Category: Reports

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Report from the UCU Women’s Standing Committee – 22 September 2017

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The UCU Women’s standing committee met on Friday 22 September. Sue Abbott from Newcastle University was re elected as Chair.

Gender Pay gap.

The committee had strong concerns about the slow progress of tackling gender pay gaps. It was agreed that this be a focus for International women’s day in March 2018 for branches and regions. The national Equality conference on 23 November in Birmingham would have member workshops to plan for this. The committee were also told that UCU HQ was looking to increase resources to tackle the gender pay gap. This was welcomed as very few women reps had facility time to undertake the large amount of work involved.

Sexual Harassment

Emma Chapman from the 1752 group addressed the committee. Many of us still did not feel that enough was being done to address this matter particularly following the UCU survey some years ago. It was felt that this needed to be tackled urgently and working with 1752 might well assist with this matter.

Casual workers

Many women casual staff were still on poor contracts and working conditions. We were told that the UCU anti casualisation group would be keen to visit regions to help take forward a stronger strategy to address this.

Women as the Resistance

This would be the theme for the Birmingham conference in November.
It was hoped to have McDonalds workers, women who have stools up to the EDL and other inspirational women speaking.

 

by Sue Abbott – Chair WMSC

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TUC: Turn words into action

A report from this year’s TUC Congress by UCU FEC Vice Chair, Sean Vernell

This year’s TUC took place four months after General Election that the Tories almost lost.  Jeremy Corbyn came within a whisker of beating Theresa May to become the Prime minister of Britain with one of the most radical manifestos in Labour history.

It wasn’t to be but it was an election that changed everything. The election made clear that working people want real progressive change and that they were fed up with the tweeddle-dee and tweedle-dum politics of the past.

The Tories are deeply divided and have to rely on bought DUP votes to survive.

Corbyn gave an inspiring speech to Congress urging trade unionists to fight over pay, arguing that migrant workers are not to blame for low wages and called upon young people to join a trade union.

Jeremy Corbyn addressing TUC Congress

Corbyn at TUC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was in this context that congress debated a broad range of issues from climate change to the decriminalisation of sex work. Congress also took place a few weeks after the first ever strike in British history by McDonald’s workers.

Their strike had a tremendous impact on delegates. Mick Cash, RMT General Secretary, spoke alongside McStrkers at an inspiring fringe meeting organised by UtR.  It was a real shame that the TUC did not allow the McStrikers to speak to congress.

It would’ve been very easy to find time on the congress agenda to allow them to speak to delegates. It was a real missed opportunity and a reflection how far the TUC still has to go to being able to relate to young precarious workers.

 

Pay – the mood and appetite is there.

One of the key debates was over the government’s pay cap.

A motion proposed by Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, and seconded by Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary was passed unanimously. It called on the government to scrap the public sector pay cap and for the TUC to organise a national demonstration and to coordinate industrial action in pursuit of fair pay for all.

Mark Serwotka warned of the dangers of allowing the government to divide the movement on pay—lifting the cap for some but not for others. He explained how the PCS is running a consultative ballot of its public-sector members in October. Dave Prentis also made it clear that if the government didn’t lift the cap for all then he would look to organising industrial action to force the government to comply with public sector workers demands.

Mark Serwotka speaking at PCS Pay Cap fringe #TUC17

Serwotka at TUC

Speakers also acknowledged the challenge that the new government thresholds on balloting are likely to have on achieving a legal ballot.

But delegates argued that the trade union movement must not be bullied or intimidated by the new government legislation.  By linking up with Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, inviting them to speak at pay campaign rallies of those unions that have ballots, would help to smash through the 50 percent threshold.

Serwotka and others also pointed out we have been here before. Great motions passed—but they have not been implemented. We must turn these words into action. If we don’t the appetite and mood for a coordinated fight will dissipate and the Tories will be let off the hook.

Don’t blame migrant workers for depressing wages.

