Extraordinary General Meeting Friday 20 August – ‘Four Fights’ & USS

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

This is advance notice of an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the branch to consider a single issue – our disputes over Four Fights (“pay and related matters” i.e. pay, casualisation, workload and equality) and USS pensions – and in particular, to discuss any motions which the branch might want to send to the next UCU Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) on Thursday 9 September.  Apologies that holding an EGM in August is not great timing when many people might be taking annual leave, but it had to be held in August to meet deadlines set by UCU centrally for receipt of motions to HESC.

Our EGM will be held on Friday 20th August from 1-2 pm, online using Zoom. The meeting link will be circulated nearer the time. The EGM was called, to discuss this one issue, by request of your branch committee at its meeting today, Tuesday 20th July. The deadline for motions to the EGM is 10 am on Friday 30th July. (Motions on other issues can be submitted to the first normal General Meeting of the next academic year, once the date for that is notified to members).

The previous Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) on 2 June resolved to reject UCEA’s 2021-22 offer (on pay and related matters) and to formally enter into dispute. It also agreed to ballot for industrial action over the Four Fights, and to ballot for industrial action over USS if “the employers have not joined UCU to pressure USS and the pension regulator to cancel the 2020 valuation and use an evidence-based moderately prudent approach in 2021”. This next conference on 9 September will decide on how we approach balloting, when we ballot, and whether to link the two disputes. If you would like to submit a motion on this topic, but are unsure how best to word it to go forward to a UCU UK wide conference, get in touch with the branch via ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

I’m sure you remember, just before the pandemic we were taking industrial action over our two disputes, the Four Fights and USS pensions. That action was beginning to have a real impact in negotiations, but then the pandemic happened. UCU paused our disputes, but the issues we were fighting over haven’t gone away, and indeed have got worse over the last 15 months. There’s a strong feeling across the union, as seen at the recent UCU Congress, that we can’t continue to accept dire pay offers, no progress on the other three issues, and more detrimental changes to USS pensions. We must take a stand. Come along to the EGM and have your democratic input into how we do that.

For more information see:

– Details of 2021-22 negotiations over pay and related matters (“new JNCHES”) see https://ucu.org.uk/he2021 

– Outcome of 2020-21 negotiations over pay and related matters (zero pay rise, very little progress on casualisation, workloads and equality) see https://ucu.org.uk/he2020 

– FAQ on proposed USS pension changes see https://www.ucu.org.uk/uss-faqs

– Motions passed at UCU Higher Education Sector Conference 2 June, including motions on balloting for industrial action, see https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11596/Higher-education-sector-conference-2021

Note also that one of our sister unions on campus, Unison, are already balloting over the summer for industrial action over pay.

Hope you manage to get some rest and relaxation this summer, despite everything. 

In solidarity and with hope for a better year ahead,

Cheers,

Ben
Ben Plumpton
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
University of Leeds UCU President

Email sent to branch members 20 July 2021

This page was last updated on 21 July 2021

Local update

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Email to branch members 28 June 2021

A quick email to update you on some local things at University of Leeds.

Promotions

The promotion process has been frozen for some time, and we have been pressing for it to be unfrozen.  We are expecting this to happen very soon, and that there will be no further pauses.  If you have been intending to apply for promotion, you might want to start getting your application ready, see https://hr.leeds.ac.uk/info/8/promotions/299/promotions_process. 

Race at work survey

The university is participating in this national survey. I recommend you complete it using the university-specific link of https://start.yougov.com/refer/v2x8CJnrnY8yr7 (NB don’t use Internal Explorer).  A summary of the data from Leeds staff will be provided to the university and from them to the campus unions.  We have asked management many times previously for data about race and pay/promotions so that we can push for changes where there is inequality, but we’ve been told the university’s data isn’t adequate, partly because people choose not to identify their race. We understand that you might feel reluctant about providing information to management about racial identify or experiences of unequal treatment. However, this survey is anonymous so there will be no way you can be identified, and it will hopefully be useful to your union in fighting for equality.  The closing date is this Wednesday, 30th June, and it takes about 15 minutes to fill it in.

Decolonising framework

A proposed university Decolonising Framework has been drafted and is now being shared around schools. Thanks to everyone involved for this great initiative, and we would encourage members to engage meaningfully with it, but it is crucial that this is properly resourced (including workload allocation).  Policy is not enough on its own though and we need to continue our solidarity with everyone pushing on decolonialisation and anti-racism both within and beyond our university.

