Category: Meetings

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Report from FEC 26th September 2024

The FEC met for the first time this academic year. The FEC considered how to advance the New Deal for FE as part of our England pay claim.

This follows the election of a Labour government in the General Election and the decision not to extend the 5.5% pay award for teachers to FE workers.

Staff unions will meet the AoC later this month at the National Joint Forum (NJF) where they are expected to make a formal recommendation on pay. As well as a special working group meeting to explore introducing binding national negotiations.

The UCU will roll out a series of briefing this month in light of those and outline the nature of our campaign.

We encourage reps and activists to join us at the Defend Post-16 Education under Labours Starmer conference on the 19th of October.

Register here and for updates.

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One step forward

It is a step forward that in the committee secretary’s report to the FEC that the emphasis is on a national campaign and securing binding national bargaining. FE England is now the poorest relation of the UK education sector and the only part not covered by binding national sector bargaining. This was actually the rationale given by the government to decline to extend the pay award to FE workers.

It is right that the unions focus is now on securing binding national negotiations (BNN) not just local bargaining. But unfortunately that has not been the case up to now. At the Special Further Education Conference in April the conference was persuaded that now was not the time to prioritise winning national binding agreements. Some on the FEC leadership likened this to chasing unicorns!

Arguments against securing national binding agreements included:

  1. That the AoC has no power to implement a binding framework due to incorporation.
  2. The employers were not interested
  3. Even if those barriers were not there, we can’t take national action because it’s illegal.

Since then, the AoC have agreed to set up a working group to look at the feasibility of implementing a binding national bargaining framework. They are due to present an initial rough costing to staff unions at a meeting this October as a basis to make the case to Government to set up a funded sector bargaining framework. This could be a first step toward a broader aim of establishing national terms and conditions – the employers’ words.

We could have been positioned far better than we are and need to run to catch up to the possibilities of levelling up in England.

Whilst it is early days and not all employers share the same views there is clearly more scope for BNN among employers than some had argued. What is important is it is now recognised now that we need national binding not just going for local deals as the main lever to improve pay and conditions.

It is hoped there can be more traction with the DofE due to the change of government and that can help the union communicate our aims and objectives (a motion was carried to emphasise the need for this work to develop further).

None of this means we will necessarily achieve BNN. It is likely that some form of new bargaining arrangement could be introduced. But will it be favourable to us or the employers? It will be far easier to shape a new binding framework with action now, than try to unpick an unfavourable version later.

A series of campaign briefing this October will roll out the New Deal for FE campaign and report back from meeting with the AoC.

Anger

There is a great deal of anger that FE staff were not included in the 5.5% pay award to teachers.

A motion (below) was brought to the FEC calling for an indicative national ballot to take action if we were not offered the same pay award as teachers.

It was argued that this would take resources away from campaigns, that an indicative ballot must be a prelude to a national statutory ballot and this was not within policy set by the SFEC.

These arguments opposing an indicative ballot seem to miss the point that FE members want their voice heard. This would be complimentary to the New Deal for FE campaign and give us more leverage in talks. Members expect us to act on this outrageous decision.

It is therefore disappointing that the motion tied 9 in favour and 9 against. In such a case the status quo ante prevails and therefore the motion fell. An amendment linked to the motion emphasising our claim as part of an indicative ballot also fell.

As the Committee Secretary point made clear. It is not for us to simply describe the situation; we have to act if we want to change it. Unfortunately, half of the FEC members failed to rise to this challenge again.

Parliament lobby

A rescheduled lobby and MP briefing will take place on Wednesday 23 October 5-7pm. More details with be circulated.

The case for binding national negotiations and petition. For circulation to all members.

Campaign resources.

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Adult Community Education (ACE)

A change in government policy for adult community education funding means that the Adult Education Budget (AEB) is now called Adult Skills Fund, published by the education and skills funding agency (ESFA). The focus will be a further shift on skills for jobs and a narrowing of funding for non – qualification learning.  UCU needs to defend a broad-based curriculum offer in ACE and in FE that meets the needs of everyone in our communities, not just those who are seeking and are ready for employment, but also for our pensioners and those with SEND needs. But also for the joy of learning for its own sake! The arts and humanities in ACE and FE as in higher education is under attack – we urgently need to defend arts education.

