Further strikes announced

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by
strike dates as described in text

You’ll have seen from your email on Monday from the UCU general secretary Jo Grady that UCU have announced 14 more days strike action during February and March. Our negotiating team and elected Higher Education Committee think that, despite some real progress in the negotiations, the employers are holding back and are not taking the concerns of staff seriously enough. Leeds University UCU is therefore called to strike on these dates in pursuit of two legally distinct disputes: USS, and #FourFights (see:  https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10621/UCU-announces-14-strike-days-at-74-UK-universities-in-February-and-March )

The dates are:

  • Week one – Thursday 20 & Friday 21 February
  • Week two – Monday 24, Tuesday 25 & Wednesday 26 February
  • Week three – Monday 2, Tuesday 3, Wednesday 4 & Thursday 5 March
  • Week four – Monday 9, Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11, Thursday 12 & Friday 13 March


This is such a crucial moment for higher education in the UK, and every member is needed to make this action successful. Employers have moved a bit in negotiations as a result of our actions so far. We need them to move further, and to put decent, trustworthy offers on the table to resolve these disputes. We know some VCs are already shifting. We need to increase the pressure we exert – and this is where hard-hitting, escalating strike action comes in. UCU has campaigned relentlessly, lobbied, and carefully explained all these issues. That we have been forced to take industrial action to shake our employers awake pours shame upon them. More details on the two disputes below.  Note also that the employers’ bodies have two weeks to come up with better offers before the strikes start, and there are deliberate pauses during the strike period for that purpose too.

To have everyone supporting the actions will make a huge difference to their effectiveness.  Remember, the union has financial support if the strike deductions cause you hardship. 

Together we are strong, and together we can win.

General Secretary Facebook Live Q&A: Thursday 13th February 1- 2pm. If you have questions about the disputes or negotiations, you can ask Jo Grady direct and listen to the questions from others. The live stream will be available on the UCU Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ucu.campaigns/ and it will continue to be available for viewing after the session has ended. You don’t need a Facebook account to view it. Questions can be submitted via Facebook or to this email address, either in advance or during the session.

Meetings

The union’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) has called a series of branch briefings across the UK, starting next week, and Leeds will be sending delegates who will report back to the branch.  We’re organising local meetings before and after this:

  • Action Group: Tuesday, 11th February, 1-2 pm, Baines Wing G03
    Get involved with planning for the strikes. There will also be further placard-making sessions and chances to get creative!
  • Members meeting Tuesday 18th February 12 noon – 1 pm, Roger Stevens LT16
    Not a formal meeting with motions but a chance to discuss the disputes.  There will be updates from the branch briefings and from national negotiations, a report from the Higher Education Committee meeting (14th February), and plenty of opportunity for discussion.
  • Branch General Meeting Monday 2nd March 12 noon – 1 pm (previously announced, but venue TBC as it’s a strike day)
    To discuss the progress of the disputes, motions to UCU Congress, and any other issues members wish to raise (see https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/general-meetings-2019-2020/ for our year’s schedule of general meetings)


Sign up for picket duty here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=x7sla-g7S0KySQb82NdiaNICVYU2x7RDvUK_2a_SumpUNlgzWFQ5N1BGTTRWUkZMTU1HV0lXTkdFMi4u

(you don’t  have to do every day  – it’s important we look after ourselves! – but it would be great to have every member doing some picketing).

Also, please start thinking about any sessions you might like to offer as part of our Teach Outs providing alternative learning for students.