Fixed term contracts 

UCU has been campaigning on anti-casualisation for a long time – it was one of the Four Fights we took strike action over – and at Leeds we put in an anti-casualisation claim two years ago. We’re in a process of talks with senior HR to improve the university’s policy and practices, and as part of that HR have identified hundreds of staff who should be on permanent contracts under the current policy. If you’ve been on a fixed-term contract which you think should be permanent, especially if you’ve been here more than three years or are on a subsequent contract, get in touch via ucu@leeds.ac.uk to arrange for a caseworker to discuss with you getting your contract made permanent.  Also, if you see posts advertised as fixed term when they don’t fit with existing policy (see section 2) contact us via ucu@leeds.ac.uk and we will try to get them changed to permanent roles.

Annual leave

The campus unions have been assured that the Annual Leave policy has not changed, including this bit “one week’s leave (pro-rata) may be carried forward for up to 3 months after the end of the leave year by agreement with the Dean of Faculty/Head of School”.  We agree that people need their holidays to recuperate, but not everyone is able to use all their leave, particularly related to Covid and the extra cohort of taught postgraduates.  If your local management is telling you things about carry forward of leave that you think are outside the policy, get in touch via ucu@leeds.ac.uk. 

Health and Safety

We are concerned to hear that there are an increasing numbers of Covid infections in the area around the university and are continuing to press management to be careful about further opening up of campus, particularly in the light of predictions of a third wave and how this might impact the university in the next few months. If you are worried about safety implications of work you are being asked to do, please get in touch via ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

See you soon!

Finally, Alan will shortly be emailing you with a link to our special USS pensions meeting tomorrow (Tuesday 29th June, 1-2 pm) and the agenda for our General Meeting on Monday 5th July (12 noon – 1 pm).  See you there!

In solidarity,

Ben

Ben Plumpton

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

This page was last updated on 7 July 2021

Decisions of general meeting 10 March 2021

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Members met on 10 March and made the following decisions as a branch. The full approved minutes were emailed to members and a copy is available from the honorary secretary or branch administrator.

Rule change motion for UCU Congress 2021: Amend Congress Standing Order 18 (quorum)

Delete “(subject to rounding up to the nearest whole number)”
Add at end:
“except where, by convention, the chair asks that only a subset of the branches in a sector should vote on the topic under discussion, in which case the quorum shall be a fraction of 150 members proportionate to membership in that subset. Quora shall be rounded up to the nearest whole number.”
Purpose:
To have a quorum for sector specific conferences on matters relating to a subset of the sector which is line with the membership of that subset.

Motions for UCU Congress 2021

The branch is allowed to submit one non-rule-change motion to UCU Congress 2021. The branch carried two motions: ‘financial disclosure and transparency’ and ‘Xinjiang and Chinese government oppression of the Uighurs’ and agreed to submit ‘financial disclosure and transparency’ to congress unless another branch submits that motion in which case this branch will submit ‘Xinjiang and Chinese government oppression of the Uighurs’.

Motion for UCU Congress 2021: Financial disclosure and transparency

Congress notes the series of issues relating to expenditure, some of which have caused debate within UCU and the media, including £400k of expenditure for a former General Secretary* which was subject of a non-disclosure agreement.
Congress resolves that:

  1. UCU National Executive Committee (NEC) must be provided with proposals for, and be involved in, expenditure decisions relating to:
    a. Redundancy payments or other non-standard payments to UCU employees
    b. Membership levies
    c. Consultancy contracts
  2. The honorary treasurer will report such expenditure to NEC as soon as possible before it has been incurred.

Motion for UCU Congress 2021: Xinjiang and Chinese government oppression of the Uighurs

Congress resolves to issue a statement and initiate a campaign in support of the Uighur population of Xinjiang, calling for the Chinese government to end the on-going forced mass imprisonment, alleged sterilisation, indoctrination, torture and oppression of the Uighur people.

Motion: Ending casual contracts and securing decent work with full employment protections for staff at Leeds: Reaffirming our anti-casualisation claim

This branch notes:

  • Two years ago, in January 2019, Leeds UCU branch lodged an anti-casualisation claim with the University.
  • The claim addressed growing levels of casualised work in all aspects of university employment through fixed-term contracts, worker contracts and hourly-paid staff, on the basis that insecure contracts are detrimental for staff. It also argued that teaching-focused staff should have 20% of time ring-fenced for scholarly activity.  Details here
  • The claim states the need for time-limited negotiations over these matters with the aim of revising university policy. 


