This year’s congress saw the exciting outcome of the the USS and FE strikes which transformed the union and led to the election of a left, grassroots general secretary – Jo Grady. (Click here for full analysis.)

UCULeft GS candidate Jo McNeill welcomed the result and said she looked forward to working with Jo by taking the fight over pensions and pay to the employers.

Congress reflected the union’s transformation and saw an emergence of many new activists speaking to motions and ideas which pushed the debates on industrial action and equality to the left.

Within hours of the new left GS being elected, the Telegraph had launched an attack on Jo Grady for her views on the trans debate. Nita Sanghera and Jo McNeill both read out statements of support and solidarity against such attacks.

FE REPRESENTATION AT CONGRESS

Motion 78, moves by IBL members in the name of Southampton branch, sought rule changes which would overall reduce representation and debate at congress but specifically and most damagingly reduce FE delegate representation by nearly 50%.

It also sought to remove lay members’ voice further from congress by removing all regional delegates, observers and rights to submit regional motions and amendments. This was one of the most contentious motions at congress and saw an unprecedented queue of over 80 speakers against, lining up to oppose the motion, including many of the IBL and  GS elect Jo Grady. It was rightly defeated with only two votes for and the whole of the rest of congress against.

FE Fight Back Continues!

The UCU Further Education Sector Conference (FESC) heard from a significant number of first-time delegates.

Branches that have not taken action for a number of years reported on their successes in winning their GTVO campaigns. Branches taking action are winning. This set the tone for a united FESC which resolved to launch a serious nationally coordinated campaign. FESC mapped out a strategy for a nationally coordinated pay and conditions campaign. National FEC officers stressed the need for branches to join the campaign. 40 colleges have so far participated in the nationally coordinated campaign. We need now need to line up another 40 to put in pay and conditions claims to keep the campaign going.

Branches are strongly encouraged to make a part 2 claim focussed on winning permanent contracts for hourly paid and casual members. We should follow the example of CCCG who won 5% plus 50 hourly paid members put on contracts (read about their campaign here).

We now have the potential for every FE branch in the country to launch a popular ballot and for a nationally coordinated strike.

Bradford College is facing 132 FTE job losses. This is reckless educational vandalism. Conference pledged our full solidarity and calls on the whole union to support them.

• West Midlands delegates called on conference to back the #savestourbridgecollege demonstration on 29 June.

• Delegates discussed the need for a National Education Service (NES).

• Many of the issues of rising workloads, poor education policy, inequity and inequality on pay were exacerbated by incorporation. Conference called for a lobby and march in autumn to end incorporation.

• Delegates voted to remove compulsory English and Maths introduced with new study programmes for 16-19 year old students; and to develop alternatives to GCSE and functional skills based on inspiring and relevant curriculums.

 The conference concluded with a session to discuss and share ideas from all the branches that have taken action. We heard from CCCG, Lambeth College, Tower Hamlets College, Hugh Baird College and Wolverhampton College as well as colleges that are preparing the ground to join the campaign like Leeds City College.

Branches outlined how they were able to develop popular and effective GTVO (Get the Vote Out) campaigns. Branches and regions need to leave conference with a plan to ensure every college joins the campaign by launching a claim now in preparation to ballot before summer. There will be several branches taking more action before the end of term like Tower Hamlets College that will need our support by sending messages of supports and collecting money. Decisions by FESC could see FE and HE fighting side by side together on pay and pensions. This fight will be a voice for education for human flourishing not competition and profit.

HE FIGHTING ON PAY AND PENSIONS

Pay and equality

HE Sector Conference rejected the report of the HE committee and the recommendations of the national pay negotiators, largely because it focussed on another consultative ballot on taking industrial action on pay.

Delegates pointed out the undermining effect on real ballots that consultative ballots can have.  HESC adopted motion HE4 committing the union to initiating a concerted campaign to win industrial action ballots for a fight over pay starting in the Autumn.