Why we are striking – the two disputes

  • #FourFights
    Our negotiators have pushed UCEA from the language of ‘recommendation’ into ‘expectation’, which represents a foundation for the development of UK wide bargaining on workload, casualisation and equality. This is significant and new, but UCEA’s offer needs to go further, and it needs to include agreement on a mechanism of implementation or oversight. We also need to see movement on pay.  See the detailed statement from the UCU negotiating team about the UCEA offer at https://ucufourfights.com/2020/01/29/27janofferresponse/
  • #USS
    UCU is in twin track talks to address both the current dispute with Universities UK over the USS pension scheme, which centres on the hike in contribution rates we pay, and to address the underlying issues (focusing largely on valuation methodology and governance) which have resulted in multiple disputes over this scheme. To resolve the dispute, we need employers to recognise that the recent hike of member contributions to 9.6%, with a likelihood that they will go up to 11% from 2021, is itself a huge risk to the scheme as lower paid and insecurely employed members increasingly opt out altogether. See the UCU counter offer at https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10231/UCU-counter-proposals?list=9041 
    We hope that ongoing discussions following the second report of the Joint Expert Panel will make good progress on future valuation and governance, but our immediate concern in this dispute is to reverse the increases to our contribution rates.

One action you can take right now! ASOS (Action Short of Strike)

We’ve made some great local posters to make our ASOS more visible – your local UCU rep will have lots, so if you haven’t already got one, ask your rep for one and put it on your door/by your desk.  Also don’t forget we’re collecting examples of activities that have not taken place and requests for voluntary work which have been refused as a result of members doing ASOS. Please fill the short form here

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCfIACbWcaqSLxJ-MdRm7PyhCYj5YTqtsHp12NM5ji7ylJKg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&usp=mail_form_link

recording each activity as a separate incident. This is completely anonymous and we will use the information to demonstrate how much the University relies on goodwill, voluntary labour and overtime. Remember our local ASOS guidance is here: https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/asos-guidance-from-leeds-ucu/ and the national FAQ here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/he-action-faqs 

Over to the employers

Senior leaders – including our own –  must now mandate their representative bodies to make meaningful offers to resolve both disputes, in terms that we can trust will hold. Armed with the most impressive ballot results UCU has ever achieved, with members in 74 universities (after some re-ballots) able to strike across two disputes, now is the moment to stand up for higher education. 

Strike deductions

Don’t forget! If strike deductions from November/December are causing you hardship, you can apply to the national Fighting Fund and our local Hardship Fund – details of how to apply are at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/hardship-applications-and-surgeries/
Let us know if there are any problems with your pay deduction – we’ve heard of various errors happening at other universities.

In solidarity,

Ben

Ben Plumpton
Branch President
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

This page was last updated on 6 February 2020

Members make dispute decisions at Extraordinary General Meeting

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Members of UCU University of Leeds Branch met today (22 January 2020) to discuss and make decisions about the current disputes. Members agreed on the following motions:

USS pensions dispute and ‘Four fights’ dispute

Motion 1

This branch acknowledges the need to fight back against increasing casualisation, damaging workloads, antiquated gender and race pay gaps and a decade long erosion of our pay.

This branch notes the decision of the HEC to coordinate ballot distribution and strike days for the Four Fights and USS disputes. This strategy allowed for UCU’s most successful ballot turnout results on pay ever and led to eight days of impactful strike action which is empowering our national negotiators.

This branch recognises the need to increase pressure at this point and that in order to win we have to move towards escalating our industrial strategy.

This branch supports this existing strategy towards our two ongoing disputes in HE, and believes that strike action in pursuit of the Four Fights should continue to escalate simultaneously with action over USS, beginning with the 14 days endorsed by HESC in December 2019.

Motion 2

Motion about the Formulation of Strategy for the Next Round of Industrial Action

This branch notes:

  1. The need to fight back against increasing casualisation, damaging workloads, pay inequality and decades of pay erosion as well as USS pensions justice.
  2. That the two disputes – pay and equality (‘Four Fights’) and USS – are interlinked
  3. UCU’s most successful ballot turnout and members’ support for industrial action in November and December 2019 and the level of solidarity at Leeds both on the picket lines and in workplaces during ongoing ASOS.
  4. The dynamism of the USS strikes in 2018 and the success of members’ input in shaping the negotiations.
  5. The Special Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) to consider actions available to UCU on the USS dispute on 6 December 2019.
  6. The wider work of the UCU Democracy Commission in reviewing the current democratic structures of the union.