This branch further notes:

  • Two years after its submission, the university has not formally negotiated the heads of claim with the UCU branch, although some elements of the claim are the subject of consultation between Leeds UCU and the university through HRTU.
  • Based on discussions of the claim in the anti-casualisation working group, the issues outlined in the claim remain and the branch continues to do work, through campaigning and casework to address them. 
  • we want to to send a strong and unified message to the university that the branch continues to see anti-casualisation as a high-priority and to support branch officers in their discussions with HR
  • The branch is aware that, in some instances staff who have been on FTCs for 3 years or more are being transferred onto “open-ended fixed-funded” contracts. These contracts are open only in name and offer no security to staff and potentially offer diminished protections against dismissal by broadening the scope of what would reasonably considered a ‘fair’ dismissal, by allowing the end of funding as a “permissible reason” for termination of contract.

This branch:

  • Reaffirms its commitment to the heads of claim outlined in the anti-casualisation claim of 2019, including: 
    • An end to the use of worker contracts
    • Fractionalisation of hourly-paid staff
    • Removing unequal treatment
    • Reduction of the use of fixed-term contracts
    • Teaching fellowship roles to contain at least 20% scholarly activity.
  • Rejects the use of Open-Ended Fixed-funded contracts as an alternative to fixed-term contracts and calls instead for staff who have been on FTCs for more than three years to be moved onto permanent contracts that are not conditional on funding.
  • Resolves to continue mobilising and organising members to put pressure on management to start formal negotiation of the claim with UCU as a matter of urgency

Motion: Oppose Leeds City Council’s decision to approve the Leeds Bradford Airport expansion

This branch notes:

  • The recent dismal decision of Leeds City Council (LCC) City Plans Panel to provisionally approve the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) to build a new terminal, leading to a substantial increase in flights and therefore carbon emissions.
  • Following this provisional approval, the University of Leeds’s UCU Climate and Ecological Emergency working group and University of Leeds climate and sustainability experts drafted a letter to the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick MP, asking the Government to ‘call in’ (review) the planning application for the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport. The letter was signed by over 100 people.
  • That the UK Climate Change Committee’s  Sixth Carbon Budget published in December 2020 states that (i) there should be no expansion of UK airport capacity unless the sector is on track to sufficiently outperform its net emissions trajectory (Table p8.1, p29) and (ii) the Government should assess its airport capacity strategy in the context of net-zero and any lasting impacts on demand from COVID-19 (para 2, p34). Expanding LBA would increase the flight passenger volume by 75%, exceeding the maximum growth compatible with the UK’s legally adopted net-zero target.
  • That an increase in international flights runs contrary to the UK’s climate targets and responsibilities to international climate mitigation as per the Climate Change Act and the Paris Agreement.
  • It also runs contrary to the findings of the Leeds Climate Commission citizens’ jury where 18 out of 21 citizens members believe that it was the wrong decision to expand LB airport.
  • That approving LBA expansion is in stark conflict with LCC’s decision to declare a Climate Emergency in May 2019 and makes the stated aim of Leeds being carbon neutral by 2030 practically impossible.
  • The planning application and the Planning Office report to Leeds City Plan Panel dramatically understated the climate impact of the expansion. University of Leeds experts found that in case of expansion, LBA’s climate impact would be almost four times larger than LBA claimed.
  • The critical role played by University of Leeds climate and sustainability experts who submitted detailed evidence of the full climate impact of LBA expansion during the consultation period to LCC.

This Branch believes:

  • The decision of LCC is an abdication of its civic duty to protect the citizens of Leeds from harmful effects of even more aeroplane emissions and pollution over the city, also exposing those under the flight path to more noise pollution
  • That it is our responsibility as an academic community with expertise in climate change, sustainability, and zero carbon futures to demonstrate leadership on climate change and oppose this decision and stand up for the wider community in Leeds to fight for a socially just transportation transition
  • That to tackle current unemployment and promote post-Covid recovery, job opportunities should instead be created in sustainable businesses, to progress cutting carbon emissions, such as creating green jobs to improve energy efficiency


Leeds University UCU therefore resolves: 

  1. To support the open letter drafted by the University’s UCU Climate and Ecological Emergency working group to the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick MP, the branch president will write a follow up letter to Robert Jenrick MP.
  2. To support the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (Galba) in their attempts to make a legal challenge to this decision by making a donation of £200
  3. Forward this resolution to other UCU branches in the region, asking them to support this cause.