One of the key debates was around a motion submitted by the Lecturer’s union the UCU proposed by Sally Hunt.

The motion argued that the trade union movement should support the free movement of labour. In her speech she made a passionate case for why immigration is not to blame for the ills of society and argued that it was the employers and not migrants that were to blame for poverty pay.

There was an attempt by the CWU and UNITE to oppose the motion on the grounds that free movement of labour was not possible to achieve so instead we should lower our aspirations to a more unspecified demand.

Despite this opposition the motion was passed overwhelmingly.

This is a very important moment for the labour and trade union movement to make clear that it supports a motion that has as its foundation a genuine internationalism that makes clear that we will not allow the racism of Trump and May to divide us.

Coordinate action now.

Everything has been set up to bring about a massive wave of industrial action to defeat the Tories pay cap on public sector workers. Pay has been and still is the central economic lever that allows government and employers to make us pay for the financial crash of 2008.

#McStrikers joined by Mick Cash (RMT) , Gareth Lane (BFAWU) and Sean Vernell (UtR)

McStrikers at TUC

 

The trade unions must seize this moment to ensure that we halt the Tories attacks in their tracks and unite the whole of the movement behind ushering in a real alternative to austerity represented by Corbyn and McDonnell.

For UCU delegation report click here 

 

Sally Hunt was elected as TUC President 

Sean Vernell, UCU NEC

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USS Pensions:  Lies, damned lies and valuations

The employers and USS are planning to destroy our pensions in the pre-92 university sector. Recent reports from the Financial Times (subscription only but see below*) and THES, based upon the USS Annual Reports and Accounts, rehash the same old story of rising liabilities and insufficient funds in the pension scheme to pay for pensions. As ever the same solution is identified; members pay more, work longer and get less.

The simple thing that is wrong with these statements is that they compare a value today with an expected value for the future. No one would say that if you owned a £250,000 house, because it might be worth £1m in 40 years’ time you have a £750,000 deficit! Yet that is precisely the nature of claims about our pension scheme that are being made by those who want to destroy it.

Valuation and the “deficit”

The valuation of the USS pension scheme is currently under discussion between UCU, USS and the employers, and a figure has to be agreed for its future value. The valuation of its current assets is relatively easy to undertake – around £60bn depending upon share prices on any particular day. But the cost of providing our pensions decades into the future is wide open to interpretation. We don’t know what our salary increases will be in the future, or what mortality rates will be for members in decades to come, nor how high inflation or interest rates will be, or what rates of return on our assets will be in future decades. It is this last figure, the calculation of the future rate of return on assets (known as “the discount rate”) where there is the greatest variation in valuation estimates.
The Tories, aided by the private sector pensions industry, have been seeking to undermine collective pensions for decades. The choice of valuation method is intrinsically a political not economic one.
In recent years, USS settled upon one figure which demonstrated a so called ‘deficit’. Their methodology for choosing this figure was severely criticised and as a result they are working on a spread of values, some more conservative (generating a deficit) than others (generating a surplus).
They are also moving away from their previous much-criticised Gilts+ method of calculating the returns on our investments using a measure of inflation (CPI). But these valuations are so sensitive that a tiny change in the CPI measure (0.5% for example) can create or wipe out any deficit. At present, many estimates from USS show the scheme to be in surplus while others show a deficit.
There are two fundamental reasons why we should not trust these deficit estimates. First, they all assume that rates of return on assets will be much lower than has been the case historically, and potentially, even negative in real terms. There is ample historical data to suggest such a scenario cannot be found in the past and is not a likely outcome. Second, they assume that Higher Education is more vulnerable to going bankrupt than is plausible.
Education is not a sector which is likely to disappear. We are not comparable to a technology such as black and white television in which a new technology will wipe away an old technology. Does anyone really believe that there will not be a higher education sector in forty years time? Does anyone seriously believe that the 40 largest universities in the UK (responsible for over 70% of USS contributions) or the 70 largest universities in the UK (responsible for over 90% of USS contributions) are all likely to go bust together?

