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.
Posts
- Time to get organised to win the HE ballot!
UCU members will need to get organised to win the ballots in Higher Education. After the UCU Rising campaign on Wednesday 10th August, it’s all hands on deck to deliver the hard-hitting, ‘transformative’ campaign promised by UCU HQ. We are in the middle of a huge fight over pay across every sector across the UK, from …Continue reading “Time to get organised to win the HE ballot!”
- HEC report 1 July 2022HEC unites around a programme to rebuild the disputes
The Higher Education Committee met on Friday to discuss the state of the industrial action campaigns over Four Fights and USS. It was the first opportunity for HEC to meet since the HE Sector Conference and a Branch Delegate Meeting.
After some debate, HEC voted overwhelmingly (with only 6 votes against) to support a strategy involving updating the grounds of dispute, triggering dispute procedures, and building a serious campaign for action in the Autumn term, with a conjoined ballot if the employers do not move.
Continue reading - Leadership manoeuvrings threaten democracy as well as our disputes
In the wake of three days of national rail strikes, Higher Education delegates met on Monday to discuss next steps in the UCU’s Four Fights and USS disputes. The Branch Delegate Meeting was set up in such a way as to provide the grounds to avoid initiating the summer ballots that our recent Sector Conference had …Continue reading “Leadership manoeuvrings threaten democracy as well as our disputes”
- Statement by UCU Left on ending of constitutional right to abortion in USA
The decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe versus Wade is a major attack on women’s rights and on abortion rights. It has many implications for the right to privacy and many other constitutional rights. In the USA it will mean abortion is legal in some states and not others. This means women who live …Continue reading “Statement by UCU Left on ending of constitutional right to abortion in USA”
- The resistance is growing – we need to be part of it
Monday’s Branch Delegates Meeting (BDM) on the Four Fights and USS disputes takes place in a radically different context than even the debates had so recently at UCU Congress. The strikes by railworkers and the performance of the RMT union’s General Secretary, Mick Lynch, on the media – putting clear and sensible arguments about the fact …Continue reading “The resistance is growing – we need to be part of it”
- Victory to the RMT: We marched together now let’s STRIKE together
The RMT strike, the biggest for over 30 years, points to the direction of travel for the whole of the trade union movement. 40,000 rail workers struck across Britain and several thousand Tube workers did the same in London. The TUC demonstration, which saw tens of thousands march through central London, was not only bigger than …Continue reading “Victory to the RMT: We marched together now let’s STRIKE together”
- Defend our democracy: Summer ballot now
Here we go again! Once again, the General Secretary is doing everything she can to undo the decisions taken at the recent HE Sector Conference on next steps in the Four Fights and USS disputes. She has today sent out a document inviting branches to express their opinion on the timing of ballots and action in … - UCU Left NEC report, Friday 17th June 2022
Friday’s UCU National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting was the first meeting of the newly-elected committee after Congress. The General Secretary gave her report, which she also recorded for broadcast. HE disputes The General Secretary was questioned on the line in her report saying that new grounds need to be established for both the Four Fights and USS …Continue reading “UCU Left NEC report, Friday 17th June 2022”
- Defending post 16 education: taking the fight to the next levelFrom the pandemic to the cost-of-living crisis, war and the failure to tackle the climate crisis, the employers and government are determined to make us pay with a sustained attack on our wages, pensions and jobs. The magnificent strikes in HE over the Four Fights and USS pensions have shown (and continue to show) the real …
Continue reading “Defending post 16 education: taking the fight to the next level”
- Congress sends a strong message to the General SecretaryYesterday’s Congress debate around democracy in UCU and the conduct of the USS and Four Fights disputes in Higher Education showed a deep unease amongst delegates about the General Secretary’s leadership and her attempts to ignore democratic decisions made by UCU members. Motion L1 from Brighton (narrowly won) and the Dundee censure motion 19 (narrowly lost) exposed …
Continue reading “Congress sends a strong message to the General Secretary”