Tag: FourFights

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Victory to the RMT: We marched together now let’s STRIKE together

The RMT strike, the biggest for over 30 years, points to the direction of travel for the whole of the trade union movement. 40,000 rail workers struck across Britain and several thousand Tube workers did the same in London.

The TUC demonstration, which saw tens of thousands march through central London, was not only bigger than most people had expected, but reflected a real appetite to fight. It also looked different to past TUC marches. It was younger, more diverse and the dots were being joined together, connecting the cost-of-living crisis with the need to prevent war, austerity and climate change.

But the most significant reason that made this TUC march feel different, compared to many others, is that it had a focus – the RMT national strike.

Following the march, the NEU announced that they will be holding an indicative ballot of all their members. In FE UCU are balloting members in forty colleges across England after another insulting pay offer from the AoC.

Back to the 70s … I hope so.

There is now lots of talk in the media about how Britain is slipping back to the ‘bad old days’ of the 1970s. When I hear this point being made by journalists my initial response is, ‘bad old days – for whom?’. In 1970 ten million working days were lost due to strike action (in 2018 273,000 working days were lost due to labour disputes, the sixth-lowest annual total since records began in 1891). There were eleven million union members (today there are 6.5 million).

These two facts meant that the distribution of wealth was far more equal compared to today where the huge inequalities, between those with fabulous wealth and those relying on food banks, has grown to historical highs.

It was not just the earning power of workers that was significantly better but also the social wage too. With the rise of a militant trade unionism came more money spent on health and education.

So, when a lazy BBC journalist attempts to scare their viewers by warning of Britain slipping back to the ‘bad old days of 1970s’ my reaction is always, ‘I hope so’. This is not because I have a longing to get back into my high-wasters, flares, platforms, cheese cloth shirts and tank tops but because when our side fought back it dramatically altered the living conditions of all working people and put the fear of God into those who rule over us.

‘Wage rises will lead to Inflation getting out of control  – ‘ yawn yawn…

Listening to BBC Radio 4 the other day Nick Robinson was in Wakefield talking to ‘poor people’. He casually offered the opinion, after announcing a pay rise had been won locally by Bus drivers that matched inflation, that, ‘I hope this doesn’t catch on or we will have a real problem controlling inflation’.

We shouldn’t be too surprised that such a Tory lickspittle like Nick Robinson should make such an unqualified subjective point. Robinson spent much of his youth in the early-to-mid-1980s holding various offices for Conservative Party youth organisations (this was the time when Tory students were proudly wearing, ‘Hang Nelson Mandela’ badges around university campuses). But I was surprised to hear Dr Mary Boustead, the joint GS of the NEU concede, ‘It will have some impact’, in response to this same line of questioning on the Today programme, before moving on to defend her unions decision to ballot members over pay.

This is not a helpful starting point for a trade union leader to hold as they prepare to battle over pay with inflation at its highest level in over 30 years. We should not be conceding an inch to this so called ‘common sense’ argument. Instead, we should say loud and clear that wage rises do not cause inflation – adhering to profit margins does.

The old and false orthodox trope of mainstream economics which states that demands for higher wages leads to the rise in the cost of living is a familiar one.

The employers and government argue workers’ receiving higher wages for their labour inevitably means that the employer will have to put up the prices of commodities to pay for the wage increase.  This is only true if you accept the parameters of the argument that has been set by the employer. When striking for a pay rise workers are fighting for a fairer redistribution of wealth in society. As we have seen profit margins have increased throughout the pandemic and with it the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest has increased. 

A strike over pay is an attempt to reverse this trend.

The employer’s attempt to blame those fighting for an increase in earnings for the rise in the cost of living is an ideological attack designed to protect their wealth and privilege. Our wage rises can come out of a redistribution of wealth.

Proud to be a Luddite

One of the ways the Tories hope to undermine public support for the rail workers is to dismiss them as Luddites. One of the issues the RMT are fighting over is the introduction of new technology, which the employers and the Tories say makes checking the rail network safer and more cost effective.