This page was last updated on 5 July 2021

National meetings – academic-related or casualised

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Please contact ucu@leeds.ac.uk by 1st March if you would like to represent the branch at either of these events (to be held online):

This page was last updated on 22 February 2021

Anti-casualisation – get involved

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Branch officers are continuing to push for fixed term contracts to only be used in very limited circumstances. We are having some success in particular areas, and we are also monitoring the university’s job adverts so that we can raise concerns at an early stage. If you would like to be involved with our anti-casualisation working group, which will be discussing and re-launching our anti-casualisation claim, please get in touch with our anti-casualisation officers, Xanthe Whittaker and Joanne Armitage.

This page was last updated on 22 February 2021

Decisions of general meeting 8 December 2020

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Appointments to committee

Equality officer: Lorraine Youds

Anti-casualisation officers: Xanthe Whittaker and Joanne Armitage (role share)

Committee member (lead on climate and the ecological emergency): Jennifer Fletcher

The following motions were agreed:

Motion 1: opposing redundancies at Leeds University

Leeds UCU:

Notes:

Faculty of Biological Sciences management communication which hinted at compulsory redundancies if not ‘enough’ staff leave through the voluntary redundancy scheme.

that UCU branches (eg. Heriot Watt, Brighton, Northumbria Universities) have recently won ballots for industrial action, despite the obstacles to campaigning during Covid-19 restrictions.

Re-affirms our opposition to all redundancies.

urges all members to sign the Leeds UCU petition opposing the ‘voluntary’ redundancies in the Faculty of Biological Sciences and the School of Medicine.

agrees to:

demand a commitment from management that no compulsory redundancies will be proposed or made in FBS or SoM.

call a dispute if management will not rule out compulsory redundancies.

trigger the steps for an industrial action ballot if management pursues compulsory redundancies.

Motion amended as above text and carried without opposition.

Motion 2: Response to Funding Extensions for PGRs

The Leeds UCU Branch notes that:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted many post-graduate research students (PGRs) because of their reduced ability to perform meaningful research since the initial lock-down. While PGRs and their supervisors have made great efforts to perform useful work from home, this has not been effective for many projects. 
  • PGRs who in their final year, and are funded by UKRI, have been provided with funded extensions. PGRs in their earlier years of PhD study will not receive automatic additional funding, despite having lost the same research time as those in later years. For many, the lab closures and travel restrictions affecting fieldwork occurred at a more critical time, e.g., when data are being collected, and thereby having a bigger impact. To ask academics and students to ‘restructure projects’ is not an adequate response.
  • Self-funded PGRs requiring extensions, some of whom are international, are receiving no additional financial support from the University, or UKRI. The international students are paying substantial fees, and many have lost several months of access time to research laboratories.
  • PGRs feel unfairly treated by the University’s, and UKRI’s, COVID pandemic response, which is impacting their mental health. The effects of the unfunded extensions will have a disproportionate effect on PGRs from disadvantaged backgrounds.
  • PGRs with chronic illnesses or other circumstances such as shielding and caring responsibilities will have been negatively impacted by a greater extent.
  • The University benefits from many of these PGRs, because they contribute to many of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) submissions, contribute to teaching, and contribute to research impact of the University.
  • PGR students are the next generation of academics and are being disenfranchised before their research careers begin.  Acting on this issue will send out a message that PGRs are part of the academic community, who contribute to research and teaching, and are UCU members. This complements the national campaign for ‘PGRs as Staff’.

The UCU Leeds branch asks that:

To negotiate with the University to implement a financial package to enable PGRs to complete their research degrees. This should include a fair and transparent process to requesting funded extensions for all PGR students affected by COVID-19 lock-down.

That the branch raises this issue with NEC for a national campaign to ask that other Universities, and the UKRI, to reconsider their funding decisions for PGRs. Specifically, UKRI should consider allocating additional funding towards providing PGR extensions for all year groups affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

An open letter is prepared by the branch and sent to the VC regarding this matter.

Motion amended as above text and carried without opposition.

Motion 3: campaigning for de-carbonising housing in Leeds

Background: This motion responds to a call by Regional Trades Council calling for union support to a programme of retrofitting of Leeds homes with energy efficiency measures, and for a collaboration between trades unions, the local authority, educators and others to expedite such a programme.