Conditions and pay for ACE staff since incorporation mean that ACE pay and conditions for ACE staff is chaotic with no nationally agreed binding arrangements. Some staff in local government are on the Green Book and some on the Pink book, some branches have no negotiations at all and no pay award.

For the last few years, we have put in motions to FEC and NEC arguing that this has to change.

We want consultation and a national set of demands such as starting pay to be the same as FE and transferring all staff in ACE on zero hours to decent contracts. As part of this campaign, we are drafting a template letter to all Regional UCU officers to send to the mayors of the devolved local authorities calling for the setting up of local mechanisms to make sure UCU ACE has a voice at the table when terms and conditions are set and a commitment to no zero hours contracts and good work standards

We are calling for all in ACE to attend the ACE meeting on the 6 November 4.00pm online to 5.15pm. Look out for email for a registration link and voice your views on pay and terms and conditions.

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Motion 1: Indicative ballot on pay (Fell)

FEC notes:

  • The government is implementing the School Teachers’ Review Body of a fully funded 5.5% pay award for 2024/25, but have stated this will not be extended to FE teachers.
  • This will further widen the pay gap between schoolteachers and FE teachers.

FEC believes:

  • UCU must apply pressure on the government to increase funding for FE pay – this requires national action

FEC resolves:

  • To launch an indicative national ballot of England FE members, asking whether they are willing to take industrial action over pay, if the government refuses to implement the same pay award as offered to the teachers.

Amendment to Motion 1 (Fell)

From FEC resolves. Remove “if the government refuses to implement the same pay award as offered to the teachers” and insert “in pursuit of our pay claim as laid out in the new deal for FE.”

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Motion 3: Towards a pay settlement for FE England (Carried)

FEC recognises:

  • UK/devolved governments settled the long-standing, pay-claims of workers who were loud and active in pursuing national campaigns and national action, notably train drivers, school teachers and FE in the rest of the UK
  • The government ignored FE claims in England
  • The AoC has taken no initiative in negotiations other than hiding behind the STRB and the lack of special funding from the government
  • The GS and her team have made strenuous efforts to engage with the SoS Education and have been rebuffed

FEC resolves:

  • UCU should enter an open dialogue with DfE, pressing and planning for new legislation to amend the relationship of Colleges with the DfE, promoting a National FE Service and a National FE Pay scale which Colleges implement as a result of BNN.
  • UCU will report to FEC on these talks with the DfE 

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A majority of the FEC united to oppose the far right. Calling on all members to take to the streets on October 26th and to encourage UCU branches to organise themed learning weeks to celebrate multiculturalism. 

Motion 2: Stop far right multiculturalism and themed learning week (Carried)
 

FEC notes:

  • The terrifying rise of racists and fascists on our streets with Tommy Robinson mobilising marches of thousands.
  • The racist riots over the summer and attempts to set hotels housing refugees on fire.
  • Anti-racists and anti-fascists successfully mobilised against them.
  • FE colleges teach many students who are refugees and migrants, with a large proportion of staff and students from ethnic minorities.

FEC believes:

  • Our colleges must be places that celebrate multiculturalism.
  • As educators within our community, we have an important role to play in stopping the growth of racism and fascism.

FEC resolves to:

  • Call on FE branches to organise a Themed Learning Week this term and to be sent this out in Friday emails.
  • UCU to facilitate the sharing of ideas and resources between FE branches.
  • Call on members to support the SuTR TUC backed counter demonstration on October 26th in Central London.

https://standuptoracism.org.uk

Stop the far right ‘Unite the Kingdom’ protests on Saturday 28th September London – stop the far right – no fascists in London
Stop the far right ‘Unite the Kingdom’ protests on Saturday 28th September London – stop the far right – no fascists in London

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Education and policy

The FEC heard from UCU policy unit on a range of policies. Labour have not made good on their earlier commitments to pause and review around the BTEC reforms. This is an area that urgently needs addressing with limited pause and review not sufficient to stop this disastrous policy.