Pay more and get less

The likelihood is that USS will choose a deficit figure deliberately to create an outcome where members are told to accept cuts in benefits or increases in contributions. Given the unreliability and arbitrary nature of the valuation method, and the fact that university staff are locked into USS, this looks like a conscious con trick.
Worse, either outcome will undermine the scheme in terms of members’ confidence. Already, in comparison with other pension schemes – such as the Teachers’ Pension Scheme operating in the post-92 Universities – USS looks like poor value. The result will be increasing numbers of people stopping paying into USS, further undermining it in the future.

What we need to do

If we are to maintain members’ rights to a pension we need to start campaigning now to defend our rights to a retirement free from poverty.
UCU activists in pre-92 universities need to start a campaign to defend pensions by explaining some of the basic points to members in emails, organising pension ‘surgeries’ and general meetings at the start of term.
At the moment we are getting pre-publicity to soften up members for the expectation that our pension will be cut yet again. In September the formal valuation consultation with employers begins. We need to lobby our employers to get them to defend USS. Future recruitment and retention in the sector requires a valued pension staff members can have confidence in.
We will also prepare members for the need to ballot for industrial action if USS seek to cut our pensions or end the defined benefit scheme.

Defend a Defined Benefit pension

Pensions are our wages

No to increased contributions from members

No cuts in pension benefits

 

*Copy the link below, paste it into Google then click the story link:

https://www.ft.com/content/914d9cba-7232-11e7-aca6-c6bd07df1a3c

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Report from NEC meeting – 23rd June 2017

 

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At the beginning of the meeting, a minute’s silence was observed for the victims of the Grenfell fire and the Finsbury Park Mosque attack. The GS asked the NEC if they would agree to send a message of condolence and support to the family and the Muslim Community at Finsbury Park Mosque where the terrorist attack took place. This was agreed.

 

General Secretary’s  (GS) Report

The GS put forward an analysis of the general election and post election political situation which was discussed by NEC members. The GS highlighted two campaigning initiatives that the union would be actively promoting. The first was the People’s Assembly demonstration on 1st July. The second was a joint lobby of Parliament with all the main public sector unions and the TUC over public sector pay and demanding the government lift the pay cap.

As part of that discussion two motions were put forward: one on Opposing the DUP deal, proposed by Rhiannon Lockley, which was voted through with just two abstentions.

The second motion, Response to the Election, was proposed by Mandy Brown. Three of the four resolves of this motion were agreed unanimously with no abstentions. However the fourth resolve, which called for ‘an emergency delegate conference to discuss how UCU should respond to the new political situation‘, was considered contentious and it was asked that this resolve be taken separately.

Supporters of this motion and resolve argued that Corbyn’s Labour party has transformed the political landscape. This is evidenced not only by the Labour surge in votes and the taking of key Tory seats in the election, but also by the impact that Corbyn is having on current issues such as the decision to house the Grenfell families in an empty apartment building in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Furthermore, the Tories are so weakened by the election result that some of their key manifesto policies (more grammar schools, scrapping free school meals, fox hunting, dementia tax) were thrown out in Theresa May’s Queen’s Speech. And in this context we now have a great opportunity to push for those Labour party education policies which match UCU’s to be debated and made policy in a parliament where the Tories do not have a large enough majority to pass policy and even their own MPs are calling for an end to austerity austerity and saying they will not vote for further cuts.

Everything has changed. The union needs to respond quickly to attempt to shape and reflect on  this new political situation by organising a delegate conference to look at how, as educationalists, we can maximise the potential to improve education for students and stop the cuts to our courses and erosion of our conditions.

Unfortunately other NEC members put forward arguments that UCU doesn’t have allowance to call emergency conferences (despite the fact this is untrue, see UCU rules 16.11 & 16.12), that it will cost money and that we ‘need to calm down‘ and wait to see what happens. On that basis this resolve was voted down.

