UCU Left is committed to building a democratic, accountable campaigning union which aims to mobilise and involve members in defending and improving our pay and conditions and defending progressive principles of education.
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- UCU NEC Report March 2024National, not local, strategies are needed to win better pay and conditions Friday’s NEC showed that far from strengthening her position at the top of UCU after her re-election, Jo Grady will find it increasingly difficult. There will be no honeymoon period for the General Secretary as the strategy she is pushing will not help members. …
- UCU elections: A Pyrrhic victory for Jo Grady as left gains majority of seatsThe fourth UCU GS election is over, and Jo Grady is the victor. Grady argues that she now has a mandate to carry out the policies she campaigned over. The reality, though, is rather different. The GS presides over a more divided union compared to the one before the election started and an NEC which is …
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- Britain, Ireland and Palestine in the Wake of the First World WarProfessor Rashid Khalidi – Colombia University NY6pm 7 March 2024Register: https://bit.ly/BricupS6 British Committee for the Universities of PalestineSeminar Series 2023-4Palestine: Memory, Identity, Resistance All seminars are on-line events, and take place at 18.00-19.30 London time. They consist of a presentation by the guest lecturer, an exchange with a discussant, and then questions and contributions. Two years …
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- Strategy, democracy and the GS electionUCU General Secretary-incumbent Jo Grady has made a number of claims in her election campaign. In particular, she says that were she re-elected she would treat her strategy, as outlined in her manifesto, as being ‘endorsed’ by members, and expect all members of the union, including elected members of the NEC, to follow it. This is …
- UCU Left statement
No Racism in UCU – solidarity with BMSC and UCU StaffUCU Left members elected to the NEC stand in full solidarity with Unite UCU members representing those who work for the union, with the elected Black Members Standing Committee (BMSC), and with Black UCU members, in the labour to make visible & challenge institutional racism within UCU. Read the BMSC Statement on racism here. We support the …Continue reading “UCU Left statement
No Racism in UCU – solidarity with BMSC and UCU Staff” - Defend Coventry Adult & Community learning and nursery provisionCoventry City Council is planning to make drastic cuts across eight council services. The Coventry Adult Education Service (CAES) faces a deficit of almost £200,000, blamed on inflation and rising costs. In CAES, the entire team of 23 highly-skilled dedicated creche staff have been informed that their jobs will be ‘deleted’. Creches for learners’ children at …
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- Pay, Workload and a National Binding Agreement: Levelling up the sectorReport from the Special Further Education committee (SFEC) held on Friday 2nd of February 2024 The SFEC met to consider how to implement an aggregated ballot. This follows conference decisions to take our campaign forward if the employers have not addressed our claim for agreements that are binding on all employers. This year the sector will …
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- UCU Elections 2024Why you should vote for UCU Left candidates UCU Left is a large group of leading rank-and-file activists, officers and reps who are committed to making UCU both more effective and more democratic. The sectors we work in are under attack. Further Education has lost a million course places over the last decade. The employers do …
- Further Education Manifesto 2024
Introduction
For many people, colleges are places where mainly working-class adults and young people come for a second chance at education and to transform themselves and their lives. 1.6 million students go to college in England every year. Further Education (FE) is a source of education, transformation, empowerment and community – as well as employment. Despite the vital role we play, we receive less funding per head than other sectors. Moreover, for staff in FE the daily challenges of providing education to teenagers, and adults returning to education, have intensified since the pandemic.
- UCU Elections: time to transform UCU
Post-16 education is in crisis. Successive Conservative governments have slashed funding and ramped up a process of marketisation and privatisation across the sectors. That’s why UCU members have been at the forefront of resistance and on the picket lines across Higher and Further Education.