USS

Voice after voice supported us not giving an inch on loss of benefits or contributions.  There is no deficit and we know from the 2018 strike we can win.  Conference voted to call upon employers to pick up any additional contributions, including contingent contributions, and reiterated the unions position of no detriment.

Delegates resolved to take industrial action if the employers don’t agree to pick up additional employee contributions from Oct 2019. 

Conference called again for the resignation of the USS CEO and for a public enquiry into the undermining of the defined benefit scheme. This was in the context of UCU-appointed USS director, Jane Hutton, whistleblowing about her concerns with regard to the 2017 valuation. 

Conference condemned the irresponsible decision by Trinity College Cambridge to initiate withdrawal from USS and called for censure and academic boycott of Trinity.

See further analysis here https://uculeft.org/2019/06/the-fight-of-our-lives-round-2/

TPS

Conference also debated the looming crisis in the Teachers Pension Scheme, which covers members in post-92 universities and FE colleges. A delegate from Winchester University reported their success in using the threat of strike action to fight off compulsory redundancies which their management blamed on the increase in TPS employer contributions. He warned that the government’s marketisation strategy requires the bankruptcy at least one institution and that the increased burden of TPS was bringing that prospect closer.

A delegate from Coventry alerted conference to the tendency for some universities to force staff off TPS by employing them through subsidiary companies with vastly inferior pension arrangements. The mechanisms vary, but whether USS or TPS, our pensions are under attack. Conference instructed the leadership to raise the profile of its TPS campaign and to prepare for the fights that are inevitably on the way.

EQUALITY

Congress met just as EU election results were announced. The far right have begun to organise on campuses. Trump’s visit and success for right parties in Europe will give the racists here more confidence.

UCU members voted to mobilise against the far right, to open up its political fund to campaign against them and recognised that whether UCU members voted Leave or Remain racist Nigel Farage is a huge threat. 

Congress voted to organise an anti-racist campus tour with Stand Up To Racism and to back its international conference on 19 October. Some 90 delegates attended a Stand Up To Racism fringe meeting with Vice President Nita Sanghera. 

Important motions at congress and the FE and HE Sector conferences were debated on equality issues from casualisation to migrants rights and trans rights.

The obscene effects of fixed term contracts were highlighted again, including the effects on migrant staff whose visas preclude them from taking up posts of less than 12 months.

Movers of motions 83-85 for organisation and protection of migrants’ rights spoke passionately about the need for the union to create new spaces for migrants issues to be discussed and campaigned on. The opportunities for this new group to work alongside the existing Black Members Standing committee and for both committees to strengthen each other eg around free movement were welcomed by both groups.

The links with decolonising our institutions were made in the context of the EU funding research on the global south which researchers from the global south are precluded from participating in.

A boycott of London Senate House was agreed until outsourced workers there are brought back in house.

Motion HE32 on trans rights was fully debated. There were 2 amendments including one by the LGBT+ committee to “construct spaces in which gender diversity can be explored through respectful dialog …”  Because the motion as amended was not clear that people promoting transphobic views would not be invited into such spaces, the amended motion fell. 

Motion 18 on sexual harassment was passed with two elements remitted to the NEC. UCU Left NEC members are determined to make sure that the principles of this motion are taken forward.

Congress also voted to initiate a Civil Crimes Tribunal to investigate the breaches of human rights committees due to austerity and austerity driven government policies.

Motions on the following were debated:

• Race, gender and disability pay gaps

• Racism

• Mental health

• Sexual harassment

• Workloads

• Disability

• REF 

Lee Humber and TU Victimisation

Reinstate Lee!!

The motion passed at Congress on Saturday in support of the dispute at Ruskin College was a massive step towards getting Lee Humber reinstated after seven weeks of being suspended. Congress’s overwhelming support is a great boost for the Ruskin UCU branch and a clear reflection of the level of support shown by UCU members nationally.