The second item in the GS report was on the Industrial Action Commission that the general secretary announced for the first time in her speech at Congress in May.

A motion was put forward to ensure that this surprise decision presented to delegates by the GS at congress could be democratised via representation of nations and of the Equality strands.

However at the start of the discussion, the president announced she was ruling this motion out of order on the grounds that it was amending a congress decision. This ruling was challenged on the grounds that it in no way altered the motion that was passed at congress.  The challenge was voted down and the motion did not get heard. Oddly a very similar motion was allowed to be heard and was passed.

The second half of the GS report was around ‘effective bargaining‘ and member involvement and NEC was asked to make two changes to our current policy.

Although a lot of this section of the report used vague language to propose new initiatives, the debate was cut short. It meant that clarification around the use of phrases such as ‘freeing up regional officials to focus on improving bargaining capacity in branches‘, ‘develop a rolling programme…through which branches are developed as effective bargaining units….’, ‘regional official led training programme for branches‘ and the term ‘senior‘ branch activists, were not fully explained to the NEC and therefore the NEC could not explore fully the implications for the union.

The general secretary stated that the executive will be asked to “review the remits and outputs of all committees to assess if any changes are needed“.  She clarified that this will not involve any restructuring of staff, which would of course need to go to Congress for decision.

The final item was the decision on two changes, one to remove the current 90-day rule for access to legal support and one to provide free membership to postgraduate and those on ‘sub-lecturer’ contracts. A question was raised about why they were not being presented to congress as rule changes. The GS replied that these changes had been specifically requested at Congress. Both decisions were supported by the majority of NEC.

 

TUC Congress motions

Two motions were agreed to be sent from UCU to TUC conference – one on post 16 education and one on Freedom of Movement.

Amendments to these motions can be sent in for inclusion by officers. The motion on Climate change is still, as it was last year, UCU policy and members were reminded that delegates to TUC must ensure, unlike last year, that UCU policy on this is reflected in the way our delegation votes.

All other motions from members were voted through easily including the final motion of the day on the Grenfell disaster. The proposer, Sean Vernell, and supporters of this motion paid moving tributes to those who lost their lives, the solidarity of the local community and response by firefighters. And expressed their anger at the the years of cuts and neglect which caused this to happen and the government’s feeble response to the disaster.

Motion wording:

Oppose the DUP deal

NEC notes

The hugely successful campaign for free access to education and mobilisation of student voters in the recent election in which UCU played a key role.
The resulting failure of the Conservative party to form a majority government.
The subsequent move to form a confidence and supply working agreement with the DUP.
The threat this represents to the equality we champion in terms of reproductive rights, LGBT+ rights, and resisting racism.
The threat of emboldened far right activity and the damage to existing peace agreements

NEC resolves

  • To fully support the mobilisation of public protest to challenge this deal.
    To support the Women’s march against the DUP deal on Saturday 24th June.
  • To support the people’s assembly demonstration “Not one day more” on Saturday 1st July.

Proposed by Rhiannon Lockley

 

Response to the election

NEC Notes:

May’s government now relies on support from the reactionary DUP to remain in office.

Austerity has been blamed on the effects of immigration and has led to the scapegoating of refugees, as well as women and the disabled, for the underfunding of public services and low wages.

The Tories have no mandate for their policies.

Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign and Labour’s manifesto inspired 13 million votes.

NEC Resolves to:

  • Work with Labour to promote the ‘national education service’ idea and help win support for the restoration of EMA and the scrapping of tuition fees through regional events in the summer term.
  • Support John McDonnell’s call for a million people to march to end the Tory/DUP coalition government and call upon the TUC to support this call.
  • support the PA national demo on 1st July
  • Call an emergency delegate conference to discuss how UCU should respond to the new political situation.

Proposer: Mandy Brown

 

Grenfell Tower disaster

We send our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.