This branch believes:

  1. That members should be formally consulted both prior to, and in response to, negotiations on both USS and pay and equality (‘Four Fights’)
  2. That UCU’s Higher Education Committee’s (HEC) decisions are most innovative and effective when they are informed by a democratic process of member consultation.
  3. That members must continue to be consulted on UCU’s industrial action strategy, in order to maintain their support throughout ongoing action.

This branch resolves to:

  1. Call on HEC to continue to strongly encourage every branch to call meetings and provide the same opportunities to participate in discussions to inform strategy throughout any dispute, and to call further branch briefings and branch delegate meetings to advise HEC.
  2. Call on HEC, negotiators, and the General Secretary to continue drawing on the expertise and views of UCU’s membership in informing its strategy.
  3. Call on HEC to provide members with clear and timely feedback on the progress of negotiations (subject to confidentiality constraints that might jeopardise negotiations), noting the importance of this when it comes to formal consultation on offers made in dispute.
  4. Call on HEC to support branches through regular information-sharing to bring members together for democratic discussion and debate.

Motion 3

This UCU University of Leeds branch notes:

That the University of Leeds has a gender pay gap of 20.1% (2019) and a reported national ethnic pay gap of 39%. While some of the gender gap will be due to the over-representation of women in lower valued work (vertical factors), it is likely that some of the gap is due to unlawful, unequal pay practices that fail to reward women and men equally doing ‘like work, work of equal value, or work rated as equivalent’ (horizontal factors). The ethnic pay gap has not been given the same analysis and it needs to do so.

That on May 29, 2020, it will be 50 years since the passage of the Equal Pay Act 1970.

That Equal Pay is one of the four pillars of UCU’s national pay dispute. And that the University of Leeds UCU branch has been attempting to negotiate on these issues for some time without much progress from the employer. Almost 2 years ago the branch submitted a gender pay claim which, among others, included the need for more research and data and asked management explicitly to provide it. Nothing substantial was offered since.

That the Equality Trust, a national charity, is co-ordinating a series of events and actions designed to increase pressure on employers to meet statutory obligations under the equal pay provisions now included in the Equality Act 2010.

That the Equality Trust is looking for trade union partners to help them target specific employers to establish the extent to which their gender pay gap is due to horizontal or vertical factors (see above). If University of Leeds UCU were to be such a partner, then this would involve undertaking a detailed survey of our members asking them to share their job title, department, role, gender, and salary, thus allowing comparison of ‘like with like’ both within and between departments. We should also include the ethnic pay gap within this research.

That such surveys would be undertaken with appropriate safeguard for confidentiality and in accordance with standard research ethics and the provisions of the GDPR regulations.

That once this survey data is available it could provide an evidence base available to the UCU Branch to press the University to make progress on addressing gender pay inequality as part of the UCU campaign on equal pay and create opportunities for ‘leverage’ should the employer not respond positively.

This Committee therefore resolves

To affiliate to the Equality Trust (at a cost of £50)

To work in partnership with The Equality Trust to develop a survey specific to Leeds University academic (and academic related) staff.

To promote the survey as part of UCU branded action in furtherance of the pillar of our national UCU dispute and to send an email to all University of Leeds UCU members asking them to participate in the survey.

To create a UCU working group (to report to this committee). The working group to lead on engagement with the Equality Trust and the actioning of this resolution on behalf of this committee.

To receive a report from the working group in advance of May 29 and to consider what publicity and other steps the Branch can take (in the light of any survey data) to increase the pressure for our employer to meet its legal obligations under the equal pay provisions of the Equality Act, but also to include the ethnic pay gap in our negotiations.

To send a copy of this resolution to the UCU Higher Education Committee and around UCU activists networks, and urge them to consider similar collaborations with the Equality Trust at a local and national level.

