with industrial action as their only option.

VC: That an important minority of our committed staff have decided to take such dramatic action

UCU: The law requires that over 50% of trade union members must vote for any result to mandate industrial action. This is a greater test than required, for example, electing a police commissioner (typically, a 35% turnout). At Leeds, 75.2% of voting members supported strike action, and 85.5% supported ‘action short of a strike’.

VC: I’m sad because students have already endured so much disruption and this is going to impact on their learning their education their experience

UCU: Many students have been impacted by Covid, and UCU constituency staff were often their first port of call for support and assistance. The University has been keen to communicate that their education was not disrupted during this period. This was again down to the resilience and dedication of those colleagues, working in difficult circumstances, adapting to new modes of delivery, often putting their work ahead of their families to keep classes running.

VC: And I don’t think industrial action and strike action is the solution to the problems that clearly need fixing. The University of Leeds is part of UUK and there’s not much that I can do by myself because that is a national dispute

UCU: Our VC sits at the tables of both the UUK and the Russell Group. She represents Leeds there, an institution with one of the highest number of USS members in the UK. At those tables, it is reasonable to believe that she contributes meaningfully to decisions about negotiations, communications and decisions. This is not powerlessness, it is responsibility.

However, if we take what is said here at face value, it seems to indicate that UUK members have no power over the UUK, that it is out of control, and does not listen to its members, not even those such as Leeds with the highest density of USS members.

VC: And I try to play as strong a role as possible together with my other colleagues on the leadership team because I think we all want a pension scheme that keeps its value that’s sustainable and I think the proposal that’s on the table now the UUK proposal is the best for the moment.

UCU: The UUK proposal requires the youngest members of staff (mostly) to pay off a debt that no longer exists. They have to pay that with their future income in retirement, seeing a third or more lopped off its value. The younger a member is in the scheme, the more money they will lose. This impacts on women worse than men, due to the 18.5% gender pay gap that has been acknowledged at Leeds. With such unfairness baked in, the UUK proposal is a long way from the best available.

The UCU offered a compromise proposal on 26 January, as a means for us all to avoid the strike. The VC did not acknowledge that proposal until the afternoon of 11 February, less than a working day before the strike was to begin.

Does the VC want to negotiate, as she claims, or does she want to keep supporting the UUK intergenerational unfairness at the UUK table?

VC: So at the University of Leeds we realise that we need to change the way we deal with contracts with employment that there’s a lot that needs changing so we’ve developed a campaign that we call Fairer Future For All and one of the focal points is having far fewer short-term contracts so we’re going to be working towards more open-ended contracts and we’ve already started.

UCU: UCU put in a formal claim to challenge the University’s use of casualised contracts three years ago. The University still refuses to negotiate on it.

Productive work on contracts with the unions that was ongoing has ground to a halt since the Fairer Future for All campaign was launched. If further work is ongoing, the recognised trade unions have not been informed, let alone involved. In the meantime, staff on fixed term contracts are still losing their jobs, sometimes after many years of service, and Postgraduate Research Students who teach have no contracts and still get no paid sick leave.

VC: We will be looking at workload and workload models to make sure we can keep the workload under control.

UCU: Joint work is ongoing to produce some high level principles to govern workload management. Whether this will be complete by the end of March, as the Vice Chancellor states in her email, depends on whether it can be agreed. Whatever other work is ongoing is being done without consulting, or involving, the recognised trade unions.

In the meantime, staff are worked to breaking point and more is asked of us every year. When the University was hit by a double whammy of ongoing COVID-19 issues and massive over-recruitment in some areas, senior managers denied that there was a crisis and refused to take any meaningful steps to reduce staff workload in the immediate term.

VC: So a lot of what the unions are after is something that’s very much on my radar.

UCU: And what about the national picture? The University states that one of our values is collaboration – why can our senior management not collaborate with the management teams of other university to commit to UK-wide agreements to improve our whole sector, not just Leeds?

VC: I would like to say both to staff and maybe even more so to students who are apprehensive who are worried about the disruption that we do have quite a bit of experience, maybe I should say unfortunately, but we do, with past rounds of industrial action so we’re on top of this and we’ll do our utmost to ensure that students have the education that’s as uninterrupted as possible we’re going to work really closely with heads of school so they’re going to make sure that they monitor where teaching doesn’t take place they’re going to ensure that it gets picked up again after strike action is over.