We offer our admiration and solidarity to the people of the local community for their magnificent response and to the fire-fighters who risked their lives to deal with the emergency.
Those that died were the victims of years of cuts and neglect while the area was gentrified.
We condemn the government’s feeble response to the disaster and call for all tenants to be fire guaranteed re-Housing in the local area.

Resolves:
1)     To call for the resignation of ex housing minister, Gavin Barwell, and now NO10 chief of staff who ignored calls for safety reform.
2)     To call on the government to release funds to local councils to urgently improve the safety of high rise flats.
3)     To make a donation of £1,000 to the disaster fund and to call for a national solidarity collection day.

Proposed by Sean Vernell

 

Report by UCULeft NEC members

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Threat to A Level courses at West London College

IMG_1615-2Students and staff at West London College Ealing campus held a lunchtime protest on Friday against the threat to A level provision at the college.

Branch Secretary, Matthew Cookson, describes this as “not just about jobs, it’s about choices for young people being shut down.”

Students are anxious and uncertain about their future. One student described how she is facing the stress of exams and the need to find another college to complete her A levels. “It’s all about money, so much for the British values they promote.” she said.

A lobby of the board of governors is planned and the branch has voted to ballot should compulsory redundancies be threatened.

Send messages of support to m.cookson@wlc.ac.uk

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Report on the HEC meeting of March 2017

Boycott of London Metropolitan University

The implementation of the academic boycott of London Metropolitan University was a major discussion. London Metropolitan University has faced major job cuts, victimisation of leading reps and growing casualisation. It is being set up for privatisation once the HE Bill is implemented. UCU Left members proposed an immediate academic boycott but unfortunately UCU HEC voted by a small majority to continue to drag its feet on the implementation of academic boycott by 18:13. Instead, the branch is expected to satisfy still further barriers set by national officials and officers. UCU’s majority on the HEC is made up by individuals who excuse their inaction for the union by blaming members and instead retreat from challenging employers.

UCU Left supporters should implement academic censure now and not wait. This means refusing to act as an external examiner, refusing to participate in conferences organised at the University and refuse to collaborate with the University in future research.

Pay

HEC supported proposals for a joint pay claim with the other higher education trade unions. Much of the debate focused on the need to emphasise an increase in the equality within the pay claim.  If a pay campaign is to emerge it will require members and branches to start now in raising pay issues in branches. UCU will also produce gender pay reports as soon as possible to support local branches in their development of local gender pay claims. An industrial campaign would require action in the autumn term.

Workloads

UCU HEC supported proposals to focus attention on health and safety activity and risk assessments for campaigning and identifying workload problems within higher education. Health and Safety can provide an important area of work in which branches and activists can place pressure upon employers.

USS Pensions

HEC discussed the forthcoming valuation of the USS. UCU Left members proposed holding campaigning meetings in the 40 largest USS institutions in order to explain the importance of campaigning over pensions in our union branches. The 40 largest Universities are most important as they contribute over 70% of the income into the scheme. There is an important timeframe to influence the employers and USS’s decision over the methodology used to value the scheme. However, the proposal by UCU Left members to hold campaigning meetings was voted down by the majority. The majority of the exec while wishing to complain about branches lack of engagement with the details of pensions are refusing to engage directly with branches and members, instead seeking to survey members instead – something which will be highly likely to generate only low levels of response.

Disputes

Leeds University and Sheffield International College.  Disputes over changes to statutes in Leeds University and anti-union victimisation, following the success of winning union recognition at SIC, are starting to take place.

 

 

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Then they came and kept on coming…

A movement not a moment bw (1 of 1)

Some demonstrations are more significant than others. Not simply because of their size but because of what they represent.

The response, yesterday, to Trump’s ‘America First’ inauguration speech, a slogan stolen from the American fascists of the 1930’s, was awe-inspiring.

Tens of thousands of women and men around the globe marched to show their rage against the misogyny of Trump. Up to half a million marched in Washington, dwarfing the Trump supporters who turned out to support him the previous day. In London at least 150,000 marched.  A woman carrying a placard read: This is a movement not a moment.

