HE disputes – No Time To Delay: Escalating and indefinite action needed now.

The re-ballot results over USS and the Four Fights are now public and the Branch Delegates Meetings have been held. They tell a consistent and determined story.

UCU rightly chose to immediately reballot branches who narrowly missed the 50% anti-union threshold in the initial ballots before Xmas. In both sets of re-ballot results we see a similar story of a membership overwhelmingly opposed to the marketisation of Higher Education and demanding far reaching change. In the USS ballot there was an average vote of 81% for strike action while in the Four Fights it was 75%. Votes for action short of strike were higher still.

But there was also a consistent pattern of branches hampered by the anti-union law 50% threshold. The overall turnout in the USS re-ballot was 48% while for the Four Fights the turnout was 45%. It is a credit to our union and its members that despite these antidemocratic laws, in both the USS and Four Fights just under a third of branches got over the threshold (7 out of 22 in USS and 9 out of 31 in Four Fights). It will be very disappointing for activists in branches that missed the threshold despite their hard work, but this is the reality of the anti-union legislation, and we need to find concrete ways in which non-striking branches can play a role until such time as they ballot again.

USS now has 44 out of 68 branches with mandates for strike action over USS and in the Four Fights 64 out of 145 branches. The mandate these branches have must not be squandered and instead must be used to demand real and far reaching change in Higher Education.

The stakes are high. In the USS dispute, university managements and their partners in the USS Trustee are determined to destroy the pension scheme and with it members’ right to a decent retirement. In the Four Fights the year-on-year cutting of our pay, relentlessly rising workloads, institutionalised pay discrimination and scandalous levels of casualisation are all in managements’ gift to change but throughout the sector not a single employer will break from the standard business model. The reason is that generating surpluses by minimising staffing costs while maximising student fees is the sole aim.

The sector is broken and those who pay the price are our students graduating with unpayable debt and staff trying to hold together a resemblance of what higher education should be. At the same time we should not forget this sector has never had so much income or recruited so many students, no matter how unevenly they are distributed between institutions.

What next?

UCU’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) meets today to determine what happens next. The Branch Delegates Meeting gave a clear steer. No one wants to end the disputes, voices for continuing the USS and Four Fights disputes together were widely supported and a recognition that only stepping up our action can force our employers and the USS Trustees/Executive to change direction.

Stepping up our action can galvanise our members in branches with a mandate for hard hitting action and build the confidence of members in branches who fell below the threshold to win a mandate in the next set of ballots. A number of branches passed a version of the model motion circulated last week by UCU Left calling for escalating and indefinite action.

Many branch delegates expressed opposition to the two HEC motions proposing to localise the disputes by targeting individual institutions. Calls for ‘reframing’ the disputes around ‘targeted action’ are intended to sound creative, but such a strategy would in reality mean frittering away the collective strength that we have built up, giving the green light to employers to intensify the marketisation that is wrecking higher education.

Some delegates explicitly declared support instead for the HEC motion from UCU Left supporters which calls for escalating and indefinite strike action, making ASOS effective including moving to a marking and assessment boycott and preparing now for the further ballots needed to renew our mandate for an exam and graduation boycott into May and June. This is the only strategy that can take our disputes forward and put the pressure on our employers, particularly if it is combined with winning solidarity from other trade unionists and building unity with students. The NUS Strike for Education on 2^nd March needs to be a key focus for our next bout of action.

UCU is at a crossroads. It either stands up and fights or it backs down and invites a rout by the employers. A union that is incapable of defending its members is a union that has no future. The stakes are high but we cannot afford to lose these disputes.

UCU Left VP & NEC election campaign launch

For a union that defends education, working conditions and the planet

Speakers include John McDonnell MP

6pm Thursday 27 January

20 September 20211 October 2021

The UCU fight over jobs at the University of Liverpool

The experience and the lessons so far

The employer’s attack and the UCU response

The fight over jobs at the University of Liverpool began in January after managers had announced their ‘Project Shape’ initiative the previous year. This was to be a shakeup of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences and threatened compulsory redundancies for 47 named academics. The fact that the University were threatening the jobs of health scientists in a pandemic caused anger amongst university workers and across the city.

The branch responded with a call for industrial action and a well-organised ‘get-the-vote-out’ campaign. The result was an overwhelming ‘Yes’ vote for both strike action (84%) and action-short-of-strike (90%).

The official industrial action began on 10 May with action-short-of-strike, essentially a ‘work-to-contract’. The branch started as it meant to carry on, with an online solidarity rally that day of 230 members and supporters. Major impact came quickly.

