In March we emailed to thank you for your contributions to the hardship fund of our striking colleagues at The University of Sheffield, who were fighting against the proposed changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension fund. Our collection at the branch AGM raised £134.57 and £25 in food vouchers, and the Branch Committee passed an emergency motion to send a further £250. These funds were prioritised to striking UCU members at Sheffield undergoing financial hardship during the dispute – primarily lecturers on ‘casual’ contracts and postgraduate students with teaching responsibilities.

In April we received the following message of thanks from the UCU branch president at Sheffield:

On behalf of Sheffield UCU I would like to express our sincere thanks for your donation to the local strike hardship fund.  Your solidarity is much appreciated and we would want to reciprocate should your branch have a future need.

The dispute ended on 13^th April with 64% of the affected members voting to accept an offer from Universities UK. The offer promised the convening of a ‘Joint Expert Panel’ to ‘agree key principles to underpin the future joint approach of UUK and UCU to the valuation of the USS fund’ and to explore alternative scheme designs with a view to preserving the Defined Benefit scheme. For now at least, the proposed move to Defined Contribution has been taken off the table.

However many branches – including Sheffield – are deeply unhappy about the offer negotiated by the UCU Higher Education Committee and Leadership.  The failure to secure a ‘no detriment’ clause, the proposed Joint Expert Panel’s lack of transparency, and what some view as the tacit promotion of the UUK offer by UCU leadership led a number of branches to try and unseat the General Secretary at UCU’s national conference this month. This effort resulted in some fraught scenes and ultimately did not succeed, but controversy around the leadership’s perceived failure of its members is unlikely to go away.

Despite these current difficulties, it is important to recognise what our UCU colleagues have achieved. In what was possibly the biggest ever strike in UK Higher Education, UCU members managed to unite lecturers, support staff and students in opposition to the proposals. Public support remained high throughout the dispute, and – remarkably – even the Conservative Universities Minister failed to condemn the action when given the chance.

In the longer term the successful action has showcased the financial viability of shared Defined Benefit schemes, and also hopefully warded off any immediate questions around post-92 universities’ participation in TPS and LGPS. A change in the law is required to remove our right to access these schemes, however calls for ‘fairness’ and parity with USS would undoubtedly have been used against us if the strike had failed. The strike also symbolised for many a strong rejection of the continued marketisation of Higher Education.

The branch extends its best wishes and thanks to our UCU colleagues, for their courageous defence of our employment rights.

Come to a special screening of Ken Loach’s award-winning film I, Daniel Blake, provided by Sheffield Trade Union Council.

Daniel Blake (59) has worked as a joiner most of his life. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the state. A deeply moving, starkly realistic story of a man thrust into the benefits system after suffering a heart attack.

7pm, Monday 23 January

Trades and Labour Club, 200 Duke Street Sheffield S2 5QQ

Entrance free but donation of £2 welcome to cover cost

In October 2016 over 1,500 people – including Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Alf Dubs – launched a mass movement against racism.

The idea is to build a network of activists within local communities and amongst the trade union movement to combat attempts to divide ordinary people by defending the positive migrant workers play in Britain, support refugees and confront racism, islamophobia and antisemitism.

At our last Branch Committee a motion was passed to

• affiliate to Stand Up to Racism, publicise its initiatives to members in our branch, and to be part of the Sheffield Stand Up to Racism Committee
• send two delegates from our branch (as well as our union banner) to the Stand Up to Racism Trade Union Conference on 4 February 2017 in London
• support and build the TUC-backed Stand Up to Racism demonstration on 18 March (UN Anti-Racism Day)

With this in mind, the branch is supporting and inviting members to attending the following protest in Sheffield, which is part of a number of protests organised around the country in solidarity with those who will be protesting in America.

No to Trump’s racism

Protest his inauguration

Friday 20 January

5pm

Outside Sheffield Town Hall

https://www.facebook.com/events/187539855047814/

Threshold for ‘important public services’ takes effect on 1 March; political fund opt-in rules transition period starts on same day read more

The AGM for the Collegiate Campus will be held on Tuesday 28 February.

The AGM for the City Campus will be held on Wednesday 1 March.

Full details to follow shortly.

Save the date – this year’s social will be on Wednesday 7 December at the Millennium Galleries opposite the main entrance at City Campus.

We’ll email you full details soon, but expect free goodies, lunch and fun, as well as a chance to learn more about dealing with restructures and managing sickness absence and stress in the workplace.

More details to follow.

When a member has been off work due to illness for six weeks or more our branch would like to send a card to wish them well and to remind them of the support services UNISON offer.

As part of the scheme we also offers a welfare gift to the member with the choice of one of the following gifts: chocolates, flowers or a fruit/veg box.

If you know of a UNISON member in your area who is off sick please let us know by  emailing unison@shu.ac.uk  with their name and we will get in touch.

Dave Prentis has today been re-elected as General Secretary of UNISON, the UK’s largest public sector union.

Voting in the ballot was as follows:

• Roger Bannister 16,853 (12.6 per cent)
• John Burgess 15,573 (11.6 per cent)
• Dave Prentis 66,155 (49.4 per cent)
• Heather Wakefield 35,433 (26.4 per cent)

Continue reading →

Do you take a regular lunch break away from your desk?

In a survey of 1000 people half of them claimed they were too busy to take a break for lunch. However, Emma Donaldson-Fielder, a chartered occupational psychologist advises that working through your lunch can be counter-productive. “As a general rule, taking at least 30 minutes away from your desk will help you be more effective in the afternoon,” she says. “A break is an opportunity to relax and think of something other than work.”

In the survey, half of those who skipped lunch breaks said that they felt irritable, stressed and ineffective all afternoon as their energy flagged. The conclusion is that businesses could be losing millions of pounds in lost productivity because their workforce is burning out.

Additionally, we could be unwittingly damaging our emotional life and our health. “We’re working so much on computers that we’re not having eyeball-to-eyeball contact with colleagues,” says Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University. “Lunch breaks are an opportunity to talk to colleagues, build teamwork and create a synergy for generating ideas, and this is even more vital in a recession when fewer people are having to do more work. As it is, we’re emailing people who sit five desks down from us and we’re scared to leave the office for an hour because we know there will be 20 emails awaiting us on our return.”

UNISON takes workplace stress seriously and taking a break at lunch time is one way we can reduce our stress levels. Please answer this short survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PTV7WPF so that we can get a picture of what is happening at SHU (it should take no more than a few minutes).