The issue of GCSE resits for English and maths should also be front and centre of the unions campaigning. 30% of young people leave school without achieving maths and English. The outcomes for college students are at an all-time low. There are many voices now highlighting the harm this policy is doing to young people and the need for a genuine alternative to compulsory GCSE resits.

See here.

Scrap resits? Yes, but we must go much further

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Notices

  • Defending Post-16 Education under Starmer’s Labour – a call for participation

Saturday October 19th.

UCU London Region initiated and supported by UCU branches at City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College, New City College Poplar branch, Merton College, Chichester College, Kingston College, York College, Lewisham College, Morley College, South & City Birmingham branch, Liverpool University, Liverpool John Moores University, London Metropolitan University, University College London, Imperial College London, Strathclyde University, University of Kent, York St John University, Newcastle University, Royal Holloway University of London, University of Greenwich, University of Dundee, University of Leicester, Brighton University, Royal College of Art, Y&H retired members and others tbc.

Click here for more details and to register.

  • National demonstration. One year on: stop the genocide in Gaza, hands off Lebanon October 5th

https://palestinecampaign.org/events/national-demo-for-palestine-5-october-2024/

  • Workplace day of action ceasefire now 10th October

The TUC conference voted to support a national day of action in workplaces in opposition to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the spread of war.

Call a protest at your workplace.

See also UCU Ceasefire page: https://www.ucu.org.uk/CeasefireNow

  • Solidarity with 5 colleges in North East striking for a decent pay rise

UCU members at Bede Sixth Form College, NETA Training Group, Stockton Riverside College, The Skills Academy, and Redcar and Cleveland College will down tools on Thursday 10 October as part of a long running dispute over pay.

https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/13736/New-strike-date-at-five-North-East-colleges

  • Annual Adult Community Education (ACE) conference

November 6th more details to follow

  • UCU Equality Groups conference

Thursday 28 November – Saturday 30 November

Click here for details and to register.

Peter Evans, Hammersmith, FE LGBT+ Rep
Safia Flissi, South & City College Birmingham FE Women’s Rep
Naina Kent, Hackey Ace, FE UK elected
Richard McEwan, New City College, FE London & East
Regine Pilling, Westminster Kingsway, FE London & East
Sean Vernell, City and Islington College, FE UK elected

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Britain, Ireland and Palestine in the Wake of the First World War

Professor Rashid Khalidi – Colombia University NY
6pm 7 March 2024
Register: https://bit.ly/BricupS6

British Committee for the Universities of Palestine
Seminar Series 2023-4
Palestine: 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 after the end of the First World War, Britain’s control of Palestine was legitimised by the Mandate granted by the League of Nations. That Mandate lasted until Britain withdrew in 1948, the year of the Nakba – the expulsion of the majority of Palestinians from their land by Zionist forces, and the formation of Israel as a state recognised by the United Nations. In the Balfour declaration of 1917, Britain had promised such a ‘national home for the Jews’ in Palestine, and during the mandate period over 100,000 Jewish immigrants arrived in Palestine.

In Ireland, a year after the end of the First World War, Irish Republicans won the election of 1918. In the face of British intransigence, the Irish War of Independence against British rule began in 1919, and lasted until ended by the Treaty of 1921. At the insistence of the British, however, this Treaty carved out of Ulster’s nine counties the six which had a Protestant majority, and were thus likely to remain loyal to the British Empire. Acceptance of the Treaty by the majority of deputies in the Irish Parliament (the Dáil Éireann) divided Irish Republicans, and led to a civil war that lasted until 1923.

Professor Khalidi will consider what can be learned from a comparison between Britain’s Imperial policy in Palestine and its Imperial designs in the case of Ireland.

Rashid Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Colombia University, New York. He is the joint editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, and was the sole editor from 2002-2020.