It is another ‘common sense’ argument that we are all meant to accept without challenging, that when workers try to take control of technological change, they hold back progress and are therefore ‘Luddites’.

But those denouncing workers attempts to stop employers making people redundant with new technology, fail to understand historically what the Luddites fought for.

The Luddites were a radical movement that arose at the beginning of industrialisation. From 1811 to around 1818 hand-loom weavers secretly organised to stop the closure of their smaller workshops and replace them with bigger and more mechanised machines and factories. A part of their campaign was to smash up the machines that were replacing them.

The Luddites were not against new technology. They were against the use of this technology to make them redundant.

Over 200 years on and capitalism is still developing new technology which is used to make working people’s lives poorer. The potential to liberate working people from dull, alienating and dangerous work exists. But because the ‘bottom line’ rules these liberating inventions are used to make working people poorer and to deskill human labour.

So, of course Rail workers must resist attempts to replace them with a machine. A victory for the rail workers would mean that we are a step closer to worker’s having control over their working lives and technology. This is why we should be proud to be called a Luddite.

We all can play a role in ensuring that the strikes on the rail end in a victory for rail workers. Find out where your local picket line is, take your UCU branch banner, take a picture and tweet it.

Solidarity – in unity lies strength.

Sean Vernell UCU – national negotiator.

Posted on

Defending post 16 education: taking the fight to the next level

From the pandemic to the cost-of-living crisis, war and the failure to tackle the climate crisis, the employers and government are determined to make us pay with a sustained attack on our wages, pensions and jobs.

The magnificent strikes in HE over the Four Fights and USS pensions have shown (and continue to show) the real grit and determination of UCU members to put up resistance and protect their pay and conditions.

In Further Education, 40 colleges are about to be balloted over pay and workloads as part of UCU’s Professional Respect Campaign. This follows the successful strikes by 15 colleges in the autumn term of 2021, where the vast majority succeeded in winning gains on pay and conditions, and at seven colleges in the North West, two of which have already succeeded in getting good pay deals for 2021/22.

Whilst we have not picked the terrain on which we fight, nevertheless, the terrain is favourable for further victories in both sectors if we are able to continue to mount the same resistance shown by UCU members recently.

Divisions at the top

The Tory government is wracked with acrimony and division. 41% of Tory MPs voted to support a motion of no confidence in Johnson, reflecting the loathing of him in their constituencies. After the lies of ‘Party-gate’, the booing at the Jubilee celebrations shows that his traditional support has turned against him.

Even his attempt to defend his behaviour by arguing that he got it right on the ‘big issues’ is not working. The 150,000 deaths from Covid – the highest per capita rate in Europe – and the greatest cost of living crisis in over 50 years both demonstrate that on the ‘big issues’ he got it significantly wrong.

The war inside the Tory party will continue to rage and will reveal that the ‘nasty party’ is destroying itself.

Our employers have shown that they aren’t all-powerful either. In both FE and HE they are trying to use the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, not only to cut costs but to deepen the marketisation of post-16 education. Every time our members have taken the fight to them, they have been rattled and divisions have opened up.

In this context a well organised and determined strike movement can not only stop the attacks, but also start to put forward its own progressive educational agenda – one based on the needs of our communities instead of competition and the whims of the market.

A strike movement that seeks to level up the playing field and has at its centre the fight for equal access to post-16 education for all would quickly gain huge support amongst our students and our communities.

The first step to achieving this is to do all we can to ensure that we win the industrial action ballots in HE over Four Fights and USS and in 40 FE branches, so that we are ready to strike in the new academic year.

Solidarity at the bottom

One of the important developments within UCU over the past 18 month has been the birth and growth of the Solidarity Movement (SM). Initially set up by four HE branches facing job losses, the Solidarity Movement brings activists together to share experiences and maximise support for those in struggle. Holding regular meetings, launching twitter storms and organising twinning campaigns, the SM has made an important difference to members in dispute. It has also, at crucial times, helped to pressure the national leadership of UCU to stick to the action that members had voted for.