Early impact

UCU pointed out that the list of 47 names had been created using utterly inappropriate criteria. The first was ‘grant-capture’, something that was never, and could never have been a contractual requirement. In fact, some on the ‘at risk’ list had been successful in winning major funding, just not for the types of activity deemed ‘right for the University’. The second, particularly absurd, criterion was something called the Field Weighted Citation Index (FWCI). This is a metric designed to evaluate the performance of very large institutions and becomes unreliable once the number of outputs being sampled falls below 10,000! Certainly, it is not intended to evaluate individual output. The branch began a high-profile media campaign using social and traditional media, which held up this metric to public ridicule and University managers were forced shamefacedly to withdraw it. At a stroke this took 15 names off the list just as the strikes were about to begin.

The first round of all-out strike action began on 24 May and ran until 11 June.

Solidarity

On the 1 June, at a well-attended meeting, members voted for a new phase of action. This was a marking and assessment boycott that would involve only those members who had marking and assessment responsibilities. That action began on 18^th June. In anticipation of 100% deduction of pay for those taking this action, the branch agreed that members who could not be involved would donate a proportion of their wages to support those who were able to take this action.

This was hard-hitting ‘action-short-of-strike’ and meant members standing up to intimidation from line managers, on an indefinite basis, without pay. The University announced that 100% of pay would be deducted for ‘partial-performance’. The senior management later stated they would not necessarily deduct pay for the boycott, making this conditional on the dispute being resolved despite jobs still being ‘at risk’. The branch resoundingly rejected this cynical move by the employer. It was vitally important then, that throughout this phase of action ‘the boycotters’ knew they were not alone.

Branch representatives pushed successfully for national ‘strike pay’ for the boycott period. Financial contributions from branch members made ‘the boycotters’ feel supported. Crucially, the branch sent speakers far and wide to UCU and other trade union meetings. External solidarity came rushing into the branch in the form of invitations to speak, donations from other UCU branches and unions, and from individuals. At the 25 June general meeting of over 200, with a 97% majority, members voted for 10 further days of strike action which would be taken by the whole branch, and which would target confirmation and clearing. It was clear now when the whole branch would be coming out once more, and that the financial support needed was indeed coming in. An online solidarity rally with the National UCU President and local trade unionists again attracted over 200. A 10 July march through the city-centre attracted wide support. Various networks of trade union activists promoting the fight in Liverpool were crucial to these mobilisations: nationally, UCU Left and UCU Solidarity Movement; more locally Merseyside People Before Profit. The city-wide demonstration was built in partnership with the Liverpool Trades Council. The momentum of all of this action has been remarkable.

The determination of the ‘boycotters’ and the UCU branch, supported by this wave of UCU and trade union movement solidarity, in the end delivered a hugely impactful boycott campaign. A third online rally again of over 200, took place on the 5 July. This was the University’s ‘Results Day’ when normally degree results are released. In the event the University was forced to announce it would not be able to release marks and degree classifications for 1,500 students. UCU members had stood firm, and the impact was clear. But still, 21 jobs remained ‘at risk’.

By the middle of July, UCU branch negotiators reported a more conciliatory tone from the university. The voluntary severance scheme was improved; and individuals were taken off the ‘at risk’ list by ‘mitigation’, bringing the number down to half-a-dozen names. The second round of strike action started on 4 August and ran until 14 August. On 9 August Jeremy Corbyn spoke at the University campus to hundreds of strikers and supporters.

Participation

What has also enabled UCU members to take such effective and impactful action, has been the very high levels of membership participation throughout. Despite lockdown, a ‘covid-aware’ campus presence was maintained with a picket stall, and strikers responding to information about any teaching or other activity that needed to be picketed. At the very beginning of the campaign, the strike committee established a WhatsApp group that enabled constant daily exchanges and information sharing. This quickly grew to 220+. Each day of the official industrial action campaign, through the two rounds of strike action and the boycott that lasted until 19 July, morning online meetings have been held; they continue still, and the day of submission of this report saw the 83^rd of these meetings. They have typically had attendances of around 200, over the four months of the dispute, rarely dropping below 100. Members contributed talks and presentations for teach-out sessions during the strike periods, which were important for membership and supporter engagement. The daily meetings and the WhatsApp group have ensured that the action has been truly member-led throughout. The action has been held together with the constant membership involvement that all of this has allowed.

The fight goes on

The fight over jobs at the University of Liverpool is not over. There are still two jobs ‘at risk’. The branch mandate for action goes up to the 8 October. At a meeting of 240+, 82% of members voted to strike at the beginning of the academic year; and an overwhelming majority voted to re-ballot for further action if needed after the current mandate runs out.

The University of Liverpool UCU is clear that there can be no compromise on compulsory redundancies. From the outset, members have said ‘There is only one acceptable number: zero’.