Note

The Equality Trust is a registered charity and was launched in 2009 by Bill Kerry, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. The idea for the Trust was developed from 2007, after the authors secured a publishing deal for The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. The Equality Trust’s focus is on promoting policies that would take us towards a more equal society, as well as responding to political developments relating to top pay and income inequality.

Organisational change

Motion 4

This meeting notes:

  1. That the Faculty of Biological Sciences are undergoing a “refresh”;
  2. That in spite of the semantic niceties of the term, this effectively constitutes a “review”;
  3. That as a “review”, the process for conducting it is laid out the current Organisational Change Policy;
  4. That the current Organisational Change Policy is itself the subject of upcoming negotiations with Senior Management.

This meeting resolves:

  1. To demand that the so-called “refresh” in the Faculty of Biological Sciences is conducted through the processes outlined in the current Organisational Change Policy;
  2. To direct our branch negotiators to preserve the safeguards in our current Organisational Change Policy in their negotiations.

This page was last updated on 22 January 2020

Extraordinary general meeting 22 January: disputes + organisational change policy

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

The branch committee has called an extraordinary general meeting to discuss a number of urgent issues which won’t wait until the next scheduled general meeting. The meeting will be:

12pm – 1pm on Wednesday 22 January
Roger Stevens lecture theatre 16 (which is on level 12).

Members are invited to submit motions on the subjects on the agenda. These should be received by 2pm on Tuesday 14 January, after which the motions received will be circulated to members.

The agenda will be:

  1. Disputes
    1. USS pensions dispute
    1. ‘Four fights’ dispute (pay, anti-casualisation, equal pay, workloads)
  2. Organisational change policy

Please send any relevant motions to the branch administrator Alan Smith using ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

(The next scheduled general meeting, open to motions on any subject, is Monday 2 March.)

This page was last updated on 8 January 2020

News on negotiations, the digital picket line, hot breakfasts and more

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Text from branch president Ben Plumpton’s email to members 27th November

Negotiations

The most important thing to tell you is that our UCU negotiators on pay and conditions met with UCEA, the employers organization, on Tuesday. See UCU’s statement about that meeting.  This is really important, because it shows it only took one day of solid striking and record breaking pickets to get UCEA to do what they should have done weeks ago; sit down and talk. However, they are still not willing to talk about pay. We need to push them harder on this, because stopping pay erosion is central to our claim and low pay is one of the issues which creates pay gaps and which exacerbates the already impossible position of casualised staff.  UCEA are now consulting with university leaders. We need to send our Vice-Chancellor a clear message that our claims are urgent and that we won’t settle for anything other than substantial change. 

  • For those striking, please stand firm. We need to sustain our action. We want to make our pickets (physical and digital) bigger, louder and clearer, so help us make some noise over the next few days.
  • If you are not yet striking, please come out with us now – this is an important dispute which we can win if we stand together. You will be very welcome.
  • We’ve had 50 new members join UCU in the last couple of weeks which is great. Keep encouraging colleagues! New joiners to the strike at this stage make a huge difference.

You are wonderful

What fantastic pickets you are – arriving early and standing around in the damp, and then willingly singing in the rain and cheering at our rallies!  Thank you thank you.  Don’t forget, it’s OK to take some time for yourself, you don’t have to come every day.  If you’ve been picketing with a group of colleagues, you could organise yourselves a rota so everyone gets a rest day.
Big thank you to people new to picketing – more are joining us every day – it’s quite an experience isn’t it? 
We’re picketing every day from 7:30 (come to the pink gazebo near the main entrance) followed by a rally on Parkinson steps at 11:30.
If you want to picket and have particular needs, we are keen to provide support and adjustments so that you can join us. Please email ucu@leeds.ac.uk and let us know how we can make that work for you.

Key links

Respect the digital and non-campus picket line

Remember that striking includes not working from home, not dealing with your emails (*except UCU emails of course, please keep reading those!),  no work-related social media, and generally not doing anything that counts as work, wherever it might be done. Hope you manage to do some enjoyable stuff during this time!