Professor Khalidi is the author, inter alia, of The Hundred Years War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 (Metropolitan, 2020), Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. has Undermined Peace in the Middle East (Beacon, 2013), Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East (Beacon, 2009), The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (Beacon, 2006), Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East (Beacon, 2004), and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (Colombia, 1993). Closely related to his work on British policy towards Ireland and Palestine after the First World War, is one of his earlier books, British Policy Towards Syria and Palestine, 1906-1914 (Ithaca, 1980).

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UCU Left Pre Congress Meeting

UCU’s annual Congress takes place at a crucial time for the union and with its leadership under increasing scrutiny.

As we gather in Glasgow, Higher Education branches will probably still be participating in a UK-wide marking and assessment boycott, with many members potentially suffering punitive pay deductions. Serious local attacks, like the threat of mass redundancies at Brighton University, are adding to the sense of crisis and the challenges facing the union.

Decisions to mount a national pay campaign in Further Education are being implemented hesitantly at best, threatening to waste the opportunity to take a huge step forward in uniting the sector.

The outcome of voting on motions at Congress and the two Sector Conferences will determine the future of the General Secretary -who faces motions of censure – and the direction of the union as a whole.

Join this meeting to discuss the key issues and prepare for Glasgow 2023.

Register in advance: bit.ly/UCUL_PreCongress2023

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No sellout. Keep up the action. Strike to win

Jo Grady has today upped the stakes in her attempt to call off action and capitulate in our UCURising disputes.

While many of us were marching alongside striking teachers, civil servants and junior doctors, and while Jo Grady was herself delivering a rousing speech at the rally in Trafalgar Square, UCU HQ was emailing members to invite them to vote in an ‘informal’ e-ballot on an ‘offer’ from the employers.

There is no new offer from the employers. The pay award rejected by 80% of UCU members a few weeks ago has not changed and remains imposed by the employers. The hopes that USS benefit cuts will be reversed during the next year remain hopes rather than firm commitments.

The only additional elements that Jo Grady can point to are a series of agreed terms of reference for talks on casualisation (contract types), pay equality and workloads. These represent nothing more than a commitment from UCEA to discuss these issues over the coming months. They come with no promises that any HE institution will implement anything that may come out of these talks.

Jo Grady is selling this ‘offer’ as a major breakthrough. It is nothing of the sort, and the General Secretary knows it. If it were, she would not need to work so hard to convince members.

The ‘informal’ e-ballot represents a manipulation of democracy of the worst kind. According to the rules of the union, it is the elected Higher Education Committee (HEC), and HEC alone which decides whether an offer in an HE dispute should be put to members to be accepted or rejected. If HEC decides to put it to members, it should make a clear recommendation to members as to which way to vote.

Jo Grady has gone over the heads of the HEC to try and end the dispute at all costs. She is hoping that confusion and strike fatigue among members combined with her misrepresentation of the ‘offer’ will deliver a big enough Yes vote in this ‘informal’ ballot to pressure HEC into calling off next week’s strikes and ending the dispute.

We should have none of this. Many branches have urged their members not to vote until branch meetings take place which can discuss the situation, decide on their position and elect delegates to the BDM to represent their collective view.

We need the strongest possible expression of opposition to Jo Grady’s attempt to capitulate to the employers. The BDM must decisively throw out this ‘offer’. Members should attend the lobby of the HEC meeting at Carlow Street at 1.30 on Friday called by UCU Left members of HEC.

Our sister union, Unison, has taken the decision that the offer is so poor that it is not worth putting to their members. UCU HEC should take the same decision and refuse to call off the strikes.

UCU Left pre-BDM Open Meeting

2pm Thursday 16th March

Zoom registration bit.ly/UCULeftPreBDM

Read UCU Left’s statement from this morning here: https://uculeft.org/no-more-pauses-no-suspension-of-action-strike-to-win/

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Getting the HE disputes back on track

Delegates from dozens of branches gathered at a Branch Delegate Meeting yesterday to discuss where we are in the HE disputes. The meeting was called by London Region UCU in the absence of a BDM organised by UCU HQ.

It is clear that the ‘pause’ in action called by our General Secretary has caused enormous anger and confusion among members. Delegates reported on the discussions that have taken place in their branches since that decision was announced. 