It certainly felt like it.

The demonstration in London had a fantastic mix of young and old. History is made up of continuity and breaks. On yesterday’s demonstration, we saw both. There were women who had been on the first ever women’s liberation demo in 1971 marching alongside those for whom this was their first ever demonstration.

Women in Britain have a long history of fighting for their liberation. The demonstration showed how deep the struggle for women’s’ liberation runs in British society. From the struggle of the Suffragettes at the beginning of the 20th century to the fight for control over their own bodies in the late 60s.

From the strikes in 1968 by 850 women machinists at the Ford factory in Dagenham for equal pay, to the strike by 20,000 Leeds women clothing workers.  Women workers from 45 factories in Leeds marched in protest against an agreement made by the union to accept a low wage rise which discriminated against them. To the inspiring Asian women workers at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories who stuck over unfair dismissals of colleagues, pay inequality and racist company practices in 1976 .

All of these struggles and many more like them have made the struggle for women’s equality a central aim of any movement for change.

But yesterday’s demo was not just about the past.  A new generation of women have emerged who are enraged at the inequality that exists today. Their rage is against the rise in sexual violence, the continued attempts by legislators to restrict abortion rights and the worsening of the material conditions of women’s lives.

Forty-five years on since the pay equality act women’s pay on average is 14% less than men’s. Women are still more likely to be in low paid and low skilled jobs. 80% of those working in the low paid care and leisure sector are women, while only 10% of those in the better paid skilled trades are women. Recent research shows that 54,000 women are forced to leave their job early every year as a result of poor treatment after they have a baby.

The government’s austerity agenda has hit women the hardest.  They will have shouldered 85% of the burden of the government’s changes to the tax and benefits system by 2020.  Tax and benefit changes since 2010 will have hit women’s incomes twice as hard as men by 2020. Women will be £1,003 a year worse off by 2020 on average; for men, this figure is £555. Women overwhelmingly make up those workers on zero hours contracts.

It is these conditions and the everyday casual sexism that attempts to justify and maintain these conditions that has given rise to a new women’s movement.

only weak men fear strong women bw (1 of 1)

2017 is the hundredth anniversary of the Russian revolution.  One of the first demands granted after the revolution was abortion on demand. A demand we still do not have in Britain today. Leon Trotsky writing immediately after the revolution about how to develop a society anew argues that the key litmus test of how far a society has progressed is how far oppression has ended. He argued when we move towards constructing an equal society that we must all learn to see society through women’s eyes.

Yesterday we did and gained a glimpse of the future where the struggle for women’s liberation and equality for all is as powerful and inspiring as ever.

The fight against racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of inequality is gathering pace. The Stand up to Racism demonstration in London on the 18th March will the next important staging post in this struggle.

Sean Vernell UCU NEC

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NEC report 25 November 2016

UCU at grave risk

The NEC met against a background of major threats to those working in Higher and Further education. The HE Bill had its third reading in parliament and passed, taking further steps towards privatisation of the sector closer. Both of our national pay disputes, in FE and HE, have been called off after e-ballots, on pitiful turnouts, gave majorities against further action. None of this was surprising given the complete failure to campaign or recommend a vote for further action in either ballot.

The ending of our last national industrial action before the new anti-union laws are implemented comes at a time when the NUS/UCU demonstration for education had brought thousands into the streets to defend post-16 education and the scandal of casualization became front page news in the Guardian.

With the anti-union laws imposing high thresholds in ballots for strike action to be official means we now have a major shift in the industrial relations environment for UCU. That such a shift has taken place is not recognised by a majority on the NEC who have systematically failed to lead the union in the face of government and employer attacks.

A simple example of this failure to face reality was that the General Secretary’s report failed to even mention the cases of trade union victimisation, including the high profile cases of Mark Campbell and David Hardman and the academic boycott and censure at London Met University.

