The election results for national officers and NEC seats show that we have done encouragingly well overall. Liz Lawrence’s victory in winning the Vice Presidential post is outstanding.
Taken together with the outcome of last week’s HE special sector conference, in which delegates indicated a real appetite to pursue a just pay claim and consider action to achieve it, this demonstrates considerable support in the union for the policies which UCU Left has been advocating. The outcome of the PCS ballot for industrial action is another indicator that there is a growing appetite for resistance to austerity.
Here is a message from Liz Lawrence:
Dear Comrades
Thank you to everyone who voted and campaigned for me and the other UCU Left candidates. Congratulations to those UCU Left candidates who were elected and commiserations to those who were unsuccessful.
This is the first time that UCU Left has won the election for a Vice President from the HE sector. This victory is your victory.
The votes for the UCU Left candidates represent a vote for building UCU as an outward-looking, campaigning union. They are a vote for action to defend education, jobs, pensions and pay levels. They are a vote to tackle work intensification, rising stress levels and bullying in the workplace. They are a vote for a serious fight on the key industrial issues.
These votes also represent a vote for building UCU as a democratic, member-led union in which we take decisions through our democratic and constitutional processes, not through plebiscites.
There are many tasks ahead. Please ensure your branch sends its full delegation to Congress 2013, so that we can have informed, collegial and democratic debate about the way forward for the union.
Best wishes
Liz Lawrence