There was near-unanimity that not only had there be insufficient movement from the employers to justify suspending strike action, but the decision was not the General Secretary’s to make. No e-plebiscite based on a loaded question retrospectively justifies the exclusion of elected negotiators, the Higher Education Committee (HEC) and the entire membership from decision-making.

Many branches have passed motions supporting the addition of more strike days in the weeks of 13th and 20th March to replace the cancelled days, including especially March 15th, Budget Day, when we can strike and march alongside NEU and PCS members.

Most branches represented also backed the lobby of the HEC meeting today at 10am at UCU HQ in Carlow Street.

UCU Left members on HEC welcome this. At today’s meeting we will be arguing for five additional days in March, including 15th, to make a two-week block of strike action in the time that remains before terms ends in many institutions.

We will vote for a Special Higher Education Sector Conference to be called to give members back control of the dispute and for the establishment and spread of strike committees to increase democratic engagement. Democracy is essential for the successful outcome of our disputes. 

The truth is that the General Secretary’s decision for a ‘period of calm’ has put the brakes on the momentum our action was beginning to develop, throwing away the chance for planned joint action with the National Education Union next week. It also seems to have had unfortunate knock-on effects with RCN suspending its action for talks.

Of course it is necessary to extend our mandate with a reballot. We cannot let the employers wait us out and then impose the real-terms pay cut for next year as well as this. But the General Secretary has again pitched the reballot as though voting Yes will be enough to shift the employers. 

The evidence of our own experience as well as that of other unions is that an impressive ballot result is not enough. Only hard-hitting action can deliver victory. It may be necessary to revisit the issue of indefinite action which HEC voted for last November but which the General Secretary opposed. And we need to position our struggle within the wider fight against the cost of living crisis in order to win the support of students and other workers. 

We will let you know as soon as possible what is agreed at today’s HEC meeting.

Please join the London Region of Carlow Street this morning at 10am if you can.

Please join the UCU Left open meeting on Tuesday to discuss where we are in the dispute and don’t forget to vote for UCU Left candidates in the NEC elections which close on Wednesday 1st March.

Register: https://bit.ly/WhereNowHEDisputes
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30th Jan: Building the Fightback and Getting the Leadership We Need

UCU Left open meeting

Register

Speakers Include:

Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP. Member of Parliament for Streatham

Phil Clarke. Vice President, National Education Union

Member of the striking French teachers’ union

Member of PCS National Executive

Maria Chondrogianni. UCU NEC election candidate for Vice President

Deepa Govindarajan Driver. UCU NEC election candidate for Honorary Treasurer

As we prepare to join teachers, civil servants and train drivers for a mass strike on Wednesday 1st, and with elections for UCU Vice President, Treasurer and the NEC opening on 26th January, this meeting will discuss how we get the national leadership we need to mount a fightback that can win.

Our planned 18 days of strike action starting on 1st February has been called because the Higher Education Committee (HEC) listened to demands from branches and voted against attempts by the General Secretary to water down action and delay the fight. 

UCU Left members were decisive in making this happen and have pushed hard in further and higher education for escalating action coordinated with other unions.

How do we ensure that the democratic processes in our union are respected and improved so that we are able to build the powerful action we need to defend our pay, pensions, job security and working conditions? 

How do we make UCU a real fighting, member-led union?

Come and join the discussion with speakers from NEU and PCS and hear from UCU Left candidates in the elections.

Register in advance for this meeting

tinyurl.com/UCULeftBuildingTheFightback

Jan 30, 2023 7:00 – 8:30pm

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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Pre-BDM Open Meeting 7pm 4th January

Fighting the HE disputes
What strategy do we need and how should we decide it?

The General Secretary has proposed an alternative to the strategy passed by the Higher Education Committee on November 3rd. Instead of a January marking and assessment boycott followed by an indefinite strike, she advocates ten days of strike action spread through February and March.

Ahead of the Branch Delegate Meeting, join this Q&A to find out why UCU Left members of HEC voted for a MAB and indefinite action, and why we need union democracy to win these disputes.