Emergency Motion

UCU Left supporters on the NEC put forward an emergency motion, outlining the problems and seeking an emergency Congress and Sector Conferences, in order to bring the union together to develop a new strategy. Predictably the small majority voted 25:21 to reject the proposals.

There are significant groups of activists in our union who are demanding the leadership lead. Whether this is against casualization, or to defend EU workers’ rights or to end the gender pay gap, our leadership is failing to provide a response, other than create evidence of these excesses. So despite the platitudes of the leadership not a single union branch is currently balloting for industrial action against the gender pay gap or against casualization. UCU Left believes this is woefully inadequate of the leadership of our union.

In HE, UCU Left is calling on activists to pass a motion in HE branches calling for a Special HE Sector Conference. We have to come together to learn from the mistakes of the last campaign to develop a coherent strategy for future collective action that will mobilise our members, or our union risks becoming irrelevant in the context of the HE Bill and Brexit.

The UCU elections provide one further opportunity to address these problems. Jo McNeill is standing for General Secretary and a range of UCU Left members are standing for the various NEC positions. Supporters should be seeking to invite Jo to speak at your union branch and organising hustings for both General Secretary candidates.

‘Jo McNeill for General Secretary’ blog can be read here.

Free Movement of Labour

Brexit, anti-immigrant, scapegoating and the normalisation of racism was a further area of major discussion. NEC was united in condemning the popularisation of racism by the Tory government and their supporters. However, too many in the trade union and labour movement are pandering to these ideas by accepting immigration is a ‘problem’ and ‘controlling numbers’ is the answer. NEC overwhelmingly, but not unanimously, passed a motion to make the defence of the Free Movement of Labour central to our defence of EU, and more generally migrant, workers. Branches should use this motion to link up with the Campaign for the Free Movement of Labour post Brexit and to mobilise for the one-day strike called by the ‘A day without us’ campaign.

Motions supporting the Stand Up To Racism trade union conference on 4 February and demonstration on 18 March were also passed. Both are also backed by the TUC.

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Stop the shameful employment practices in Coventry University’s subsidiary company – sign UCU petition now!

 

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UCU Left is asking everyone to sign and circulate throughout their branches this petition against the shameful actions of CU Services Ltd, Coventry University’s subsidiary company.

http://speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/stop-the-shameful-employment-practices-in-the-coventry-university-group/

From UCU website: “Vulnerable and precarious staff teaching Pre and In-Sessional English at CU Services won an inspirational campaign for union recognition earlier in September. A campaign they should never have had to fight because it is shameful that Coventry University, the sole shareholder of its subsidiaries, refuses to promote union recognition voluntarily. These staff won their campaign in spectacular fashion, voting 100% on a 73% turnout in a secret ballot organised by the CAC.

The response from CU Services is a disgrace to the sector. The company dismissed its temporary staff and said that if they wished to carry on working, they had to sign up to be agency workers at TheFutureWorks, a recruitment agency wholly owned by Coventry University. They are now agency workers, outside the bargaining group covered by the recognition they have just won. This is straight out of the Mike Ashley school of running a business and brings shame Coventry and the wider university sector.

UCU is working closely with the Region and branch in a planned campaign to make sure that Coventry do not get away with this and to win these workers their rights. This petition is an important part of the plan, designed to raise the sector’s awareness and put pressure on the board. But there will be more actions to come.”

Please circulate this petition in your branches and ensure that everyone knows what Coventry University is doing.

Link to Guardian article “Think only low–paid workers get the Sports Direct treatment? You’re wrong.” by Aditya Chakrabortty

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Free Movement of Labour Campaign Report – UCU Left conference 24th September 2016

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Lucia Pradella and Phoebe Moore attended the UCU Left conference on 24/09/16 to talk about the Free Movement of Labour campaign.