Hot breakfasts on Monday 2 December

Our friends in Unison have very kindly offered to provide us with hot breakfasts on the first day of the second week, starting at 8 am. We’re keen to start the second week with really impressive picketing, so hopefully this will encourage everyone along!

More solidarity from (and with) our sister unions

We’re pleased that the Unison and Unite branches at the university have advised their members not to pick up work which would normally be done by UCU members.  This of course makes our strike more effective and we are grateful for their support. It also means that, when are back at work and doing Action Short of a Strike, we will need to be careful not to put extra workload on these colleagues.

Reminder: Benefit gig Friday 29 November 7 pm

At the Chemic Tavern, 9 Johnston St, LS6 2NG. Pay what you can, in aid of our Hardship Fund.  More details here.  Pass the word around, bring your friends, let’s have a great evening celebrating our first week of strike action!

Reminder: Climate march Friday 29 November 12:30 Parkinson steps

This is entirely separate from the UCU strikes, but lots of staff and students, including UCU members, will be marching down to town to support the next big Youth Strike for Climate event.  Our strike rally will finish about noon, followed by some climate emergency speeches, and then the march leaving Parkinson steps at 12:30.

Thankfully it’s looking like the weather will improve on Friday and for next week…
Keep on tweeting and Facebooking and everything (use #UCUstrikes and tag @leedsucu) – we love seeing your photos.

In solidarity,

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

This page was last updated on 28 November 2019

Brilliant picketing today, and come to our fantastic fundraiser gig

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Text from branch president Ben Plumpton’s email to members 25th November

It was great to see so many of you picketing today, thank you!  I think it was the most pickets we’ve had round our campus, and special thanks to those who were picketing for the first time, hope you enjoyed it despite the rain…  We were blown away by the support and enthusiasm from students at the Parkinson steps rally, it was brilliant. Check out some photos from today tweeted by the branch account at https://twitter.com/leedsucu  Keep on tweeting and Facebooking and everything (use #UCUstrikes and tag @leedsucu) – we love seeing your photos.  

Hope to see you all back again tomorrow.  If you havent picketed before, no need to feel nervous, come along to the pink gazebo near the main entrance as early as you can in the morning and we’ll find you a buddy to stand with.Remember, every day picketing is happening from 7:30 am (come as early as you can manage) and a rally on the Parkinson steps at 11:30.

The ever-growing Leeds UCU songbook is here:  https://tinyurl.com/t7vsy8e – bookmark it on your phone so you can sing along at the rallies.  We might have to do ‘Striking in the rain’ tomorrow…  (looks like waterproofs and umbrellas will be needed again).
Have a look at our amazing teach outs timetable at https://tinyurl.com/vn7ot7t – mostly at the Quaker Meeting House but some happening all over Leeds! All strikers and supporters welcome as well as students. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to run a session.

If you can’t join the pickets in person, you could do some digital picketing (tweet messages of support and about why you are striking, share photos of your ‘home picket’, spread the word online).

As you know, we’re raising money for our local Hardship Fund to help enable everyone to join the strike.  Lots of donations have come in since we emailed about this which is great.  The next big thing is our:

UCU Solidarity Hardship Fundraiser Gig

  • Friday 29th November 29, from 7 PM
  • The Chemic Tavern, 9 Johnston St, Leeds LS6 2NG (see attached map)
  • Pay What You Can – donations to Leeds UCU Hardship Fund on the door. 

Tell everyone you know, bring your friends, join us for a truly excellent party!
With music from:

  • Brigadistas Music Collective – A multi-instrumental, multilingual world folk extravaganza
  • wormboys – Fuzzy noise pop: 50% queer, 50% casualised, 100% cute
  • (and more being arranged)

It will kick off with a Leeds UCU members’ open mic night, so you can show off your new strike song lyrics, perform poetry, or whatever you like!