The next steps

• Congress agreed to draw on the support shown by other trade unions and ask leaders of national unions to sign a public statement condemning the suspension and demanding Lee be reinstated.

• Second, Congress enthusiastically supported the call for our new GS, Jo Grady, to address a meeting in Oxford in support of Lee.

Both of these things are underway.

What can you do?

• Continue sending solidarity messages – this is vital to the moral of the branch.

• Continue to write to the Principal and the Chair of Board of Governors condemning this attack.

• Support any future demonstration called by the branch or by the national union.

This is an attack on a union officer. Any officer in any union is less safe if Lee does not get reinstated.

• Who can you approach in other unions local to you to raise support?    

Support Jo McNeill’s nomination for UCU General Secretary:

Why I’m Standing

UCU General Secretary Election

UCU Left are saddened to hear that our General Secretary, Sally Hunt, has decided to resign on grounds of ill health.  We were all sorry to learn, at the end of last year, that Sally had been diagnosed as having Multiple Sclerosis and had been working with this illness for several years. It is testament to her commitment to UCU, and the Labour Movement as a whole, that she continued for so long in her role despite having such a debilitating illness.

Sally has been the GS since the formation of UCU and has worked hard to build a union across all sectors in post-16 education. Throughout this period the union has become a significant force within the sector and within the labour and trade union movement as a whole.

In the pensions revolt of 2011 UCU played a major role in galvanising a movement that eventually saw the biggest strike in British working class history. As John McDonnell MP said at the time ‘UCU broke the log jam that allowed mass action to get off the ground’.

Sally, as GS, always listened and argued her corner for what she believed was right. We did not always agree. UCU Left has had many arguments with Sally about the direction of the union and how best we can create a union that is able to fight for the best for our members. On occasion these arguments have been passionate and robust.

Most recently around the USS dispute, after initially working with the left to win support for strike action, we felt that Sally and those around her lost their way.  As the union engaged in the most prolonged national dispute in its history, the desire to secure a deal led to the leadership attempting to win support for an offer that fell far short of what proved to be winnable.  As a new and energetic layer of members joined the union we believed that the union did not know how best to respond to the vibrancy these new members brought into the union.

We wish Sally the very best for whatever she decides to do in the next stage in her life. One thing we are sure of is that she will always be supportive of the struggles of working people. We would like to encourage members to listen to Sally’s speech as President of the TUC at the 150 Congress – it’s a powerful speech and a great summary of the importance of organised labour.

President’s address to TUC Congress 2018.

There will now be an election where the future course of the union will be debated.

We believe that there must be a united Left candidate to challenge the Right of the union and provide the kind of fighting leadership we will need in the challenging period ahead.

Report of the joint union (RMT, UNITE, UCU, UVW, IWGB) conference on precarious workers. It was a day of hard training and solidarity and demonstrates how important the fight for precarious workers is in fighting for good working conditions for everybody and an end to such unashamed exploitation.

https://neweconomics.org/2018/08/solidarity-in-action

Christina Paine

UCU NEC – Casualised Members Rep

Election runs from 3rd – 28th September

Equality Campaigns

The magnificent industrial action this year by members in universities and colleges shows that a serious fightback can deliver. I was a signatory of the #OurUCU statement at this year’s UCU Congress.

I want to establish campaigns that promote the fact that workplace racism can be tackled by the membership collectively. Too often Black members are left to challenge racism individually, by overloaded case workers and proving a case is difficult without collective support from the union. If elected I would support challenging employers directly for allowing policies that have a detrimental impact on all equality strands including Black members.

We still do not have enough Black professors and it’s 2018! This has to end. I would hope to give confidence to both Black members and branch officers to raise incidents of racism in their branches, and involve Black members more in the union structures so our concerns are effectively and collectively bargained for.