Brexit creates challenges both for the British ruling class and for the working class.
Most obviously, the existing free movement of labour within the European Economic Area (EEA) is now seriously threatened; immigration restrictions are at the centre of the Brexit agenda.

Just yesterday Schauble mocked Boris Johnson for defining as complete baloney the link between Britain’s access to the single market and EU free movement arrangements.

This is clearly a very fluid moment, and mobilisation from below is essential for having an impact on union leaders and the Brexit debate.

But both pro-remain Labour MPs like Rachel Reeves and also union leaders like Len McCluskey interpreted the Brexit vote as an anti-immigration vote, and embraced the idea of immigration restrictions from the EU.

In the UCU, the existing policy on migration recognises the social economic and cultural value of migration and opposes all forms of racism and the Points-Based Immigration Scheme.

This policy, however, does not explicitly refer to a commitment to defending the free movement of labour.

We believe however that this should be a priority for us in the UCU.

Why a priority? Because any restrictions on freedom of movement, and our right to work without discrimination based on nationality, will put increasing competitive pressure on EEA staff.

This will worsen the conditions of workers from the EU – up to the point that many Principals are now scared about losing their EU staff.

But the worsening condition of a significant component of HE staff would increase competitive pressure on staff as a whole, and weaken our union.

It will also have a detrimental effect on the educational experience and academic life in schools and campuses.

The paradox is that many employers have been quite active in supporting EU staff and students, while the UCU has been relatively slow and has not explicitly defended the current free movement arrangements.

But the TUC signed a joint statement with the Eu TUC defending freedom of movement for labour in a post-Brexit contest.

Our campaign for freedom of movement therefore aims to organise a mobilisation from below to defend existing free movement arrangements, both within and without the EEA.
We believe that there is a huge mobilisation potential within the unions and that new workers could join this campaign.

Our main priorities are:

+ campaigning for free movement of labour post-Brexit and for an up-front guarantee for existing EU/EEA citizens in the UK to stay

+ organising active solidarity with EU and non-EU colleagues to demand improvement of immigration support for all non-UK staff

+ building this active solidarity is crucial to opposing the idea that worsening working conditions depend on immigration – and not on the crisis, neoliberalism, austerity and immigration restrictions themselves

This is thus crucial for opposing increasing racism and hate crimes against immigrants and ethnic minority workers.

At local level – raise demands on Vice Chancellors to commit publicly to:

+ permanently guarantee that there will be no change in the employment or student status of any current EU/EEA Member State and Candidate Country staff and students arising from Brexit negotiations

+ permanently guarantee that this university/college will not implement any changes in the academic qualification, residential or fee conditions concerning students applying from EU member states and Norway or Switzerland

+ campaign as a major European country to maintain free movement of labour and people across all 28 current EU Member States.

+ meet with the UCU, UNISON and other trade unions within the university/college to discuss the most effective ways of jointly campaigning for the right to remain for all EU workers and students living in the UK and to maintain Freedom of Movement of Labour across the current 28 EU Member States

+ to submit this motion, when passed, to the National Executive Committee of UCU
to liaise with other branches regarding submitting a version of this motion to UCU Congress 2017

We will have an informal meeting at the Stand up to Racism conference on the 8th of October and an open organising meeting on the 22nd of October at UCL. We will also be participating in National NUS Demo on 19 of November.

It is essential that we bring our opposition to fee increases for EU students within broader struggle against university fees. This shows that we are not just defending EU students, we are against all fee increases. If we get the university commitment not to increasing fees in one or two universities then we can strengthen the movement as a whole.

Likewise, defending current free movement arrangements within the EU is not just a EU issue. The worsening of migration arrangements within the EU would likely trigger further worsening also for non-EU workers. Plus, many cleaners from Latin America have used their European citizenship to enter the UK. So this is not an issue that involves only European workers – it is therefore essential that we try to link with other immigrant workers in the UK and other unions.

Written by Lucia Pradella.

 

Link to Free Movement of Labour Campaign website : https://freemovementlabour.wordpress.com