We need to extend and widen the networks of the Solidarity Movement in HE and in FE. With 40 colleges moving into battle, this would be an ideal opportunity for FE branches to set up their own solidarity network.

Equality at the centre

The backdrop to our strikes in the past year is one in which has seen a relentless attempt by government to divide members through launching bigoted ‘culture wars’ with relentless attacks on Trans rights, dressed up as a defence of freedom of speech, and to the attempts to reverse the gains made by the Black Lives Matter uprising in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

But they failed to divide us. The strikes in FE and HE have revealed that more than ever Black,  LGBTQ+, women and disabled UCU members have taken up central roles at all levels within the unions. This development has been a central factor to ensuring that the demands of the strikes are ones that reflect the central concerns amongst the lowest paid in both sectors.

We need to continue to deepen this by building the widest possible movement against state racism.  We should for example encourage members to take part in the campaigns around Child Q and against Priti Patel’s racist Nationality and Borders Act. Congress this year made a firm commitment to support the rights of Trans people by passing Motion 38 – a significant moment in the fight against transphobia in our union. We need to ensure that every branch takes up a similar position.

This means at college/university level, branches must equip themselves with the facts about the reality of institutionalised discrimination at their institution. This could include facts about the proportion of casualised staff that are Black and/or women. We need to map how discrimination is applied in our workplaces so that we can use this information as part of our campaigns.

Leadership from the front

To do all the above we need leadership at every level of the union that is prepared to fight. There are many inspiring examples of our members providing this kind of leadership at a local level – from the colleagues fighting ‘fire and rehire’ tactics at Richmond Upon Thames College to the magnificent victorious strike at Liverpool University against redundancies and many more.

Unfortunately, this tenacity and sacrifice has not always been matched by the national leadership. The motion (L1) passed at Congress strongly criticising the GS’s handling of disputes should be seen as a warning.

We need an NEC/HEC/FEC that carries out the wishes of its members and a GS that champions those decisions, not one that attempts to stifle them because they don’t fit a preconceived idea of the ‘right strategy’ drawn up at the top of the union.  Their role is not to question the wisdom or otherwise of these decisions but to implement them.

This is what being a ‘member led’ union actually means.

UCU needs leadership at a national level as well as a local level which is prepared to lead from the front rather than hiding behind radical slogans which cover up caution and pessimism.

A new generation of ‘organic’ leaders exists in every branch and college. It is they who need to become the next branch/regional/national officers.

Regions

We need to pay more attention to the Regional Committees (RC).  In every region there are branches that are well-organised while others find it difficult to sustain themselves. One of the RC’s roles is to identify the well-organised branches and use their strengths to level up the whole of the region.

Regional Committees are not simply an extension of the Regional Offices. RCs are elected bodies where lay members come to together to discuss what is happening at their institutions, to share experiences of how branches are dealing with issues that arise and to decide the priorities for the region.

The RC role is to take initiatives based on Congress and Conference policies such as organising a solidarity rally for those on strike, putting on a webinar about how to combat transphobia in the workplace or organising a meeting around the Campaign Against Climate Change’s new pamphlet on climate jobs.

Well-organised Regional Committees are not a luxury but a central part of our ability to build a union that can deliver action across the country.

Conclusion

We are not alone in our battles. The announcement that 40,000 rail workers across 13 different networks will be taking their first national strike for 40 years is one sign that organised labour is beginning to resist. Like us, rail workers are fighting over pay, jobs and conditions. But at the heart of their dispute is the anarchy of the market thanks to privatisation of the rail network.

40 years of neoliberal economics has created the conditions where the sectional barriers that once might have prohibited workers uniting to defend their common interests have been significantly broken down. Workers across all sectors have common cause to unite and fight government and employer-led attacks. Solidarity must be at the core of everything we do for those in our own sectors who are fighting back and for those in other unions.

Our members have been through a lot over the last two years. But they have come out of this period better organised and more determined to protect the profession they passionately care about. Our task in the coming period is to take the platform that has been created to the next level – to develop a member-led, industrial strategy that uses every collective form of protest to build a national strike movement that unites both sectors that can defend post-16 education.

.

Posted on

Now not Never! HEC report (12/5/22)

HEC met at a crucial time in the HE disputes with a marking and assessment boycott due to start in just over a week. To avoid undermining the dispute by revealing sensitive information to the employers, we cannot divulge details of the motions discussed and the results of the voting. However, members should not expect any outcomes from HEC which decisively alter the present situation.

What is still required is that the full range of decisions passed at the SHESCs is implemented without further delay. We need strike dates to be notified to the employers for branches that intend to use their mandate for a marking and assessment boycott. Without these in place we have no defence against punitive deductions. We urgently need the circulation of detailed instructions and guidance on how to carry out a marking and assessment boycott. And we need a campaign of fundraising in branches without a mandate to support members whose pay will be docked. 

If this doesn’t happen, it will be clear that the General Secretary and the full-time officials are trying to undermine the possibility of action taking place this term, against SHESC policy. We know that the General Secretary believes that we cannot win our disputes at the present time. Having lost the argument for a lengthy pause in the action, she is now trying to achieve the same result through delay, confusion and demoralisation.

Branches that believe they can successfully implement a boycott should renew their demands on the HE officers and the officials at HQ for strike action to be notified, indicating their chosen start date. They should demand the guidance on marking and assessment boycotts that we are told is being prepared. And they should seek assistance on twinning with branches not taking action so that the raising of funds can begin.

The Left on the HEC argued that it would be disastrous for action to be called off. Taking no action this term would demoralise members and embolden the employers. We need to avoid this happening.

We also note that the incoming HEC and NEC will have a different make-up, which may mean different decisions are taken at these committees in future.

But we also need to ensure that reballots take place over the summer to enable us to hit the induction periods at the start of the autumn term. We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past when the ballot timetable allowed us to take our first action only a few weeks before Christmas.

Annual Congress and Sector Conference is coming up on 1-3 June. We would encourage branches to submit late motions to HESC on implementing the results of SHESCs, further strike action, re-balloting fundraising and the fighting fund.  Motions which refer to events and decisions which took place after the deadline should be accepted as late motions. 

UCU Left will host a meeting to discuss the Congress agenda on Monday 23 May, 6-7.30pm. All delegates and non-delegates welcome. Register here: bit.ly/UCUL-CongressPreMeet.

Posted on

Our disputes are in danger

This is a hazardous moment in the Four Fights and USS disputes. There is a danger of our planned action for this term unravelling, leaving us with no plan for defending members from our employers’ attacks.

Very late on Friday we received confirmation that the marking and assessment boycott will start on 23rd May. But since delegates to the two special sector conferences voted for marking boycotts backed by strikes, the General Secretary has done everything possible to undermine the disputes.

Damaging

The delay in issuing notifications has been very damaging. Every day until the boycott begins means more and more marking is completed, reducing the leverage we can exert over our employers. The excuses for the delay continue to pile up. They told us they had to wait for the results of the USS conference before implementing the results on Four Fights, even though they separated the decisions by holding two separate conferences, against the policy of keeping the disputes coupled. Then they told us that the workload involved is too high for UCU staff. If the union is understaffed, we should employ more staff and pay them properly. 

The General Secretary now argues that the votes at the conferences were too close to mount an effective campaign, suggesting that the reasons for delay are not solely practical. But the votes were clear and decisive, especially given that the argument for action had to overcome the GS’s call for a pause in the run-up to the conferences. 

What is she suggesting? That votes on industrial strategy need a two-thirds majority? Aren’t the hurdles imposed by the anti-union laws enough?

Worries

All of this demoralises members and increases the worries in branches about whether action can be successful. No advice has been issued from HQ on how to implement a marking and assessment boycott. No steps have been taken to implement the conference decision to raise funds from members in branches without a mandate to support the branches taking action. Worse, the GS’s supporters and their allies on NEC voted not to remove the cap on payments from the Fighting Fund.

Branches with a mandate are being forced to organise these things themselves by sharing experience on marking boycotts and initiating twinning arrangements. We want member control of our disputes, but we don’t want the leadership to wash its hands of us.

We are now told that Tuesday’s meeting is not a Branch Delegate Meeting but a ‘branch briefing’. Who is briefing whom? This should be an opportunity for branches to discuss how to implement the action and what we need from the General Secretary and HQ to support it. What we don’t need is to be told that the decisions we took at the sector conferences are wrong, invalid or can’t be implemented.

Terrify

There is now an urgent need to change the narrative and the mood around these disputes. A properly supported marking and assessment boycott in 40 institutions can terrify bosses across the sector and relieve the pressure on Goldsmiths and Queen Mary, who are currently fighting isolated local battles. The threat of strikes can blunt the employers’ willingness to make punitive deductions. Wage-sharing and twinning of branches can reduce the effectiveness of main weapon against us. 

It is no coincidence that UCEA raised their offer for 2022-23 to 3% on Thursday. It is still nowhere near enough, but it indicates that they want to sweeten the deal just enough to deter further disruption in the sector. And the rise in interest rates means, even on the corrupt valuation, that the USS scheme has moved back into surplus. This is not time to pull back from the fight.

Demonstrations

UCU should call regional and national demonstrations to unite branches with and without mandates. The TUC demonstration against the cost of living crisis on 18 June will be an important moment. Our ability to beat the anti-union thresholds and fight back can give a lead to others in the movement, desperate to take on their own bosses and Johnson’s corrupt government. 

Jo Grady was elected after the #NoCapitulation moment as an expression of members’ willingness to fight and their desire for democratic control of disputes. Members will not forgive a General Secretary who ignores their decisions and abandons the fight.

BDM Pre-meet 6 pm 9 May
https://bit.ly/BDMPre-Meet

Posted on

USS HESC results: Start the action now!

The results of the votes at last week’s USS Special HE Sector Conference are now out. They are largely in line with the results of the Four Fights HESC from the week before.

Delegates again rejected the strategy of delay put forward by the General Secretary by voting for motions calling for an immediate marking boycott backed up by strike action. They also overwhelmingly reaffirmed the commitment that the USS dispute should continue to be fought in conjunction with the Four Fights.

The majority of delegates clearly felt that suspending the disputes for 12 months was not a viable option given the scale of the attacks to the pension scheme. Those attacks, along with those on the pay and working conditions of HE staff in general, would be intensified if the union decided to take a time-out.

Urgent

It is now urgent that the notifications for action are sent to employers. They have been delayed too long already. The latest pretext was that it was necessary to wait for the results of the USS HESC votes before issuing the Four Fights notifications. This has pushed back the marking and assessment boycott by over a week, presumably in the hope of the leadership that some of the USS votes would contradict the Four Fights votes and create enough confusion to justify calling off the action. In fact, the only significant divergence between the two conferences was on the question of whether future ballots should be aggregated.

These delays are unforgivable. The ballot mandates achieved by branches in November ran out today. Every day that goes by without our being able to take action emboldens our employers and weakens our ability to disrupt marking and the awarding of degrees. 

Coherent plan

We now need a coherent plan to implement the strongest possible marking and assessment boycott and defend it with strike action as necessary. This will require serious planning at branch level and coordination between branches with a mandate and those without. We need to learn the lessons of the Liverpool dispute and replicate them in the 40 branches with a mandate. 

We cannot rely on the national leadership at Carlow Street to do what is necessary. They have already excluded branches without a mandate from Tuesday’s delegate meeting despite both HESCs emphasising the importance of concrete support from members not involved in action. Much of this coordination will need be initiated by branches themselves.

Tonight’s UCU Solidarity Meeting will be a crucial forum for doing this. Every HE branch should try to ensure that it is represented there by as many members as possible. The Solidarity Movement has a track record of providing exactly what we need at this moment in the disputes: a platform for the sharing of ideas and delivering solidarity between branches.

Members should also attend the pre-BDM meeting organised by UCU Left on Monday at 6pm. Some preparation by delegates can help us resist Tuesday’s meeting being manipulated from the top in the ways that previous BDMs have been.

Building the Marking Boycott 
6pm Thursday 5th May 
Link to register: https://bit.ly/3rYl1ig
Facebook page: https://fb.me/e/2Elx1obWT

BDM Pre-meet 6 pm 9 May
https://bit.ly/BDMPre-Meet

Posted on

Voting advice Four Fights SHESC

Amended for the actual voting form

Here are the voting recommendations for delegates to the Four Fights Special Sector Conference held on Wednesday 20th April.

UCU Left is calling for a vote in favour of motions which propose continuing the fight by taking effective action in the summer term, and against motions which propose delay, pause, regroupment etc. on the grounds that they effectively mean abandoning the fight and inviting further attacks by the employers. This means opposing all the motions welcomed by the General Secretary in her ‘new strategy’ document.

Draft voting recommendations

2AgainstCBC has ruled that if passed, the clearer and more implementable motions 3 & 4 would fall. 
3Forit proposes concrete achievable action this term.
4Forit proposes concrete achievable action this term.
17Againstthe employers are unlikely to agree to arbitration and in any case ACAS would not help us win an acceptable offer.
5Forit proposes an immediate marking boycott backed by strikes.
5 without ii & iv For
6Fora concrete and effective way of backing marking boycott with strikes.
6 without 3 & 4 For
7Forproposes marking boycott and strikes this term.
8Forproposes a marking boycott this term.
9Againstweaker than other motions because it talks only of ‘moving towards’ a marking boycott and doesn’t mention strikes. 
10Fora marking boycott controlled by members through BDMs and supported financially by other branches & members.
11Againstdemanding a new New JNCHES is a diversion and would change the terms of the dispute.
12Againstthis motion contains no ‘resolves’ and could be used by the GS and her supporters to demobilise the dispute.
13Forcalls for the union to be in a position to take industrial action over the 2022-23 claim at the beginning of the academic year.
14Againstan aggregated ballot would likely kill the dispute dead in current circumstances.
14
without ii 		Against
15Forcalls for action during induction in the autumn.
16 RemitAgainst
16Againstproposes ‘mapping’, ‘exploration’ and ‘engagement’ instead of action.
18Againstsimilar to 16, proposes alternatives to action, plus an aggregated ballot.
19Againstalthough there are good things about this motion, there are problems with the wording and it should be opposed in favour of 21.
20Againststrikes out of term-time will undermine unity in a UK-wide dispute like Four Fights. 
21Forcalls for more coordination on strike dates with branches.
23Forargues for the two disputes to remain coupled.
24Againstthere would likely have been no Four Fights if we had balloted on an aggregated basis.

Posted on

USS results update: Keep up the fight

University of Liverpool UCU demonstration 1 April

The USS results followed the pattern of the Four Fights votes. Twenty-four branches secured a mandate for action. This is obviously considerably fewer than in the last round, but that’s not the whole story.

The votes for action were strong. Not a single branch voted against action, and the overall percentages for action actually increased. Like the Four Fights, where the overall majority for strike action rose from 70% in November to 74%, the USS vote for strike action was nearly 80%, up from 77%. 

We need to be clear that it is the obstacles put in place by the Trade Union Act 2016 – the 50% threshold plus the requirement to renew mandates after six months – that have caused this situation, not any weakening of the willingness of UCU members to fight these disputes. Even with fewer branches over the line, 45% of the union’s USS membership has a mandate for action next term.