Equality for All

All equality areas need to be protected and fought for. In the era of austerity, anti Muslim racism, Trump, Grenfell, #metoo, Windrush and the growth of the far right, this is becoming increasingly urgent. We need to fight not just on bread and butter issues but on all areas.

A campaigning UCU – if elected I will:

• Campaign to end precarious employment that disproportionately impacts on Black and Women members. Permanent contracts for all casualised staff. End excessive workloads.
• Work with all in order to end austerity and defend the whole of post 16 education, involve the community to participate in advancing a vision of reversing discrimination.

• Make sure Black members issues become more central in the union.

If we are to address the challenges UCU faces, and defend educational access and progressive educational principles, we need to build strong branches and elect leaders who will fight to restore our pay and conditions, including a progressive Equality Charter to end unfair discrimination.

Biog

I am a student counsellor in Hackney specialising in progression to further and higher education for those most disadvantaged in education.

Experience in the union

UCU Branch Chair 2013 Hackney Adult and Continuing Education.

Co-organiser, Save ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Demonstration London 2007

Co-organiser of the Save ESOL Parliamentary Lobby, 2007. Over 1000 students and teachers attended.

Founding member of North East London Save ESOL Campaign and Adult Education 2007

Chair, Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning (CALL) London 2008

Co-organiser of several Parliamentary lobbies on Adult Education FE with MPs on ESOL and Adult Education since 2007

Founding member of Action for ESOL. Contributor to Action for ESOL Manifesto

Founding member of Black Members’ Network London 2016 – present

London Regional Committee Equalities Representative

Black Members’ standing Committee, 2017 – present

Member of UCU Left.

VOTE NAINA!

Download Naina’s election flyer here:

Naina Kent ucu left 2018

NEC1187 Motions from members

NEC1187A Motions and amendments from members

It’s official: Members and branches run this union

UCU NEC has accepted that the Recall Congress of UCU will now go ahead and debate motions 10 and 11.

A late paper was submitted to the NEC by the General Secretary (GS) updating delegates on talks with UNITE over Congress debating motions 10 and 11. In it the GS, whilst agreeing with UNITE that these motions undermine staff terms and conditions, states that she

‘will not be able to achieve, given the view of congress, UNITE’s wish, that the contentious motions 10 and 11 are not debated’

In the same paper the chair of UNITE branch has withdrawn any suggestion that disruption would take place if motions 10 or 11 are debated and congress. The chair of the UNITE branch states that,

‘I believe that we can now suspend the dispute….. Given the suspension of the dispute… UNITE will not therefore hold emergency members meetings at the second congress on the basis that motions 10/11 being debated…’

It is clear the majority of congress delegates and UCU branches did not consider this dispute to be about staff conditions of work but instead saw it about trade union democracy. UCU Congress and branches have asserted their control over the majority of the UCU NEC and can now debate motions critical of elected officials.

This is a direct result of the power of the rank and file activists in the union winning arguments for democracy across the branches and preventing the dominant group in the NEC, the Independent Board Left (IBL), from preventing discussion of censure or no-confidence in the General Secretary, or any other elected member.

Branch after branch has voted to allow motions calling for censure and no-confidence in the General Secretary be debated. No-one at the NEC reported on any branch of UCU that took a contrary view.

The battle for rank and file control continues…

However, the debate over democracy in the union is not over, and instead will continue behind the scenes.

Two further motions were discussed: the Congress motion for a Democracy Commission and a motion from the Welsh UCU committee, calling for an independent inquiry into Congress 2018. Both are in danger of being hijacked by the IBL NEC majority as they attempt to reassert control over the union.

The majority on the NEC, with the support of the GS, wish to reverse the outcome of the last democracy commission of five years ago. This was the last attempt by the IBL-led by the GS to weaken the role of elected lay members on the NEC through dramatically cutting the size of the NEC and introducing a union run by plebiscites. Congress halted this attempt to curtail union democracy last time. We will need to do the same again.