UCU: We very much hope that this is not a threat to follow other Universities and deduct pay for action short of a strike (in addition to the pay docked for striking). For Leeds University to engage in this bullying behaviour would be divisive and confrontational, and would harm our cohesion, possibly irreparably.

VC: They’ll mitigate, they’ll work with the teachers and the staff in their schools to come up with solutions that are bespoke from different student cohorts. We have an incredibly resilient community, we’ve done an amazing job getting us through the pandemic, really keeping the show on the road. I think our community is stronger than it’s ever been, so I know we’ll pull through this and we’ll do it together.

UCU: We certainly hope so. We will pull through this when our senior management take responsibility for negotiating seriously to protect our pensions and pay and to create concrete improvements in our working conditions. They need to listen and act on the concerns raised by staff through their trade unions. Staff have done an amazing job, at considerable expense to ourselves, and we deserve better.

No mention of equalities issues in this video? The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1970 and came into force in 1975. It was superseded by the Equality Act 2010.

In 2022, women are paid 18.5% less than men at the University of Leeds. That means women earn 86p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly pay.

Additionally, there is a national race pay gap of 17.1% and a disability pay gap of 9%. Leeds have not published their local figures. We have been asking for years for this to be addressed, and promises of a fairer future keep deferring the issue instead of actively addressing it in the present.

Still on equalities. Last year, for the first time in its history, the University dismissed a member of staff for not having enough research outputs. This British Asian member of staff demonstrably had the same or more research outputs than some of their white colleagues at their grade and even above.

Industrial action only happens after months and years of discussions and negotiation breaking down. It is always only a last resort.

Together we are stronger.

#OneOfUsAllOfUs

Join UCU online at https://www.ucu.org.uk/join

UCU University of Leeds Branch

This page was last updated on 18 February 2022

Policy decision: motion for sustained and sustainable industrial action

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

This motion was agreed by the branch at an extra-ordinary general meeting 14 January 2022

This branch notes that:

  • Our branch has a strong mandate for industrial action relating to the USS dispute and the ‘Four Fights’
  • we had an excellent response from members to the strike action prior to the Christmas holiday.
  • other UCU branches who have been in local dispute have been taking sustained strike action
  • we have, as yet, little information from HQ as to the next stage of the industrial dispute

This branch believes that:

  • it is only through sustained strike action that the employers will be forced to concede to UCU’s demands.
  • we need to ensure maximum involvement of our members in visible activity during the strike period, both in person and online
  • this involves making the sustained action sustainable, and be realistic about members’ in-person participation at a time of online working and the pandemic , hence diversifying our forms of action during a long strike
  • escalation including marking boycott should be considered if the employer does not come back to the negotiating table

This branch resolves that:

  • we prepare for the possibility of sustained strike action (2-4 weeks) followed by action short of strike
  • we hold regular organising meetings to review tactics around timing and mixing of picketing, rallies and teach outs.
  • we share educational material from the UCU Strike Schools including how to engage with the public and co-workers during pickets

Proposed by G. Alberti, J. Holgate, D. Kascelan, moved by Gabriella Alberti, seconded by Alan Roe, the motion was amended during the debate to the text above, the motion was carried as amended.

This page was last updated on 31 March 2022

Extraordinary general meeting 14 January 1pm

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

You will have seen in an email from UCU general secretary Jo Grady this week that further decisions as to the progression and escalation of our industrial action will be taken in a meeting of UCU’s higher education committee (HEC) in the week beginning 17 January, and that there will be a branch delegate meeting on 18 January for branches to feed in views and positions. As a result, I am calling an extraordinary general meeting for 1pm on Friday 14 January, for the purpose of discussing our feedback and views on the progression of our industrial action. 

If you wish to propose a motion to that meeting please send it to ucu@leeds.ac.uk by 12 noon on Thursday 6 January – that will ensure that we can circulate any motions to members in good time to allow for people to propose amendments. As before, I will only accept late motions if they relate to developments subsequent to the motion deadline (for example, proposals made by HQ after that date for consideration by branches). Link to follow.

This post is based on an email to members from branch president Chloe Wallace on 10 December 2021

This page was last updated on 5 January 2022

Slides for students about the industrial action

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

If you teach you may want to use these these slides to give students a quick overview of about UCU, the dispute and the industrial action.

