Author Archives: ucunorthwest

Campaign Success at Nelson and Colne College

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Nelson and Colne College – Post-TUPE Contract Negotiation Outcome

UCU have successfully negotiated improvements for Accrington & Rossendale members following the merger with Nelson and Colne College. These include:

  • Harmonised upwards to Nelson and Colne salary scale
  • Working week reduced by 2 hours
  • Maximum annual teaching reduced by 30 hours
  • Maximum weekly teaching hours reduced by 1 hour
  • Annual leave entitlement improved by 1 day
  • Probation period reduced by 4 months.

This is testimony to the organisation and hard work of the Branch.

Where UCU branches have reps and organisation we can secure better pay and conditions for members. Paid time off, UCU rep training and support from UCU officials is available. To discuss becoming a UCU rep in your workplace or if you would like to help find reps, please contact fenorthwest@ucu.org.uk or tel: 0161 772 7020

Bet you can help?

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The national launch of The Harmful Gambling Workplace Charter, facilitated by Unite the Union, Lancashire Care NHS Foundation and the Beacon Counselling Trust. Supported by the TUC.

 

This event brings together employers, trade unions and support organisations to launch, on a national basis, a workplace charter committing employers to support workers affected or at risk of developing the issue of harmful gambling. It provides a framework for action to help establish good practice around harmful gambling and work in their organisation, never been done before. The charter supports all types of employers and will be used as a resource and template on how to support staff affected or at risk of developing harmful gambling.

Booking

Free with Eventbrite: click here

Date and Time

Fri, 19 July 2019
12:00 – 15:30 BST

Location

Marriott Hotel
Garstang Road
Preston
PR3 5JB
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71% of university staff say insecure contracts have damaged their mental health

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A UCU report says staff are working unpaid, holding down multiple jobs and struggling to pay the bills.

Some hourly paid and part-time academics may be effectively earning less than the minimum wage and this is taking a toll on mental and physical health. Over two-thirds of respondents (71%) said they believed their mental health had been damaged by working on insecure contracts and more than two-fifths (43%) said it had impacted on their physical health. The report warns that the widespread use of casual contracts is damaging the quality of research and the education students receive.

Read UCU’s Counting the Cost of Casualisation in HE here.

Research Excellence Framework Success at LJMU

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UCU have been successful in severing ties between performance management and the local Research Excellence Framework (REF) Code of Practice.

In negotiations surrounding the REF Code 2021 the University accepted the purpose of REF as an assessment on the quality of the academic discipline and not individual staff performance.  This follows the UCU’s recent success in halting detrimental changes to their workload model which included proposals to reduce Research and Scholarly activity time.

Follow the branch on twitter here: @LJMUCU

 

Peterloo Bicentenary events, July and August 2019 at the Working Class Movement Library

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‘Ballads and songs of Peterloo’: Alison Morgan plus musicians

Alison Morgan’s new book includes over 70 poems, published either as broadsides or in radical periodicals and newspapers of 1819. Alongside her talk we will hear musical examples of some of the Peterloo broadside ballads from Pete Coe and Brian Peters.

Date and Time:

Wed, 3 Jul 2019
14:00 – 16:00 BST

Location:

Working Class Movement Library
 51 Crescent, Salford, M5 4WX
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For full details: click here

Our Sam, the Middleton Man – film screening

A screening of ReelMCR’s new community film about Samuel Bamford, radical reformer, writer, handloom weaver and leader of the Middleton contingent who walked to Manchester on 16 August 1819 in a peaceful protest which turned into what we now know as Peterloo.

Admission free.

Date and Time:
Sat, 3 Aug 2019
14:00 – 15:00

Location:
Working Class Movement Library
 51 Crescent, Salford, M5 4WX
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For full details: click here.

For all upcoming events at WCML, click here.

Joint Union Working Towards Green Jobs: 2 July from 1800 @Sackville Street Manchester

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Joint Union Working towards Training for Green Jobs.
Hosted by UCU

Tuesday July 2nd – 18.00 – 20.00 Council Chamber, Floor B, Sackville Street Building. University of Manchester (5 minutes from Piccadilly Station)
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Key Trades Unionists committed to a just transition to Green Jobs and to effective training, re-skilling and apprenticeships are invited to attend this Working Group event.

Aims:

  • To confirm the urgency of the Climate Emergency and the need for a skilled and well informed workforce
  • To put pressure on employers across the North West to invest in comprehensive, cross-sector training
  • To press for dedicated funding from regional bodies and central government to ensure a plan without gaps

The Committee on Climate Change demands a new industrial strategy for a Zero Carbon Britain by 2050 (2.05.2019) . http://www.theccc.org.uk

Extinction Rebellion show the United Nations Report warns of need for much more rapid responses. We will be seeing advice on the use of Union Learn and the support of other training providers to ensure the whole UK workforce can make huge changes to reduce the polluting gases that cause climate change. We will have to deal with floods and drought. We will transform the way we work. However, there are still people who don’t understand the science or how our current lifestyle effects the whole planet. There are workers who can be retrained, we need to have a coherent education and training strategy. The whole HR system needs an overhaul. Make the Green Industrial Revolution.

The North West can lead the way towards swift joined up training responses to the Climate Emergency.

For details contact sera.gm2019@gmail.com

 

Defend our future: defend USS 2019

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Defend our future: defend USS pensions

Earlier this month the union wrote to employers at USS participating institutions, calling on them to rule out pension benefit cuts or contribution increases with a deadline of 19 June 2019.  If the employers do not agree to our demands, the union’s higher education committee (HEC) will finalise plans for an industrial action ballot in September when it meets on 28 June. In the meantime please: