Delegates from 12 branches present at Wednesday’s HE briefing have issued a call for the chair to publish the official tally of positions taken by branches on whether to ballot members on the UUK offer. In a statement on Ruskin College UCU Twitter yesterday, delegates from Ruskin, Goldsmiths, York, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, UCL, Lancaster, KCL, Dundee, Exeter and Warwick said:
We are concerned that the views of the majority of delegates who argued for the UUK offer to be revised and resubmitted appear to have been ignored by the majority of the Higher Education Committee (HEC) who met after the HE Briefing. We are therefore calling on chair of the HE briefing meeting to publish the positions of UCU branches that were shared at the meeting.
Des McDermott who was Ruskin UCU’s delegate to the meeting told UCULeft:
Delegates are angry that the meeting was rushed, and they were presented with a briefing including new information on the UUK position with no time to read through or consult with their members. Many feel that the majority of delegates present were clearly in favour of a “revise and resubmit” position and this was not taken into account at HEC. I urge delegates to the 28 March briefing who want to add their names to this statement to contact Ruskin UCU through our Facebook page and Twitter.
Hundreds of activists from around the country have signed a statement calling for a ‘Reject the deal’ campaign and for an emergency Higher Education Sector Conference. Des added:
What happened on Wednesday raises serious questions about democratic accountability in the union. That’s why we need an emergency Higher Education Sector Conference to discuss these issues and to involve branches and members in leading the dispute.
Take action now:
- Sign the ‘Reject the deal’ statement here
- Pass this resolution at a branch meeting calling for a no vote and an emergency Higher Education Sector Conference