PowerPoint format

Text only format

Text only format

A quick guide to UCU 4 fights & pensions
for students
Leeds UCU edition

Significant pay gaps

17.1% racial pay gap

15.1% gender pay gap, In 2020, Leeds reported a gender pay gap of 18.5%

9% disability pay gap

Casualisation is rife in unis

68% of research staff are on casualised contracts

3, 545 academic staff are on Zero hour contracts

We are at a breaking point

4 in 5 staff surveyed are struggling with workload

86% of staff surveyed have been directed towards mental health support because of workload

Below inflation pay rise

£8.70 the hourly rate of the lowest paid teacher in HE

17.6% fall in salaries against inflation since 2009

www.leedsucu.org.uk @leedsucu (twitter, facebook, tiktok).

What do we want?

This is a national dispute with very real local consequences. #OneOfUsAllOfUs

Equality. National agreed action to close the racial, gender and disability pay gaps.

Job security. Staff on hourly paid contracts moved to fractional contracts

Framework to eliminate precarious employment

Manageable workload. 35 hrs to be the standard weekly employment contract for all HE staff

National action to address workload

Fair Pay. £10 minimum per-hour wage for all contract types £2,500 pay uplift for all pay points

USS Pensions

The less you are paid the less goes into your pension

UUK voted to cut ££££ from our retirement benefits

representing an annual guaranteed pension cut of 35% for a typical member

What can students do?

Our working conditions are your learning conditions.

Join our teach outs on strike days!

Make your voices heard.

Ask senior management to engage in meaningful negotiations with UCU.

Let striking staff know you support them!

Organise a fundraiser for our strike fund. We don’t get paid while on strike.

Follow us on social media @leedsucu (twitter, facebook, tiktok). Show your support by using

OneOfUsAllOfUs #UCUstrikes

Strike days

February 14, 15, 16, 17 &18

February 21 & 22

February 28, March 1 & 2

Join us!

On the picket line, in our rallies and teachouts

save staff pensions

staff working conditions are our learning conditions

students support the strikes

fair pay for staff

This page was last updated on 9 February 2022

Industrial action: December strike days announced

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Following members’ vote for industrial action, three strike days have been called for December 2021:

  • Wednesday 1 December
  • Thursday 2 December
  • Friday 3 December

More on the UCU national website at https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11872/Universities-to-be-hit-with-three-days-of-strikes-in-December

More details to follow.

Strike rally on Parkinson steps with Leeds Student Staff Solidarity banner

This page was last updated on 16 November 2021

Ballots || USS, Four Fights and Casualisation

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

An overview of how issues and experiences of casualisation resonate with the issues we are balloting over from joint branch casualisation officers Joanne Armitage and Xanthe Whittaker. If you are a casualised member and would like to talk about striking whilst casualised, please contact Joanne or Xanthe.

Four Fights 

The Four Fights dispute encompasses concerns around pay, equality, workload and casualisation. It demands the fair treatment of staff across the sector and these issues all intersect. Casualisation is right at the centre of this dispute. Insecure employment exacerbates issues of equality and fair pay. Fixed-term and hourly-paid contracts are often used to fill up leaky parts of workloads leading to fragmented teaching. Casualised staff get paid less and promotions are more difficult.

Around 50% of teaching-only staff are precariously employed and 68% of researchers. UCU notes that these figures are not improving and there are currently 75,000 members of staff employed on casualised contracts in HE.

Those of us who are precariously employed are well aware of how casualisation feels; it affects our lives and sense of self. But the culture of casualisation erodes rights, protections and security for all staff. Casualisation can make it feel really difficult to complain! Demand better workloads! More pay!

****Vote YES! for secure work****

USS Pension Dispute

What do casualised workers stand to lose? 

* Staff on casual contracts and early career academics will be the most affected by proposed changes to USS; will have a greater proportion of our pension across our career subject to these worse conditions.

* Employee contribution increases will make the scheme even less affordable for more staff on insecure contracts and low pay. Already many casualised staff choose to opt out of the USS scheme

What about intergenerational fairness?

* High rates of opt-out among casualised workers already reflects an unfairness to those on insecure contracts, who face further insecurity in retirement if they have no access to a pension. For some, retirement may be pushed out of reach. Staff who opt out are already losing that part of their income which is made up of the employer contribution to pensions.