Given the challenges of the anti-union laws, the decision by Head Office not to implement HEC’s decision for a five-week ballot window was a huge mistake. An extra week would have made a big difference, especially as the revelation that the alleged deficit in the scheme had magically shrunk from £14bn to £2bn emerged well into the ballot period.

We can still win these disputes. The branches with a mandate need to take hard-hitting industrial action next term while being backed by a serious strategy of financial support from the remaining branches. Hitting a minority of institutions can work to our advantage by causing splits among the employers as some complain they are being targeted while their competitors are let off the hook.

A reballot over a long ballot window during the summer can replenish our forces in time for action in induction weeks in the majority of institutions. 

The forthcoming SHESCs will be crucial for asserting member control over the disputes, organising the twinning of branches, planning the reballot and setting a strategy that can win.

Come to the pre-SHESC meeting called by UCU Left.

What next for the USS and Four Fights disputes?
Pre-SHESC organising meeting
Tuesday 19th April, 6pm
Zoom registration: https://bit.ly/PreSHESC
All those who want to continue the fights welcome

Posted on

Four Fights ballot results: Organise action next term and a reballot over the summer

Yesterday’s Four Fights ballot results show the ongoing resilience of UCU members and their willingness to fight. 

Including two in N. Ireland, 39 branches have a mandate for action. Another 38 had turnouts exceeding 40%. This is clearly fewer than currently, but this does not mean we lost the votes. The overall majority for strike action was a decisive 74%, 4% higher than in October. The Tory anti-union laws are designed to thwart action by imposing the 50% turnout obstacle and wearing us down with reballots every six months. 

The three-week ballot turnaround set by Head Office also made balloting harder. The Higher Education Committee voted for five weeks but were told by the General Secretary that it was ‘unimplementable’. There is no doubt that even one extra week would have allowed a further group of branches to get over the line.

Drifting

It’s also clear that the lack of direction over recent months has also had an effect. The decoupling of the two disputes in February followed by the senseless dividing of branches into two groups for the March action weakened our unity and created the feeling that the disputes were drifting.

Many activists have been arguing that in order to get the vote out members need to know that there is a clear strategy for escalation. The motions which sought to scupper the disputes brought to last week’s HEC by supporters of the Independent Broad Left and UCU Commons (the GS’s closest supporters) didn’t exactly help the last week of GTVO.  Despite being defeated they showed that some in the union’s current leadership are ready to throw in the towel.

What now? 

Delegates to the Four Fights Special HE Sector Conference (SHESC) should vote for motions calling for a campaign of industrial action by all branches with a mandate next term. We should implement a marking and assessment boycott backed by strike action coordinated with Unison where they have mandates for action. This should be supported by a serious strategy of providing financial support from branches without a mandate. That’s how we can involve all branches and mobilise the entire membership in this battle. Branches with a mandate, actively supported by the others, can carry on the fight in preparation for the next stage.

The SHESC must also commit the union to a reballot of all branches during the summer in readiness for action at the very beginning of autumn term. We must not commit the mistakes of previous years when delays to decision-making, balloting and notifying strikes resulted in no action until late November or December. We need to be hitting universities during induction weeks.  

The USS results are due out today. This battle to overturn the changes to the scheme and cancel the wholly unnecessary ‘deficit recovery contributions’ must continue alongside the Four Fights. It continues to make sense to fight the two disputes together. Pensions are deferred pay, and fighting over equality, casualisation and workloads ensures that all our members have a stake in the struggle.

No truce

Pausing or retreating in these disputes will not trigger a truce from the employers. They are all watching the current vicious attacks at Goldsmiths and Staffordshire to see what tips they can pick up. Standing down the UK-wide fights will be taken as a green light to attack us further. 

UCU members have put up incredible resistance and have continually overcome the Tories anti-union barriers. The General Secretary’s email yesterday acknowledges that the ballot results show members’ continuing willingness to fight.