This branch notes:

  • That in 2019 our UCU Leeds University branch has declared a Climate Emergency arguing that we must rapidly eliminate the burning of fossil fuels in order to reverse the increase of global temperatures.
  • that the energy used for domestic heating and hot water accounts for around 20% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and that working from home can lead to higher costs from heating.
  • that great strides have been made in the development of renewable sources of energy for electricity generation in the form of wind, solar, tidal and geothermal energy.
  • that Estimates by the Parity Project suggest that getting all UK homes to an Energy Performance Certificate level C by 2030 would require 223,387 additional tradespeople immediately, rising to around 400,000 over the decade

This Branch believes

  • that our HE sector unions have a crucial role in promoting critical education on sustainability, and campaign for the organizational and economic change needed to avoid disastrous climate crisis.
  • that regardless of what energy source is used, the key to eliminating emissions from domestic heating and hot water essentially depend on capacity to reduce demand by retrofitting/upgrading all homes with insulation and other measures, to excellent standards of energy efficiency.
  • that an ambitious domestic energy efficiency programme would also create a large number of high quality skilled jobs- whose creation is a pressing concern, more than ever in the context of an economic recession resulting from the COVID pandemic.
  • that the government funding currently available for upgrading/retrofitting homes is a fraction of what is needed. The Green Homes Grant, worth a total of £2 billion, is a welcome step, but far more is needed.

The branch resolves

to join our Regional TUC Environmental committee’s call on local trades councils, trades unions, local authorities, education and training establishments (e.g. Leeds College of Building), as well as community organisations and retrofitting practitioners, to work together to enable whole house retrofits to be carried out within the region, in particular by:

  1. Urgently utilising Green Homes Grants and demanding their extension
  2. Seeking and campaigning for further financial methods of funding whole house retrofits.
  3. Ensuring that the skilled workforce is available and proper apprenticeships are provided using the facilities of the College of Building
  4. To join a meeting involving all the parties above at the earliest opportunity, to explore the detail of such a programme.

Motion carried without opposition.

Motion 4: Oppose management’s decision to scrap M and N Drives

Leeds University UCU:

  1. Notes:
    1. management’s decision to get rid of M and N Drives by December 2022.
    2. management’s instruction to staff that they are required to move all their files to Microsoft Office 365 cloud storage ie on OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint.
    3. consultation with staff was not part of the decision making.
  2. Believes that:
    1. University in-house IT infrastructure is necessary to do our work effectively and efficiently
    2. cloud storage options are a useful addition to University hosted systems but are NOT a substitute.
    3. using Microsoft Office 365 cloud storage ie OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint can take more time than using existing in-house storage.
  3. Deplores:
    1. significant strategic decisions  being made about how staff and schools conduct their academic work and operations without input from the University staff community.
    2. the increase in workload that  this particular decision will place on already overworked staff
  4. Resolves:
    1. To demand that management moves to a model of consultative decision making involving the staff within the campus community.
    2. To campaign against this regressive move.

Motion amended as above text and carried.

This page was last updated on 5 July 2021

UCU levy, and job losses

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by 
Text of email from branch president Ben Plumpton to members on 26 June 2020

Dear members,

UCU levy

You will have seen the email today from Jo Grady, our General Secretary, about UCU taking a levy from members of £15 (in two instalments) for the Fighting Fund, so that the union can continue to support members taking industrial action. Obviously it’s important that the union can help members in this way: many members in our branch have been supported by the Fighting Fund over the recent strikes, and the union has prioritised low-paid and casualised staff in disbursing strike pay.  However, your branch committee is concerned about the lack of consultation on this, and that it wasn’t possible, according to the UCU rule book, to make this a progressive levy dependent on salary. We know many hourly paid, part time and low paid members will find this levy difficult to afford. (Note: members on the full free membership are excluded from the levy).  Some members have already offered to contribute to cover the levy for low paid members of this branch (thank you!), and we would be glad to hear from any other members who feel able to do the same. Also, the branch committee are going to propose to the next General Meeting that the rules of our local Hardship Fund (https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/local-hardship-fund/) should be changed so that it can be used for this purpose. Come to the General Meeting to have your say on this (Thursday 9th July 12 noon), and let us know (ucu@leeds.ac.uk) if you have questions or ideas about this.