Register: tinyurl.com/UCULeftPreBDM23

Wednesday 4th January, 7pm Contributors include:

  • Maria Chondrogianni, Vice Chair HEC & National JNCHES Negotiator
  • Deepa Driver, Vice Chair HEC & National JNCHES and USS Negotiator
  • Saira Weiner, NEC & Chair of Recruitment, Organisation and Campaigns Committee
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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 called for, and to delay or even avoid the involvement of UCU’s HE membership in the growing industrial challenge to the Tories over the cost of living crisis.
 
We were offered a series of hollow excuses as to why the ballots had not been authorised by HE Officers already. We were told that it was more democratic to wait for a full HEC which could be preceded by a BDM than for the officers’ group to make the decisions.

Conference is sovereign

The problem with this argument is that there was no decision to be made by HEC. Conference is the sovereign decision-making body and all that is required from HE Officers is for those decisions to be implemented. And there is nothing democratic about a BDM at which delegates are invited to overturn democratic decisions made only three weeks ago. Unlike at Congress and Conference, branches had no say in the questions which were voted on at the BDM, one of which was the General Secretary’s ‘pause and reflect’ strategy which had already been rejected by three recent Sector Conferences.
 
Perhaps the worst argument was the claim that branches themselves often regret decisions made at Conferences and seek to overturn them. The last BDM, when the ‘threshold branches’ were asked if they really wanted the ten days of strike action passed at the April SHESCs, was cited as an example. This amounted to justifying undemocratic behaviour by pointing to a previous instance of the same offence. That BDM resulted in the fracturing of the disputes and left branches with a mandate no choice but to try and win local gains from the marking and assessment boycott.
 
It was claimed that motion HE6 called for summer ballots on the existing terms of the disputes, which legal advice had identified as a problem. But not only did HE6 stipulate no such thing, no details of the legal advice were divulged. 

Democratic deficit

Despite all these manoeuvrings, many delegates expressed their frustration with the way that these disputes have again been handled. The delegate from Wolverhampton argued powerfully that delaying UK-wide action meant abandoning branches currently facing mass job losses and course closures to their fate. Many branches refused to put the questions from HQ to members either because they objected to their undemocratic implications or because there wasn’t time to do so. The contributions from branches expressed a range of responses to the questions obtained through a wide variety of mechanisms. Nevertheless, UCU’s bureaucracy hopes that this will give HEC enough leeway to be able to justify overturning Conference policy.
 
To cap it all, when it came to the votes, there was no option to abstain, so delegates with a mandate to refuse to answer the questions on democratic grounds were denied the ability to do so. Instead, they were advised to email UCU HQ!

Summer ballot

Despite the unforgivable delay, it is still possible to run long ballots over the summer which would allow branches to take action during induction weeks or at least early in the autumn term. The case for a summer ballot has got stronger since Congress. Not only have the RMT strikes transformed the public conversation about the ability of workers to challenge the Johnson government, but other groups of workers have either already won industrial action ballots or are preparing to run them. Airline baggage handlers will take action soon, post and telecom workers will start receiving ballot papers this week, while even criminal barristers are taking strike action. 
 
Crucially, our HE colleagues in Unison are balloting now over the 2022-23 pay claim. June’s Sector Conference also passed a motion calling for better coordination with the other campus unions. Do we really want to be finding ourselves crossing Unison picket lines in the autumn because we have not balloted in time to join them? Joint action with our colleagues in other unions is the way we improve our leverage over the employers.

No delay

We do not have the luxury of delay. Record inflation of 10%+ is eroding our pay now, hitting our lowest paid, casualised, Black and women members hardest. Talk of waiting until our membership density has improved is nothing more than evasion. Other unions are fighting now. We need to join the fray.

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Seize the Time, Don’t Abandon the Fight

We all know we are in the fight of our lives.

But the General Secretary’s ‘new plan of action for the four fights dispute’ is a radical-sounding document that abandons the Four Fights dispute until a year’s time, and pulls back from defending the USS pension scheme at the very moment the employers are cutting it back.

