University of Leeds senior management has agreed to grant all staff a one-hour paid stoppage on Friday 24 September to support the youth climate strike taking place in Leeds. 

The time off was agreed following a joint request from UCU, Unison and Unite. 

A rally for all staff and students is planned on Parkinson steps* from 3.15pm on the 24th, marching to Millennium Square at 4.15pm to join the youth climate strike taking place there. The rally is co-organised by the Leeds Student Staff Climate Coalition, UCU, and a number of student societies.

The coalition is encouraging staff to join when they can, to show their solidarity with youth strikers around the world who have been campaigning to raise the climate emergency up the agenda. 

UCU committee and the Leeds Student Staff Climate Coalition also feel that the University is not doing enough to meet its own climate commitments. 

Simon Moore, the UCU committee’s lead on climate and the ecological emergency, said: “It has been nearly two and a half years since the university pledged its seven climate principles. Yet in that time we have witnessed almost a total vacuum in terms of actual changes on campus, and we still have no climate plan in place to achieve our targets. 

“If others feel like we do that our institution needs to urgently get its own house in order, then join us and make your voice heard next Friday.”

For more details about the climate rally on Parkinson steps, including Covid safety precautions, visit https://facebook.com/events/606672110499210/

(*There is ongoing discussion with university senior management about the use of the Parkinson steps; please follow any instructions given by rally organisers.)

This page was last updated on 21 September 2021