* How is the issue of intergenerational fairness resolved by offering early career staff a worse pension scheme? We need a healthy scheme—which USS demonstrably is—that continues to provide defined benefits to all generations, and a stop to the employee contribution hikes which are pricing people out of USS.

* Finally , addressing job insecurity would mean far less reluctance among people to join a scheme when their future in the sector is so uncertain.

Central to UCUs negotiating position on USS is ensuring that USS is accessible and affordable to casualised and low income workers with a plan that would manage the scheme and protect defined benefit pensions even for new entrants.

****Vote YES! for a fair and affordable pension scheme****

In solidarity,

Joanne and Xanthe

Email sent to branch members 27 October 2021 by joint branch anti-casualisation officers Joanne Armitage and Xanthe Whittaker

This page was last updated on 30 October 2021

Dispute meeting 22 October

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

– a chance to ask national negotiators

Want to know the latest on our two disputes (Four Fights and USS)? Want to ask the UCU negotiators something? Not sure what we want to achieve by taking action?

Come along to our members meeting on Friday 22 October, 1-2 pm (Zoom link in an email from Chloe).  Send your questions in advance, get involved!

Friday’s meeting is for discussion (no motions will be submitted or debated). Robyn Orfitelli from Sheffield (UCU ‘pay and related matters’ negotiator), Deepa Govindarajan Driver from Reading (UCU pensions negotiator) and Vicky Blake (UCU President), will be joining us to give us a brief update and answer your questions.  Please submit questions in advance if you can, using the form in Chloe’s email, which will help the presenters. You can of course raise questions from the floor as well. As this is a disputes meeting it will not be recorded so if you want to ask a question please attend the meeting – and please encourage others to do so as well.

There will also probably be a local meeting in your school or service – look out for a message from your departmental rep – and they will greatly appreciate your help in talking to colleagues and encouraging everyone to vote. It is crucial that everyone plays their part in union democracy by voting in the ballots.

Ballot papers should have arrived by Thursday 21st October, to the address you have on myUCU which for most people will hopefully be your home address. (Remember, trade union law says balloting must be done by post rather than electronically). If you do not receive your ballot paper, there will be a form on the UCU website from Friday 22nd October to order a new ballot paper to be sent.   FAQs about the ballot are at https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11810/GTVO-HE-ballots-2021

This is a short ballot period – the closing date is 4th November at noon, but realistically you should plan to get your ballot in the post by 1st November to ensure it arrives in time. A first class reply envelope is provided.  So get those ballots in the post asap, and encourage your colleagues to vote too. We hope to have the result by Monday 8th November. The branch will hold an Emergency General Meeting at1pm on Tuesday 9th November to discuss the outcome of the ballot and consider next steps. We understand that we will have the opportunity as a branch to feed into national decisions about, for example, the nature and extent of industrial action, and this meeting is how we will decide what our position is – so please put the date in your calendar now (link will follow nearer the time) and come and make your voice heard.

Further information:

Vote now! Vote #YesYesYesYes!

You can download some ballot graphics (including the infographic below) here: www.leedsucu.org.uk/ballots-graphics-to-download

This page was last updated on 22 October 2021

UCU Update

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Email from Leeds UCU Branch President to members 11th October 2021

I hope that this (somewhat exhausting) term is treating you well. In this email I wanted to briefly give you an account of what union officers have been doing on your behalf in relation to some of the issues on which we are currently campaigning.