It is unsurprising that union reps are speaking out spontaneously against this plan.

We are told that continuing action at this point would be ‘conservative’, whereas the ‘radical and militant’ response to the greatest attack on our standard of living for 30 years is to… halt the fight for a year! Inflation is hitting 9 percent, but our union’s leadership is telling its members – with a live dispute and mandate – to put up with it, and fight another time!

Reading this document, you wouldn’t have thought that the union had just recorded overwhelming majorities for strike action and ASOS. Reps are lectured on ‘democracy’ after winning votes!

We are told that this is the way we can increase union density, but this flies in the face of our own union’s history. In 2018, pre-92 HE branches grew by 50% in a couple of months as they readied for strikes. That happened because members want to know the union will defend them, individually and collectively. On the other hand, shutting down the national fight against casualisation sends precisely the wrong signal to members on casual contracts.

The General Secretary is counterposing union recruitment to industrial action. Her theory of the ‘supermajority‘ says that the reason why strikes win is because union density is high. But this is not correct. UCU was a third smaller in the pre-92 USS ballot in 2018 than in 2021. And some branches with high membership density – like Goldsmiths – are under remorseless attack.

In fact, industrial action is won by workers when employers recognise that refusing to concede to union demands will be more costly than any perceived benefits. That cost can be economic (e.g. damaging reputations and recruitment, etc), but it can also be political (causing a political crisis for the employers, as in 2018). 

For everyone who has stood on the picket lines in the wind and rain, and spent weeks fighting to get the vote out, the General Secretary’s pre-prepared ruminations will be a massive disappointment.  On the other hand, members who voted for action but failed to take it themselves will read it as a signal that the union is not serious. 

Democracy

Jo Grady was elected after her predecessor, Sally Hunt, sought to abandon the USS fight. She was elected as an expression of UCU members’ will to resist. However her response to the present attacks on UCU members looks little different to Sally Hunt’s.

The latest round of ballots saw members once again vote overwhelmingly for action. Had this ballot taken place before the Tory Anti-Union Law of 2016 was introduced, we would be all able to take strike action. Branches have asked their members whether they support strikes and ASOS. And they have voted Yes!

Even if you are in a union branch that failed to get over the Tory threshold and cannot take action, with very rare exceptions, in branch after branch members have overwhelmingly voted for action. That’s democracy. 

It is wrong to interpret non-votes as no votes. Firstly, it is anti-democractic in principle. This is why quorums for general meetings are low, to ensure that members turn up and participate in debates and vote for and against motions.

Secondly, it is not consistent with the evidence. Members do not vote for a variety of reasons, as anyone who has engaged with a Get the Vote Out (GTVO) campaign can report, from lost papers to house moves and pre-arranged leave. This explains why branches with well-organised GTVO campaigns chasing and nudging members to vote have been repeatedly able to get high turnouts. It is also why Yes vote percentages tend to be remarkably stable even when turnout fluctuates. 

The three-week ballot insisted upon by UCU HQ, at the end of the second term and into the Easter break, left many branches close below the 50 percent threshold. Another week would have brought more branches over the line, and two more weeks, as voted for by HEC, could have changed the picture enormously. 

Some members complained that replacement ballot papers arrived at home on the final Friday, and rep reports show members saying they were voting right up until the end. The ballot deadline combined with the postal voting process cut voters short.

A plan to win

The General Secretary is now trying to lobby union reps and activists over their heads, to persuade branches to stand down the action that members have just voted for. Yet a calibrated plan and a mobilisation of the whole union could win these disputes. 

At the current time, some 40 branches can still take action on exams in Term 3. Everyone knows this action will need the whole union to rally around.

  • A marking boycott organised on a ‘Liverpool basis’ requires a positive outward campaign across the membership to sponsor strikers, fundraise on a massive scale, and ensure that every participant knows the whole union is behind them, practically and financially.
  • Members in non-striking branches would be more than willing to contribute to sponsor colleagues. These branches need to organise too. The USS rank-and-file legal challenge shows the scale of fundraising we need.
  • And a ballot over the summer in the context of a hard-hitting fightback makes sense. It could see us all ready to take on the employers right at the start of the autumn term.