Job losses in the sector

You will have heard of some pretty awful things going on across the higher and further education sectors, with some institutions announcing large scale redundancies, voluntary severance schemes, cuts to working hours or even ‘voluntary’ pay cuts. UCU is gearing up to fight this at a UK level, and to pressure government to secure the future of the post-16 education sector through government financial support (the “Fund the Future” campaign). Many from Leeds have attended online solidarity meetings called by a group of UCU branches where particularly drastic cuts and job losses have been announced. These branches, with their Twitter handles so you can show your support if you use Twitter, are:

A short video giving info from these branches is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfUsHJ5dot0

We expect to see more national action on this soon.  

Follow @ucusolidarity on Twitter for up to date news.

Local update

For members on fixed term contracts coming to an end, let us know if you want UCU support in attending meetings with management/HR. We suspect end of contract letters are being sent out too freely when some of these posts will be renewed, because of course the work hasn’t gone away.

Leeds UCU officers are negotiating on job losses at university level. We’ve been sent lists of all the fixed term contracts due to end in the next few months, and we are arguing that ending these posts is

a) cruel, because in the current pandemic and hiring freezes, people are very unlikely to find new jobs (this is a particular problem for our migrant members whose visas will be affected) and

b) short-sighted, because the university needs these roles for the future.

Also Leeds has reserves and has saved itself a lot of money through the furlough scheme and through the university being largely closed for many months.

Initial discussions with management at last week’s Joint Committee of the University and UCU (JCUU) meeting indicated that they were quite receptive to these arguments. 
We have been sent formal letters about 240 job losses proposed in the period to September, including many on fixed term contracts and 28 on permanent contracts.  The three campus trade unions are pressing for a formal consultation on this, so that we can argue to protect those individuals, and we hope to prevent some or all of these job losses. 

HR have finally agreed to start talking to the unions about casualisation more generally (18 months after we submitted our anti-casualisation claim, see https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/ucu-anti-casualisation-claim-submitted-to-university-of-leeds/) and the first meeting about this is on 8th July.

The branch is also in discussions with HR/management on many other issues of concern to our members, including return to campus planning, health and safety, progressing anti-racism, working from home allowance, plans for one-off staff visits to campus, issues with pay for casualised staff in specific areas, organisational change, workloads, promotions, furlough, Metro cards and more. Our interventions in many of these areas (especially health and safety) have brought some improvement. There has also been a slight improvement on university communications, in that they are informing staff before they inform students, although not much before!

Thank you to all our reps and caseworkers who have been working hard to support members. And thank you to those who have recently volunteered to help their union in various ways (see my email last Friday “Your union needs you!”). And of course thanks to everyone for supporting each other – we need solidarity across roles, contract types and diverse backgrounds – together we are strong!

In solidarity,

Ben

Ben Plumpton
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
University of Leeds UCU President
Latest Leeds UCU news at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk   or on Twitter https://twitter.com/leedsucu   

This page was last updated on 26 June 2020

Defending casualised staff in HE

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by 
Text of email from branch president Ben Plumpton sent 3 June 2020

Dear members,

At our branch General Meeting on 28th April we passed an important motion about supporting casualised staff (copied in full below) which included calling on you to support the CoronaContracts campaign. Please sign the national open letter at https://tinyurl.com/coronacontract – thank you.  Locally, your branch officers and committee are pressing our management on many of these issues, particularly the renewal of contracts and the impact on migrant workers, and our caseworkers are supporting individual members too.

The CoronaContracts campaign have written an open letter to the union’s General Secretary and newly elected National Executive Committee, asking them to hold a mass online meeting of UCU members, both casual and permanent, to discuss urgent action around casualisation. The letter is headed “If you don’t do it, we will” and you can view and sign it at https://forms.gle/5FfShwDFB4HfC6vk9  CoronaContracts are holding a mass meeting tomorrow (Thursday 4th June) on Zoom, at 6:30 pm, and I’d encourage you to join it if you possibly can.  The Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81863074335?pwd=RWNsaWNiY1FOQ0s5WjlmSXZ0M1pLQT09 

It is crucial at this time, when many universities are wanting to make savings on staff costs, that we as union members stand together in solidarity, whatever type of contract we are on.  Those of us who are lucky enough to have open ended contracts need to do everything we can to support our casualised colleagues, many of whom are already in difficult circumstances and with serious concerns for the future.  Tomorrow’s CoronaContracts meeting should be a good discussion about these issues and we hope it will help us take things further at Leeds.