  1. Anti-casualisation campaign. In January 2022  it will be three years since we put in our local anti-casualisation claim to the university – you can find the text of the claim here. Since that time, we have taken strike action in support of our national claim. We have heard occasional warm words from management, but across the university staff on fixed term contracts have continued to be made redundant, or made to apply for what are effectively their own jobs. Worryingly, over the summer, a new form of contract, known as an ongoing annualised contract, was introduced (without trade union consultation) which manages to make already precarious employees even more precarious, by requiring them to commit to an ongoing contract with a tiny number of guaranteed of hours, no clear progression or and, it seems, no access to the redeployment register. Officers have spent many hours in discussion with HR, leading to a situation where a major project on ‘contract types’ has been defined which is likely to take many months. Management have explicitly refused to commit to using this process to reduce the use of precarious contracts within our University. Caseworkers have supported staff in seeking permanent or extended contracts, an often distressing process exacerbated by the stress which job insecurity creates: casualisation, we are regularly reminded, is a health and safety issue. Whatever words we might hear from management, as we approach a ballot on a dispute in which our national anti-casualisation will take centre stage, we need action now to support staff currently casualised, as well as strategic planning for the future and and we are not seeing it.
  2. Workload. Reps and members are reporting unprecedented levels of workload and associated stress and ill health. Again, we have taken national strike action on this matter and thought it could not get worse – but it did. What was required of us all during the pandemic was excessive and in many cases unreasonable. And yet there was more to come. Chronic failure properly to staff services such as IT and the Student Education Service, which campus trades unions have been protesting for years, is harming staff in those services and having a knock on effect elsewhere, particularly in areas impacted by massive over recruitment of undergraduates. The causes of that over recruitment were  not within the control of the University: the fact that the Schools and Services on the frontline of this crisis are already exhausted, have been unable to take sufficient annual leave and are in many cases understaffed, could have been avoided. Also within the control of management is the introduction of new systems and process, and requirement to engage in major strategic developments on top of already excessive workloads. Our management have failed to take responsibility for the health and wellbeing of their staff, and we need to see urgent action now. We are currently seeking discussions with management on this matter.
  3. Response to the COVID-19 situation. As most of us are now aware, the change of policy on face coverings was introduced too late, poorly communicated and compliance is too low. We were promised a series of FAQs for staff around how to approach and enforce this policy, which, by the end of week 2, has still not materialised. Many universities in England are doing better that this to protect their staff and students – government guidance is clearly not the barrier. I note again that the people suffering most from this are those who have, or live with people who have, clinical vulnerabilities, who are telling us that they feel now they have to choose between protecting themselves from COVID-19 and the benefits of some renewed in-person contact with colleagues and students, which is making a huge difference for some of us in mental health terms. This is not what an inclusive University looks like. 

All of these issues are causing stress and distress right now to staff across the University. The answer to this should not be individualised: it is a sign of a broken institution and a broken sector, and the answer is to fix what is broken. I do want to acknowledge the incredibly important work done to support staff by colleagues in Staff Counselling and Occupational Health. Both services accept self referrals and are available if you just want a one-off informal conversation, as well as more sustained support, so please do make use of them if you need to.

Many thanks to all those who attended our General Meeting on Thursday 7th October – we set some important policy as well as changing some of our rules. You will see from those motions particular concerns about wholesale and anti-democratic changes to our University governance structures, and serious concern about the University’s willingness to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to the Climate Crisis. We will be in touch with you with more details and information about what you can do to fight back.

One thing that you can do, of course, is to prepare yourself to vote in the industrial action ballots, due to start on 18th October. I emailed you with more information about this on 23rd September. We will be holding some non-motion focused members meetings to discuss and answer your questions, including one for migrant members, and one for fixed term and hourly paid staff. Please watch out for more information on this. If you haven’t already, ensure that your address and phone number are up to date on MyUCU, prepare yourself to vote – and to let us know when you have voted, so that the branch can do everything we can to get the 50% turnout required by anti-union legislation and show management that we mean business.

In solidarity

Chloe
Dr Chloe Wallace
President, Leeds University UCU
Associate Professor in Law
School of Law
University of Leeds
Co-Director, Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education
Programme Leader, School of Law 4 year programmes
@chloew1970

This page was last updated on 11 October 2021

Minutes of extraordinary general meeting 20 August 2021

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Extraordinary General Meeting
1pm – 2pm, Friday 20 August 2021
Video meeting on Zoom

Minutes

Noted that chat will not be open during meeting, except that members can use the chat to message the meeting hosts if they prefer to use text when called to speak, or to ask questions.

Update on disputes

Chloe Wallace, branch president: 
On USS, the employers (Universities UK – UUK) have proposed a package to deal with the purported deficit, which will cut benefits especially for early career staff. Talks are ongoing but our UCU negotiators are seeking industrial power to support them in order to get somewhere with the negotiations.
On Four Fights, the pay offer for 2020-21 was zero, for 2021-22 it’s 1.5%, and very limited offers on casualisation, workloads and equality. This is unacceptable especially given how hard we’ve all been working during the pandemic. One of the achievements of the last industrial action was serious negotiations on the three non-pay issues, which are structural and sector-wide not local. The employers (UCEA) now seem to be backing off from negotiating on these, now just offering ‘working groups’. Negotiations are ongoing but our negotiators need industrial power behind them to get anywhere.
On both disputes, we are being asked as a union to decide how much leverage we will give our negotiators.  UCU Congress in 2021 made some general decisions – a continued commitment to all of the four fights and to keeping them together, agreement to reject the 1.5% pay offer and to enter into dispute. It also discussed campaigns and strategy. On USS, if negotiations aren’t successful and employers won’t budge, Congress agreed to move to ballot also. There are also legal actions on USS in the pipeline.
HE Sector Conference on 9th September will now decide what next, and this meeting is to feed in from Leeds to that conference.

Mark Taylor Batty, branch pensions rep:
UCU negotiators have been working on USS for months and our arguments have all been rejected. The Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) have to respond to the valuation – by agreeing changes to benefits and contributions. UUK are wanting to push through their proposals which include a two-tier scheme and reductions in benefits. UCU can put a counter proposal, but are still discussing what counter proposal to put – either a ‘no deficit’ proposal whereby employers meet the whole of the contributions increase, or a proposal which is more of a compromise. Any UCU counter proposal would probably be rejected as the chair always sides with UUK.
USS have rejected the idea of doing a 2021 valuation although their arguments against it have been disproved.  There are also legal challenges but legal action is not a solution on its own.
Members will know that we are due to see an 11% rise in our contributions in October, which is a result of the 2018 valuation.
Industrial action is the only way to get employers to back down. It’s an unhappy situation but we can’t let these changes go through.  It’s not a question of whether we strike but when.

Vicky Blake, UCU president
We need to decide as a union whether and how to link the two disputes, which is why the forthcoming sector conference is so important. This meeting will advise our delegate to the sector conference, who will set policy on this, which the Higher Education committee will then implement by taking the statutory decisions about balloting and industrial action.
The most important thing is that, whatever the debates and disagreement we have within the union, that once decisions are democratically taken that we all stick by them and stick together to do whatever is decided.
The employer bodies wont move without us taking a stand.  Since Covid they think they can get away with anything, and we need to hold them to account. They need to be clear about how serious we are about improving things for all of our members, and to be worried about what we will do. They need to be motivated to work with us. We must be solid in pursuing this. 

Questions:

1) We’ll need funds to support members if we take strike action. What’s the situation with our local fighting fund and the national strike fund?

A: Our local fund is very healthy.  We were able to pay all the claims that members put in during 2018-2020 and the fund still has £25k, thanks to generous donations.

A: Nationally the strike fund is good but has a lot of demands on it – there are local disputes over redundancies and H&S issues, and a big dispute coming soon in Further Education.  So it’s important to keep raising money for it.  Look out for more fundraisers coming soon, and if you can personally donate that would be great.  Note also that part of the strike fund comes from member subs, so the more members we have the more that fund grows.

2) What is our membership density?

A: It varies across the university – very strong in some areas and less so in others.  Our membership grew considerably during the 2019-20 dispute and continued to grow a little during Covid.
Our power depends on how many members we have and how many are willing to take action. So it’s important to keep recruiting as many members as possible. Please ask your colleagues to join!

3) What is the position of our VC on USS, has it changed after the Big Conversation?

A: No change. She supports UUK line.  We know however that she is very concerned about the possibility of industrial action.

Comments:

Megan Povey:  We are dealing with intransigence of our employers and USS. The choice of valuation date was designed to undermine the value of the pension scheme, so as to get away from Defined Benefit and get the pensions risk off university accounts, which supports marketisation and privatisation.  Our VC has said that DB is unaffordable. Fighting for pensions is fighting for our sector. 

Gabriella Alberti: The state of our sector is worrying – lots of disputes, redundancies, non-continuation of FTCs and casualisation getting worse.  But maybe we have more leverage and bargaining power now?  From things like students being bribed to defer, sector becoming less appealing to join.

Branch motion – Progressing the Four Fights and USS disputes

This branch notes that:

  1. UCU paused the USS and ‘Four Fights’ disputes during the pandemic.
  2. UCEA imposed a 0% pay rise last year and their ‘final offer’ of 1.5% this year is below inflation.
  3. despite progress during 2020 negotiations, UCEA are now not making any substantial offers on casualisation, workload and equality.
  4. UUK have not joined UCU to pressure USS and the Pensions Regulator to cancel the 2020 valuation and use a moderately prudent approach in 2021.
  5. Pension contributions will rise in October to 11% of salary.
  6. UUK’s proposals on USS are likely to mean lower pension benefits, a two-tier scheme which disadvantages early career members, and further contribution increases

