UCU NW at the Durham Miners’ Gala

Posted on 17th July 2019 by ucunorthwest

UCU North West Region delegation amongst the many who attended this year’s Durham Miners’ Gala.

The 135th Durham Miners’ Gala was held on Saturday 13th July 2019. It was a fantastic occasion that brought together comrades and friends from across the trade union and labour movement. The UCU activists and banners were proudly accompanied by the Bearpark and Esh Colliery Band on the march through the streets of Durham, which housed approximately 200,000 visitors. Our new General Secretary elect, Jo Grady, and UCU President Douglas Chalmers proudly brandished the UCU banner as we marched. The outstanding speaker of the day was surely Laura Pidcock MP, who spoke passionately to the racecourse thousands about her family’s mining roots and her pride in being part of our movement. Jeremy Corbyn also delivered a memorable speech to the adoring crowd and the General Secretaries of UNISON, Unite the Union, the CWU and the NEU did not disappoint. Roll on Durham 2020!

Janet Farrar, Secretary to the UCU NW Regional Committee

https://twitter.com/janetfarrarUCU/status/1150005513389780993

UCU NW support memorial for Suffragist Selina Cooper

Posted on 12th July 2019 by ucunorthwest

Regional Committee motion pledges financial support for Labour History Project education campaign and memorial in the Selina Cooper room at the Unity Hall, in Nelson, Lancashire.

In Nelson, Lancashire, a team of volunteers have put together an ambitious project to commemorate the life of suffragist, Selina Cooper. A former child worker, and the first woman to represent the Independent Labour Party (ILO) in 1901 on the Board of Guardians, Cooper became a national figure in the suffragist movement and a lifelong campaigner for the rights of women and the working class.

The UCU NW Regional Committee motion noted the importance of promoting the victories of the Trade Union movement and the particular importance of building public awareness of the women who fought for equality. The donation from UCU will assist the Labour History Project’s mobile display boards which will contain pictures and documents about Selina Cooper and the relevant period of Labour History. These boards will be used in Unity Hall and also taken out for community, school and college projects on this era.

For more information on Selina Cooper, click here.

13% Pay Increase Success at Trafford College for starting lecturers

Posted on 11th July 2019 by ucunorthwest

Trafford College Group 2018/19 Pay Deal Success

Following negotiations and a hard fought campaign against the backdrop of a merger with Stockport College, UCU have made gains for members in the Trafford College Group.
These include:

1% consolidated pay increase for lecturers & business support
Improvements to T&Cs for members at Stockport College including:
- Harmonisation upwards to Trafford College salary scale
- Additional 2 days annual leave
- Working week reduced by 2 hours per week
- Improvements to sick pay entitlement
Access to 2 additional pay points from 2020, an effective increase of 7% or £2,219 over 2 years
Minimum lecturer starting salary to increase by 13% or £2,397 per year.

Campaign Success at Nelson and Colne College

Posted on 11th July 2019 by ucunorthwest

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?

Posted on 11th July 2019 by ucunorthwest

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

Posted on 8th July 2019 by ucunorthwest

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

Posted on 2nd July 2019 by ucunorthwest

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

Counting the costs of casualisation: food banks and mental illness.

Posted on 1st July 2019 by ucunorthwest

A lack of job security in further, adult and prison education is making an army of workers mentally and physically ill – and forcing many to take on a second job and even to rely on food banks to make ends meet.

Read the report by Andrew Harden, UCU’s Head of Further Education in FE Week here

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

Posted on 28th June 2019 by ucunorthwest

‘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
View on map

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
View on map

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

Posted on 25th June 2019 by ucunorthwest

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)
View on map

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