The General Secretary says this is a war. But you don’t win wars by telling the enemy you are too weak to fight, and would they mind if we came back in a year?! The attacks on Goldsmiths colleagues, and the employers’ general intransigence show that they are likely to see such a declaration as a sign of weakness.

We are now told that despite previous attempts to de-couple the USS dispute from Four Fights that it’s OK to keep them coordinated – as long as we fight in a year’s time! But this makes no sense. Why would giving the employers free rein for a year make them more likely to reverse the changes? With the next valuation in 2023, backing off now looks like an invitation to the employers to push for 100% Defined Contribution!

Even USS Limited admit there is no need for ‘Deficit Recovery Contributions’, and that these could be spent on members’ pensions. This represents an open goal – if we fight.

Debating the way forward 

Members deserve a serious strategy. Instead we are told is to ‘keep our powder dry’ while the university employers drive through attacks on staff and students alike. Demobilisation is a recipe for defeat and demoralisation, not union-building.

We cannot allow the work by UCU reps and members to be wasted. We need to stand up for union democracy and stand by the ballot.

Two meetings have been called to debate the way forward:

In our strikes and ballots, members learned to trust each other, not the official union machine.

We are the union, and we need to fight for the future of our sector.

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UCU Left report from Wednesday’s HEC meeting

HEC must listen to members –
Start the fight now on USS and Four Fights

  • No decoupling of the disputes
  • Escalating action now

The Higher Education Committee (HEC) met on Wednesday 18 January to take decisions about further action in the two linked USS and Four Fights (casualiation, equality pay gaps, pay and workloads) disputes. The USS and Four Fights branch delegates meetings the previous day were intended to inform HEC members of branch views and enable them to take decisions based on them. 

Tuesday’s Branch Delegate Meetings (BDMs) discussed four questions provided to branches in advance and the four HEC motions provided on the day.  The mood of the BDMs was very clear.  Their branches wanted the two disputes to remain linked and very strong action to start as soon as possible.  There was strong support for escalating the action, indefinite action and even for action to disrupt the whole semester.

The majority of delegates were broadly in agreement with an HEC motion from two UCU Left members (Marian Mayer and Marion Hersh) on escalating indefinite action in both disputes simultaneously and starting as soon as possible.  Versions of this motion had already been passed by a number of branches. There was also general, though not unanimous, opposition to two motions from Independent Broad Left members of HEC targeting action only at some employers.

The motion calling for escalating and indefinite action ended up being seconded at HEC by UCU President Vicky Blake, who referred eloquently to the BDMs.  Despite the strong direction given by both BDMs, HEC narrowly voted against this motion. The other two motions were withdrawn.  Instead, a series of recommendations were passed which effectively decoupled the two disputes by agreeing totally different types of action for them, one of which had not even been proposed or discussed at the BDMs.  The wording of the decisions leaves considerable uncertainty as to the details of the action in both cases and how this would be finalised. In particular, no starting date was decided for Four Fight action and the decision-making mechanism remains unclear.

UCU Left supporters on HEC are very concerned and angry about this outcome. It bears no relationship to the strong sustained action starting as soon as possible that most BDM delegates recognised was needed to win these disputes. 

The sector is at a crossroads. We cannot afford to see the pension scheme slashed nor can we afford to allow our pay to be cut when inflation is running at over 7%. Returning to token action will only encourage employers to go ever further with casualisation, pay discrimination and excessive workloads.

Unlike some on the HEC, we believe these disputes can be won. Members have overcome the anti-union hurdles time after time and shown their opposition to the destruction of our sector. We have overturned poor decisions by our leaders before. We call on branches to organise emergency general meetings as soon as possible to call for a Special Higher Education Sector Conference followed by a recall HEC to adopt a strategy in line with the views of branches and capable of winning these disputes.

We need a leadership that responds to members’ willingness to fight and has the courage to see our disputes through to victory. UCU Vice President and NEC elections open next week. Find the UCU Left candidates here.