This branch believes that:

  1. The four fights and pensions issues are inextricably linked. Low pay, pay inequality and job insecurity all lead to poorer pensions and a worse retirement. Casualised and low paid members may not be able to afford to join the USS pension scheme at all.
  2. It is in all our interests to make sure that everyone has fair pay, good working conditions (including a reasonable workload), job security, and a decent future pension.
  3. Employers would seek to divide us, pitting those with relative job security who are worried about their pensions against those whose main concerns are low pay, equality and casualisation. So solidarity across roles and job types is vital – we must stand together rather than only caring about what affects us personally.
  4. This solidarity was strong during the action in 2019-2020 and we must reinvigorate it now.

This branch resolves to:

  1. Make clear to UCU centrally that we believe co-ordinating the disputes is essential.
  2. Campaign locally on the four fights and pensions campaigns together.
  3. Hold local UCU meetings across the university during the start of the autumn term to discuss the disputes and plan the campaign.
  4. Work with student groups to seek their support, particularly to pressure management to use Leeds’ influence within the employer bodies to make substantial progress in both disputes.
  5. Work closely with our sister campus trade unions on campaigning.
  6. Prepare for industrial action balloting by developing a strong local ‘Get The Vote Out’ strategy.

Proposed by Ben Plumpton. Seconded by Simon Hewitt.

Comments

Joe Kanuritch: Putting the two disputes together is important. On the picket line, talking to colleagues who aren’t members or public, it was good to have different issues to explain, most would support some of the 5 things. Would be a shame to take separate action.

Lata Narayanaswamy: Support the motion. Struck by how much money the university seems to have on getting students to defer. Staff are consistently not a priority.

[48 people in meeting so quorate.
Votes for 42, Votes against 0, Abstentions 3]

The motion was carried.

Motion to be submitted to Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) – Combining Four Fights and USS disputes

HESC believes that:

  1. The four fights and USS issues are inextricably linked. Low pay, pay inequality and job insecurity mean poorer pensions and a worse retirement, and some members cannot afford pension contributions.
  2. Solidarity between different groups of members (casualised/permanent, different pay grades, equality groups, academic/related, pre- and post-92 branches) was hugely important during the 2019-2020 industrial action.
  3. Continued solidarity will be vital to winning the disputes and for building the union.
  4. It is therefore crucial not to separate the disputes or give priority to either.

HESC resolves to:

  1. Coordinate the four fights and USS campaigns, highlighting the links.
  2. Give parity to both disputes in strategic planning, balloting and publicity, ensuring that all affected branches have a voice in developing the dispute strategy.
  3. Ballot and take action on both disputes concurrently.
  4. Coordinate action with sister unions, if possible, to improve effectiveness.

(149 words)

Proposed by Ben Plumpton, seconded by Aisha Walker.

Questions

1) Some people at the university are in the TPS pension scheme because of legacy from being employed somewhere else – can they participate in the USS dispute?

A: Yes all full members in participating branches can participate in industrial action ballots and action. (Note that this doesn’t include retired members, student members, unemployed members or members likely to be on long term maternity, parental or sick leave during the period of any action. Postgraduate student members on the full free membership are entitled to vote)

[48 people in meeting so quorate.
Votes for 43, Votes against 0, Abstentions 3]

The motion was carried.

President’s closing comments

Chloe Wallace will submit the motion for the Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) on 9th September.

Committee will endeavour to find a way for members to discuss and comment on the agenda for HESC once that is published.

This page was last updated on 11 January 2022

USS and Four Fights disputes (and a bit on facecoverings)

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

UCU is balloting over strike action on USS pensions and on pay, casualisation, workloads and equality (‘four fights’). Branch president Chloe Wallace is asking members to check your account details ready for a postal ballot at home, and to prepare to vote. Chloe’s email to members, copied below, also mentions initial responses the university’s improved guidance on face coverings.

Dear members 

I hope everyone is staying safe and well. This is an email primarily about the announcement received a couple of days ago about national ballots on the Four Fights and Pensions. I want to try briefly to pre-empt some of your questions and say something about what we will be doing here at Leeds. I will, however, add a paragraph at the end about the University position on face coverings as I have had a number of emails on that. That will make this a long email – I’d be grateful, however, if you could take the time to read it as it may help clarify what is going on. 