All money raised will be used to boost the Leeds UCU strike hardship fund, prioritising members in precarious contractual circumstances and any member in difficult financial circumstances
https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/ucu-strike-fighting-fund-local-hardship-fund/

Thanks everyone.  See you tomorrow and every day!  

In solidarity,

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

This page was last updated on 28 November 2019

Eve of strike info

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Text from branch president Ben Plumpton’s email to members 22nd November

Dear members,

First, apologies if you have sent a query to me or to ucu@leeds.ac.uk and you haven’t received a personal reply yet.  We’ve had a LOT of messages.  I hope that the comprehensive FAQ at https://www.ucu.org.uk/heaction will answer most questions.  You could also watch the video of today’s live Q&A session with Jo Grady, UCU General Secretary.

Picketing!

  • Thank you to everyone who has signed up already.  You can just turn up on the day, but it’s helpful to get an indication of how many people we can expect, please sign up here.
  • The pink gazebo will be at the main entrance from 7:30 am every day – please come here first to sign in and get placards and leaflets.
  • We’ll suggest where to go with the aim of covering all the entrances, but if you have a particular preference (e.g. if you prefer to picket outside your nearest entrance, or the opposite) you can tell us when you sign in.
  • If you haven’t picketed before, we’ll make sure you’re with someone who’s experienced (not that it’s difficult, honestly).
  • Wrap up warm with waterproofs/umbrella – the weather forecast at the moment is “light rain and a gentle breeze”.
  • We’d love you to bring your own placard or banner.
  • Take photos and talk about the strike on social media – it helps to create a buzz and keep others informed.  Please tag @leedsucu and use hashtag #UCUstrikes and/or #UCUstrikesback.
  • Toilets – you can use the toilets (which include disabled toilets) in the Emmanuel Centre (between the main entrance and Laidlaw Library) and in the Quaker Centre (across the main road from Engineering).
  • Discounts in cafes – some local cafes have offered discounts to strikers which is nice.  So far: Miro – 10 % discount if you say you are a university striker, Opposite – 10% discount on hot drinks (only) with the slogan “university strike”, Café on Campus on  Seminar Street – 10% discount on food and drinks.
  • If, for whatever reason, you might find it difficult to stand on a picket line for a long time, or if you might need time to recuperate out of the weather, we have booked a room in the Quaker Centre (across the road from Engineering) from 9 am each day where you can have a bit of a rest. You can also make yourself a hot drink for a donation.
  • You don’t have to come in every day, do take some time for yourself.  We’d recommend everyone comes in on the first Monday, Tuesday 3rd for the General Meeting, and the final day on Wednesday 4th.

Free hot breakfast!

Unison, our super kind sister union, are going to be providing a free hot breakfast for picketers on Monday 2nd December, so make sure you come picketing on that day!

Rallies daily at 11:30

Pickets and supporters will be meeting up on the Parkinson steps at 11:30 each day for a short rally, including speeches, updates, probably visiting speakers, possibly different themes on different days (this is still being finalised). We hope to see our UCU UK Vice President (our very own Vicky Blake) on some of the days.  The Leeds Students Support UCU group will also be speaking.

We have a bit of a tradition at Leeds of singing alternative words to songs. Could you and your colleagues come up with something?

Big march Wednesday 4th December

We’ll be doing a big march down to Leeds Town Hall on Wednesday 4th December, leaving Parkinson steps at about 11:30.  Big name speakers, lots of noise, let’s show how determined we still are!  We’ll be inviting comrades from Leeds Beckett (who unfortunately just missed the 50% turnout threshold) and from our sister unions to join us, and of course student supporters.

Notifying about striking

Management in some schools/departments have been circulating misleading information.  You definitely do not need to notify anyone in advance that you are striking. You do need to notify HR on your first day back, as set out in the email from Francesca Fowler.

Recovering missed learning

You do not have to do anything in advance about this now.  Try not to worry about the threatened ASOS (Action Short of a Strike) deductions – no-one at Leeds was deducted for ASOS last year. We will be circulating some guidance next week about this. 