Leadership

Now we need our leadership to match that determination. Let’s use the upcoming SHESCs to map out a strategy to win and commit our leaders to implement it.

Pre-SHESC organising meeting – 6pm Tuesday 19 April
Register: bit.ly/PreSHESC
Posted on

Report of HEC meeting – 4 April

University of Liverpool UCU demonstration 1 April

Get the vote out and escalate our action to win

The left on the Higher Education Committee today fought off attempts to wind down the Four Fights and USS disputes.

As activists across the country were intensifying their GTVO efforts to win renewed mandates for action, an alliance of Independent Broad Left and Commons members on the HEC were proposing motions which would effectively end both disputes. If these motions had passed, they would have been a kick in the teeth to every member who has taken strike action, turned out on picket lines and rallies, and voted at meetings and in ballots to defend pensions and to fight over pay, inequality, casualisation and workloads. 

Fortunately, this did not happen. All of these motions fell, meaning that they do not go forward from HEC to the agendas of the Special Sector Conferences to be held on 20th and 27th of this month.

Capitulation

Four motions designed to kill off the disputes had been submitted. One of them called openly for an end of this year’s Four Fights, while another advocated a ‘pause’. To try and disguise the extent of this capitulation, they included vague proposals about campaigning with other trade unions to tackle the cost of living crisis and supporting local UCU branches to try to make gains in individual institutions on casualisation, workloads and equality. 

The joint campaigning with other unions we need is more joint strike action, building on the joint Unison/UCU picket lines at a number of universities during the last couple of weeks. Devolving the fight over casualisation, equality and workloads to individual branches is an abrogation of national leadership and a recipe for defeat, especially in those institutions with hard-line managements or less well organised UCU branches. 

Out of touch

Another of the motions called for shelving industrial action over the Four Fights not just for the current 2021-22 pay round, but for next year’s too! It advised concentrating instead on better communication of the Four Fights issues and recruitment to the union. The suggestion that members do not sufficiently understand casualisation, workload and inequality is an insult, while the idea that throwing in the towel would be good for recruitment stands reality on its head. As has been demonstrated time and again, we grow as a union when we fight.

At the very moment that UCU’s criticism of the valuation of USS has been vindicated and the increases in contributions and cuts to benefits shown to be unnecessary, another motion urged us to put our faith in the next valuation of the scheme in the hope that it will allow some of the detrimental changes to our pensions to be reversed. Without the exertion of industrial pressure, this is wishful thinking.

Pessimism

If these motions had been approved by HEC today, it is likely that branch delegates to the SHESCs would have voted them down overwhelmingly. But the fact that such motions are even proposed is an indication of how out of touch with the mood on the ground many HEC members are, and how pessimistic they are about the ability of UCU members to fight and win. These factions believe that they have a better grasp on strategy and tactics than ordinary union members and try to present their proposals as cleverer and more sophisticated than calls for escalating industrial action. One HEC member told us we needed to move beyond the outdated binary language of winning and losing!

Escalation

As it turned out, the only motion to pass and to go forward from HEC was a motion calling for serious escalating industrial action over USS next term. This is now officially HEC’s recommendation to the SHESC, so it will be interesting to see which HEC members are prepared to argue for it.

A UCU Left motion calling for an immediate marking and assessment boycott backed by strike action to deter punitive pay docking was defeated by one vote. But this motion has already been submitted to the SHESCs by a number of branches so will be on the agenda anyway. It is doubtful that the IBL/Commons motions could get through any branch.

However, there is a danger that a marking boycott may start too late to be effective in some institutions, particularly those in Scotland. Information on assessment and exam board dates is currently being collected by HQ, but a motion calling for a boycott to start earlier was ruled out of order for the HEC. 

Reballots

What will best undermine the defeatism of these sections of the union are strong reballot results and renewed mandates for action in branch after branch. This will also terrify our employers. With a couple of days left to get the vote out, there’s still everything to play for.