Occupation of Ziff building hits 48 hours as protestors speak with the Vice Chancellor

After over 48 hours in the Marjorie and Arnold Ziff Building, protest group ‘Occupy Leeds Uni’ still remain in the council chamber of the University of Leeds. The group, comprised of students who support the current UCU and UNISON strikes, is protesting what they call the University’s “abhorrent response to industrial action”.

‘Occupy Leeds Uni’ claims that it will maintain its occupation of the offices until management agrees to no pay deductions for staff taking part in the marking boycott and the Vice-Chancellor commits to resolving the Leeds UCU and Unison disputes by supporting their demands.

Yesterday, after meeting with Vice Chancellor Simone Buitendijk on Monday, the group posted a reel to their Instagram. In the clip, Buitendijk can be seen saying “Why are you striking? That’s what I am saying to strikers. Why are you striking when we can work together?” One of the occupiers responds with claims of “awful workloads” and “really low wages” of University staff. Buitendijk replies asking ‘Why do you think it’s so terrible? I mean, is it really that terrible?”

One member of the group, who is currently occupying the Ziff Building, spoke to The Gryphon and claimed that they were not spoken to by management until the evening until the evening. At that point, they were told that the University would not engage with them while the occupation persists and that ‘formal channels’ would be a better way to negotiate their demands.

They added that “spirits are still high and we’ve been having rallies everyday at 5pm at the ‘bacon’ statue. Tonight we’re having an open mic and [doing] some banner making. The security have been nice but currently we aren’t allowed any food to be brought in for us by staff.”

A University spokesperson said: “It is deeply regrettable that our community is one of only 20 from about 150 institutions nationally that is subject to this marking and assessment boycott.

“The University remains open to finding a resolution to this current period of industrial action, and many local actions are already in train through our Fairer future for all action plan, including cutting the use of fixed-term contracts, reviewing our workload principles and modelling, and initiatives around equity, diversity and inclusion.

“Senior management and local UCU branch members had a positive discussion at a scheduled meeting earlier this week, and we hope to continue talks in the coming days. In the meantime, our priorities remain to protect the interests of students – including minimising any disruption to them; to retain the cohesion of our community; and to protect the standard of Leeds degrees.”

Occupy Leeds Uni will be hosting their 3rd rally at 5pm today by the ‘bacon’ statue.