Out of office message

Here’s a suggested auto reply for the whole strike period – feel free to adapt as you see fit.

Thank you for your email – this is an auto-reply.  I am currently taking part in the University and College Union’s (UCU) strike action about pay equality and a fair pay rise, ending casualisation and excessive workloads, and defending our pensions. Please request that our Vice Chancellor (vice-chancellor@leeds.ac.uk) uses his influence to urge the employer bodies to negotiate meaningfully with UCU. See this useful introduction to the disputes. There is local information on the Leeds UCU website including a page of information for students, and on Twitter.

Climate march Friday 29th November

This is entirely separate from the UCU strikes, but we think many of our members would like to support the Leeds Youth Strike for Climate, on their next big event on this date.  There will be a march leaving Parkinson steps at 12:30 to go down to the Town Hall and support the young people as they march round Leeds. Our sister unions and some student groups will be joining UCU members for this.  Some of our teach outs will be themed around climate issues too.

General Meeting and financial claims surgery

Don’t forget our next General Meeting is on Tuesday 3rd December, and we’ll be discussing proposals to make Hardship Fund payments more generous.

Our local Hardship Fund is growing daily from the donations coming in from higher paid members and from other supporters.  Many thanks to all.

Immediately after the General Meeting, branch officers will be at the Quaker Centre to help members with claiming from both the national Strike Fund and the local Hardship Fund.  We want to make this as straightforward as possible and to ensure members get paid as quickly as possible, especially those who are hourly paid and precariously employed.

More about all this at www.leedsucu.org.uk/fighting-fund-and-hardship-fund

‘Striking Insights’ Teach Outs

We now have an amazing programme for this, see https://tinyurl.com/vn7ot7t  All students welcome, and strikers and supporters.  Thank you to everyone who volunteered to run a session.

Joining UCU

We’re pleased to see that more and more colleagues are joining the union and wanting to join us on strike.  Please encourage your colleagues to join – it’s easy to join online or by phone, and people can do so right up to the point of arriving for work.  See https://www.ucu.org.uk/join

Right then, I think that’s everything. I’m sure that with your support, and the same at 60 other universities round the country, we can win this dispute.

See you on the picket lines!

In solidarity,

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

This page was last updated on 28 November 2019

For students about the UCU strikes

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

As you probably know a many university staff will be on strike for eight working days (Monday 25th November – Wednesday 4th December).  This includes lecturers, researchers, librarians, IT staff and student support staff. The strikes are about precarious employment (‘casualisation’), excessive workloads, pay inequality (there are substantial pay gaps for women and black and ethnic minority staff), reduced pay and threats to pensions. Staff feel conflicted about this – we don’t want to harm your education, but our union has tried incredibly hard to negotiate on these issues and it now seems the only thing university employers will listen to is strikes.

These are national disputes and 60 universities across the UK will see strike action (unless the university employers come back to meaningful negotiations first).

What are the strikes about?

You can read some background here.

The National Union of Students supports the strikes, see this joint statement and watch this short video.

 

What to expect

  • All activities during the strike action are potentially at risk;
  • Teaching will be cancelled on strike days;
  • Other activities such as emailing and marking will also be delayed.

Strikes and picketing

  • Staff who are on strike don’t work and don’t get paid on strike days.  We ask that the money the university saves on our pay is put into the Student Hardship Fund and to support student mental health.
  • Some strikers will stand outside campus entrances to picket, which means peacefully talking to colleagues as they arrive and encouraging them not to go to work and to join the union.  This is called a ‘picket line’. Picketers have placards and give out leaflets.  We will be picketing from 7:30 to 11:30 each day of the strikes.
  • Supporters can stand with the picketers to show solidarity, chat and ask questions.  Students are very welcome to do this, but cannot be pickets themselves (i.e. wear a picket armband, carry an ‘official picket’ placard, or speak to members of staff to dissuade them from going into work). 
  • Students can show solidarity by not crossing the picket line and not attending lectures or classes. BUT, if you are on a Tier 4 visa you should attend all lectures and study activities as normal or it is likely to be counted as an unauthorised absence, reportable to the Home Office.
  • UCU will also be holding a rally on the Parkinson steps each day of the strikes from about 11:30 – 12 noon. We would be delighted if students join us to show support!
  • On the final day of the strikes, Wednesday 4th December, we will be marching from Parkinson steps down to the Town Hall for a final big rally. Students and student groups are very welcome to join us.