Neither motion was aimed at preventing members control over the union, quite the reverse, but both are being interpreted in this way.

• The Democracy Commission is being set up with calls for a ‘root and branch’ re-writing of our structures, rules and procedures with the membership drawn from far and wide. This was exactly the kind of language that was used last time the IBL and the GS tried to introduce procedures that attempted to bypass the democratic elected regional, national and branch structures.
• Election ‘by and from branches, regions, devolved nations and advisory committees’ is being interpreted to give maximum representation for the existing bureaucracy of committees at the expense of branch reps and Congress. Nearly half the representatives will be delegated from small union committees, with only 22 elected from branches. The Left now has little choice but to ensure that the Democracy Commission has as many genuine activists on it as possible, but we need to understand how loose wording of motions and a lack of clarity of the aims and objectives of the DC has created an opening for the Right. We want more democracy, they want less; the Democracy Commission can go either way.

The IBL and the GS recognise that if they are to get control of the union then they will need to set up structures that bypass Congress and all the other sovereign policy making bodies. This will be done through the usual trick of more member surveys.

The motion submitted by delegates from Wales UCU calling for an independent enquiry also leaves the interpretation of what took place at Congress in the hands of other trade union officials who will see rank and file vibrancy as a threat in the same way as our officials do.

More plebiscites from the General Secretary

The General Secretary took the unusual step of putting a proposal to NEC for voting on, in which members will be consulted on whether UCU should support a second referendum on Brexit. UCULeft NEC members argued that UCU policy is decided by Congress and questioned why the GS is instead taking a proposal to the NEC which appears to bypass Congress less than a month ago. Concerns were also raised about the process of the consultation, how the debate will be informed, how the result will be used and so on but these were ignored, and the GS’s proposal was approved by the IBL majority vote.

The GS announced a further consultation regarding the industrial action commission, despite the findings and conclusions having already been voted on at congress. Again this was approved by the IBL voters.

Recalling Congress

In the paper that was circulated on the Recall Congress, the officials conceded that in fact there is no rule that delegates need to be re-elected and confirmed that this will be clarified to members.

NEC was given a choice of two dates for the Recall Congress: Thursday 19th July and Thursday 18th October.

Left NEC members (FE and HE) argued that FE delegates in the vast majority would not be able to get time off from their employers to attend Congress during term time. It was suggested that the Recall Congress should be called in the holidays, in the same way and for the same reason that Congress is, and a request was made for a Saturday to allow FE representation. UCULeft NEC members offered to help find a venue. None of these suggestions were accepted. NEC was given the choice of voting for one of these dates, or neither. The October date received the most votes. This raises serious issues of marginalisation of FE inside our union.

The paper on NEC elections was moved with no debate allowed. According to the rules, the growth of membership in HE has meant that the Midlands seats will now be 3 from HE and only 1 from FE. This is a loss of one seat in FE and now means that one person from FE is now representing this entire region. This is despite the fact FE membership has also grown. Of course it would take a rule change to get the formula amended. But the chair, despite having previously agreed allowing speakers, allowed no speakers on this paper and moved immediately and quickly to a request for approval, with no vote even taken. This is another blow to the representation of FE inside UCU and is effectively our union accepting the government strategy to shrink our sector as a way of shrinking working class participation in the education system. If the union wants to engage members then it should be increasing seats for example a second casualised seat from pre 92 sector, rather than another attack on FE.

A motion calling for the #OurUCU statement, signed by the majority of Congress delegates, to be circulated to all members, was voted down by the IBL.

Motions put by UCULeft NEC members opposing Trump and the rise of fascism and the far right were passed.

UCU is in transformation. There is a power struggle within the union.

What took place at Congress was a reflection of that struggle between newly engaged members and a conservative layer of nationally elected officers and their supporters within the full time apparatus. Whilst those new voices have secured an important victory in allowing motions to be debated that allow members to hold to account elected officials we need to remain alert to what is now been unleashed.