The Union nationally has now established trade disputes with all relevant HE employers in the UK, including, of course, the University of Leeds. This is following decisions taken at a Special Higher Education Sector Conference, attended by branch delegates from across the country.  You can find a copy of the letter sent to Universities on USS here  and on the Four Fights here  

I strongly recommend having a look at those letters, because they set out in clear terms what UCU’s demands are. I know that understanding the specificity of what we are seeking is important to you and that, perhaps particularly in relation to the pensions dispute, this can seem unclear. However, it is clearly spelt out in these letters what the employers need to do to resolve these disputes and avoid the massive disruption of industrial action. If you would like more detail on the claims in the Four Fights dispute, on workload, casualization, equality and pay, you can find that it in the formal claim document here

Our next step is to ballot for industrial action. The ballot will open on 18th October and run for just over 2 weeks. Under the 2016 Trade Union Act – a piece of Tory legislation explicitly designed to weaken trade unions by limiting our industrial power – a number of legal restrictions exist on this ballot. It must be conducted by post, not online; to be valid, 50% or more of eligible members must vote; and 50% of those voting must vote Yes to proposed action. You will be asked to vote separately on each dispute (USS, and Four Fights) and to vote on willingness to strike and to take action short of a strike. The ballot paper will need to state the range of actions short of a strike which may be proposed (e.g. marking boycott, work to contract, refusal to do voluntary work) but will not specify precisely which ones will be used and when, and will not specify strike days or how many days of action will initially be called. The decision as to when and for how long we strike and what action short of a strike we take will be taken after the ballot results are known by the Unions national Higher Education Committee. Once the ballot closes, 2 weeks notice of industrial action needs to be given to employers – this means that the earliest we can take action is the latter half of November. The ballot mandate remains in place for 6 months. 

These rules are tough, but UCU has defied them time and time again, both for national and local disputes. Many branches have achieved a successful ballot outcome over the last 18 months, so remote or hybrid working is not an obstacle – it just means we have to do things a bit differently. Leeds University is one of the strongest, most engaged and active branches in the country and I have no doubt we can do it. But every vote counts- there are numerous examples of branches missing the turnout threshold by single figures of votes. So I am asking all members to take the following actions now: 

1. Check your details on MyUCU and in particular ensure your postal address is right. We have been recommending for a while that you make sure your recorded postal address is your home address and we believe most of you have done this but double check anyway, particularly if you have recently moved home.

2. Commit to voting now. We are a democratic trade union and industrial action ballots are a key expression of that. Not voting prevents the union from acting and effectively silences the voices of those who do vote. A strong turnout helps us both nationally and locally – officers and negotiators need your power behind us. 

3. Inform yourself to decide how to vote. There will be a lot of emails, both nationally and locally, and I know all too well how hard that is to manage, but informed choice is at the heart of democracy. There will be national events going on. At Leeds we will be holding non-motion focused meetings on the different issues in the dispute for you to hear what the issues are, ask questions, and learn how industrial action will help us win. There will also be local meetings called by local reps, to allow you to meet other members in your area and build solidarity.  

Above all, please prepare to fight. No-one wants this, and it remains open to our employers across the UK to take the very simple steps needed to stop this from happening.  But if they won’t, we need to fight to win, to protect our working conditions, pay and pensions, to stamp out casualization and inequality, and to save our sector, and the health and wellbeing of all within it. Vote, and vote yes.  

 Face coverings 

As promised, due to the number of emails I have had about the new university position on face coverings, a few responses. What I am hearing is that it is better but not good enough and I agree. A number of people have asked about the wording that “No-one will be denied access to a teaching event for not wearing a face covering” This reflects what is stated in the latest government guidance for England, which is frankly incoherent. However, a number of universities have gone further and mandated facecoverings, including in teaching spaces, and we do not see why Leeds cannot do the same. If you are wondering what is happening around the country, a member at Sussex UCU, Andrew Chitty, is keeping a running account here   We are awaiting further clarity in the form of FAQs about, for example, what to do if a student refuses. And we note that all of this change is  happening far too late.  We will be discussing next steps at our General Meeting on 7th October – please come along and make your voice heard.  

In solidarity

Dr Chloe Wallace

Associate Professor in Law
School of Law
University of Leeds

Co-Director, Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education
Programme Leader, School of Law 4 year programmes

President, Leeds University UCU

@chloew1970

This page was last updated on 24 September 2021