UCU NEC elections:
Vote Peta Bulmer for UK-elected HE
For a member-led, fighting union
I have been a member of UCU for the last 10 years and have worked as a university lecturer, a museum educator, and a researcher in Greek archaeology at the University of Liverpool. My current job involves supporting academics in social sciences to make meaningful social change with their research.
I am currently President for the University of Liverpool UCU, and have previously been Campaigns Officer and Anti-Casualisation Officer in the branch. I participate regularly in regional meetings and have been the Equalities Officer for LGBT+ members. Before becoming an academic, I was a Rep and the Chair of Unite/Amicus at the University of Liverpool for 18 years, after 5 years as a Rep in the TGWU.
Organising
I played an active role organising pickets, protests and online rallies during Liverpool’s successful fight against redundancies in 2021, which used daily online meetings throughout the dispute to build a strong, democratic and member-led branch. Through the UCU Solidarity Movement, which I helped to set up in 2020, I have worked hard to build solidarity between UCU branches (in HE, FE and the prisons) to fight effectively over job cuts, casualisation and the increasing marketisation of post-16 education. This rank-and-file activists’ network has subsequently become a vital route to building support for disputes across the different sectors of the union.
As a member of UCU Left, I am keen to build a member-led, fighting union that can successfully challenge the priorities of the market and campaign for an education system where the needs of students and staff come first. For too long, we have watched our workloads go up and mental health go down amid an epidemic of casualisation and pay inequality. I am proud of UCU’s work in promoting equality, which is absolutely a trade union responsibility, and have taken an active role by helping to organise protests against racism and transphobia on campus and in the Northwest. I support the work of the UCU Anti-Casualisation Committee to confront the widespread misuse of casualised contracts in education. I helped to set up the Northwest UCU Anti-Casualisation Campaign to support the fight against casualisation in local branches.
Fighting Back
I am glad to be a member of a union that fights back, and I support the campaigns on pay, pay equality, workloads, casualisation and pensions. Our employers, in all sectors, are complicit in the marketisation of post-16 education, which surrenders academic freedom and integrity, views staff as expendable, and treats students as sources of income. They have not listened to our concerns, and only industrial action can turn things around. Building a democratic, members-led union that is willing to take up these challenges is my priority in standing for election to the NEC.