In solidarity,

Ben

Ben Plumpton
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
University of Leeds UCU President

Latest Leeds UCU news at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk   or on Twitter https://twitter.com/leedsucu   

This page was last updated on 4 June 2020

Branch votes to reject latest ‘four fights’ offer

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

An emergency meeting of the branch was help today to establish the branch’s position on the employers’ offer on casualisation, equal pay, workloads and pay (the ‘four fights’ dispute) and on the latest developments in the USS pensions dispute. The meeting is to let our delegates know how to vote on our behalf at a meeting of branch delegates on Tuesday (26 May), ahead of the UCU higher education committee meeting on 27 May. (For more details see Your feedback on next-steps in the ‘Four Fights’ and USS disputes)

No formal vote was taken on the USS pensions dispute, so our delegate will try to vote with the contributions made in mind.

On the ‘four fights’ dispute, members passed the following motion:

Motion 1

This branch rejects the latest ‘offer’ in the 4 fights dispute.

We don’t believe that sufficient progress has been made on any of the key issues in the dispute in the light of the developing crisis in the sector.

Accepting an ‘offer’ that does not give sufficient guarantees to women members on the gender pay gap, BAME members on the race pay gap and to our casualised staff and includes no movement on pay would be to let down the tens of thousands of members who joined our picket lines for 22 days.

This is especially true in regards women/BAME and casualised staff, who were at the forefront of the strikes.

We reject the idea of ‘banking’ inadequate progress.

An acceptance will only be seen as a sign of weakness by employers and encourage further attacks at this critical moment.

We call on members to reject the offer outright.

four fights one voice

This page was last updated on 5 July 2021

Your feedback on next steps in the ‘Four Fights’ and USS disputes

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by 
Email sent to branch members 20 May 2020

I’m writing with some further information about the two disputes – the reports from the UCU negotiating teams.  Please read these if you possibly can before our emergency general meeting 1pm Friday where we will discuss the disputes and elect a delegate to take the branch views to a branch delegates meeting next week which will inform the union’s Higher Education Committee (HEC).  The HEC will then take a decision on what the union will do in each dispute, including whether to put the employers’ offer on the Four Fights to a membership ballot, and about balloting for further industrial action.  The current position is that the union will re-ballot on both disputes, starting at the end of June or as soon as practically possible thereafter, and ending in September.  HEC can decide to continue the ballots as planned or to cancel, postpone or otherwise alter them.

USS pension justice. We demand it. Image of two raised fists, blue and white, pink background.

Our negotiators have worked incredibly hard for many months on both disputes and their statements are crucial to these discussions. Our industrial action has pushed the employers to improve on their original offer on the Four Fights, particularly on casualisation and workload, but falls short of what we hoped to achieve, particularly on pay.  Issues for us to discuss include whether we think this offer should go to a ballot now, and what should the union seek to negotiate over in the next ‘pay and related issues’ bargaining round which starts soon.  On USS, there are encouraging signs of better co-operation from the employers, but no indication that our contribution level will go back to 8% (“no detriment”).  For both disputes, we need to discuss whether/how we think further industrial action could be effective, whether we think we could pass the 50% turnout threshold on a ballot over the summer, and whether we think reballoting should continue as planned, be postponed or be cancelled.

I hope you can join us at the Emergency General Meeting (EGM) to discuss this on Friday. Committee members are attending UCU briefings on both disputes to find out more, today and tomorrow, and will be reporting on these briefings to Friday’s EGM.

We have previously elected 5 delegates to Congress (which would have been next week but is of course postponed – the number of delegates is based on branch sizes). At Friday’s EGM we will elect one delegate to attend each of the branch delegate meetings.  The delegates could be our Congress delegates, but other members could also volunteer for this.  Please let me know by 12 noon on Friday if you would like to volunteer.  If there is more than one person offering for either or both delegate meetings, we will hold an election during the EGM using a Poll on Blackboard Collaborate.  Both the branch delegates meetings are on Tuesday 26th May (unfortunately this is a university closure day) and last for two hours.  They will be run using Microsoft Teams.

– Four Fights branch delegate meeting 10:00 to 12:00

– USS branch delegate meeting 13:30 to 15:30

I will send a further email on Friday with the link to our online EGM.

This page was last updated on 20 May 2020