We encourage you to engage with some of the picketers at least once. Ask about the strike, find out more and exchange different ideas and opinions, e.g. about what is driving universities to affect their staff in these ways, how Higher Education is being marketised, and how this can be resisted.

‘Striking Insights’ teach outs

We love teaching, so on strike days we’ll be running a ‘Teach Out’ just outside campus including a great variety of free lectures and discussions.  See the programme here – it’s still evolving so keep checking back for changes and additionsThe programme is still being planned – look out for details later.

Student support for our strikes

  • Many students have been emailing or talking to their lecturers to support them. This means a lot to us!
  • There’s a student Facebook group ‘Leeds Students Support UCU’ which you could join and get involved.
  • A group of students have produced an Open Letter to the university’s management which you could sign, which also asks for fee refunds, see https://forms.gle/RnMNd8EK1CrwqiyJA  

What else can you do to help?

  • Lobby Leeds University Union to support UCU in this dispute (see the initial LUU statement)
  • Complain to the Vice Chancellor of the University (vice-chancellor@leeds.ac.uk and copy to  ucu@leeds.ac.uk). Whether you are in favour or against the strike your opinion is important and student concerns need to be heard. We suggest you also ask that the strike pay deductions are put towards the Student Hardship Fund and student mental health support.
  • Post your support on social media with #ucustrike and tag us – follow, like, retweet (we’re on Facebook and Twitter)
  • Join the march and rally on 4th December
  • Come to some of the ‘Striking Insights’ teach-out sessions and tell your  friends.
  • Download and share this poster (Word format)
  • Discuss the strike with other students and encourage them to support the strike.

Many thanks for your support. With enough pressure from staff and students, the employers will come back to negotiate and we can carry on teaching and learning.

Graphic image of strike dates: Monday 25th November to Friday 29 November then Monday 2 December to Wednesday 4 December.

This page was last updated on 28 November 2019

Joint unions meeting on pay 15th October

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

The pay, casualisation, equality and workloads dispute is a joint one with the other Higher Education trade unions. At the University of Leeds, we have two sister unions, Unison and Unite, who represent support staff, and all three unions are balloting for industrial action in this dispute.

We’ve organised a joint meeting to discuss the issues on Tuesday 15th October, 12 – 1, in Chemistry lecture theatre D (G35).

Hope to see you there!

UCU refers to this dispute as the ‘Four Fights’ (pay, casualisation, equality and workloads) – these four issues are interlinked. The detailed claim includes:

  • A pay increase of RPI plus 3% or a minimum increase of £3,349 (whichever is greater).
  • A 35 hour working week for all.
  • Action to close the gender pay gap, and to work on closing the ethnic pay gap, taking account of the ways in which intersectionality affects pay and grading.
  • A framework to eliminate precarious employment practices by universities, including ending zero hours contracts and moving hourly paid staff onto fractional contracts.
  • Nationally-agreed payment to recognise excessive workloads.


You can read the unions’ claim to the employers in full here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/10185/UCUBAN54-HE-pay-claim-2019-20/pdf/UCUBAN54.pdf

UCU has urged the employers to stop spinning and start talking. All three unions are urging their members to vote YESYES in this dispute, to show the employers that these are issues that staff care deeply about and which need to be properly addressed. If you haven’t returned your ballot papers yet, please do so as soon as possible (the ballot closes on 30 October). For any queries about the ballot please check our ballots FAQ.

This page was last updated on 14 October 2019