The achievement of preventing 45 compulsory redundancies so far, has shown the industrial power that university workers have today. The universities are vulnerable to any type of instability in the highly competitive HE marketplace. They have tried to run their institutions like corporations, aping the management styles (and salaries) of industrial executives. But they have met with an industrial response in Liverpool and realised their mistake.

At the time of writing the branch was set to stage all-out strike action between the 4-8 October, hitting the return to face-to-face teaching. But since then the employer had caved in. With no more compulsory redundancies on the table, the branch has been able to declare victory and call of the strikes.

UCU-Left supporters at the University of Liverpool UCU

19 June 202020 June 2020

Report on NEC 19th June: #Black Lives Matter

Report on NEC 19^th June: #Black Lives Matter

UCU’s National Executive Committee met on-line on 19^th June. While technological issues continue to limit participation the meeting facilitated the NEC to debate and make some decisions.

Two motions on anti-racism and backing the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement were debated fully. The first motion a campaigning motion supporting Diane Abbott MP/Stand Up To Racism (SUTR)/ Doreen Lawrence’s call for an independent public inquiry into disproportionate BAME deaths in the COVID-19 crisis was passed with just three abstentions. It also agreed to work with the Black Members Committee (BMSC) to hold a special delegate meeting to discuss developing an anti-racist strategy for every university and college and finally to encourage local branches to work with BLM – SUTR and other anti-racist groups. A second motion was remitted to the Black Members Standing Committee. This motion was problematic in a number of ways. The terminology BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Colour) was used, in the UK context, by white supremacists to suggest the white British majority need to be ‘protected’ from anti-racist policies. As a union we purposefully use the term BAME (Black Asian and Minority Ethic) as a descriptor or ‘Black’ to define a political unity across ethnicities and have always campaigned for black and white unity because we understand the concept of ‘United We Stand: Divided We Fall’. An amendment changed this nomenclature. The motion also focused upon individual responsibility for racism rather than structural racism by identifying the primary importance of unlearning racism and the establishment of an alternative university system for black students. The motion was remitted to the BMSC rather than rejected to allow for further discussion before coming back to NEC (see below for both motions).

The Treasurer’s report identified the scale of support for members on strike, while time constraints prevented any update on holding a Congress in 2020 and a motion relating to this was not heard. The General Secretary reported on the progress of the ‘Fund the Future’ campaign for funding of post-16 education on recruitment to a set of special working groups. It was a shame the report made no mention of the UCU Solidarity rally Jo Grady spoke at held by Roehampton, Imperial College, SOAS and Liverpool which had 700 register and over 600 attend. Nor was their call for a day of action over jobs heard. The next UCU Solidarity organising meeting will be held on Saturday 20^th June at 12 noon.

UCU Solidarity organising meeting: Join Zoom Meeting: Saturday 20^th June 12:00 noon.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86226056754?pwd=Z3BYRkVPTDYyTjZHbTFDRDR3UHpIdz09

Meeting ID: 862 2605 6754 Password: 050753

One tap mobile

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A motion on dealing with sexual harassment within UCU was debated and passed aiming to establish an independent inquiry into UCU’s treatment of past cases with lessons to be learnt for the future. The original motion was amended to ensure survivors are protected and the equality committee is involved in its development.

On-line meetings are difficult to chair and using voting systems which do not work properly wastes a lot of time. A number of important motions therefore fell off the agenda. Two important motions which fell off the agenda, one giving recognition and support to the call for a day of action over jobs made at the 700 strong activists meeting that took place on 17^th June. The other was an emergency motion in support of Reading UCU, who are facing major job cuts with members facing downgrading and re-employment on lower grades. UCU NEC cannot become a body of inaction and inward retrospection and must rise to the challenge facing members. The NEU’s campaign has forced the government into committing a further £1b of funding for schools. We need to learn from their experience for post-16 education.

Motion 8 George Floyd and #BlackLivesMatter (passed with three abstentions)

UCU offers our condolences to the family of George Floyd.

UCU offers our solidarity to the global #BlackLivesMatter movement that has exploded onto the streets of the US and across the world.

The issues of institutional racism have been laid bare alongside the hugely disproportionate deaths suffered by BAME communities in the Covid19 crisis.

UCU urgently needs to develop a strategy to both de-colonise our campuses and to tackle institutional racism.

UCU supports the BLM movement – and the call by Diane Abbott MP/Stand Up To Racism, Doreen Lawrence for an independent public inquiry into disproportionate BAME deaths in the COVID-19 crisis.

Working with the Black Members Committee(BMSC) we will call a special delegate meeting to discuss developing an anti-racist strategy for every university and college.

We encourage local branches to work with BLM – SUTR and other anti-racist groups to promote campus and community anti-racist initiatives.

Motion 10 Addressing systemic and structural racism in British FEHEIs (remitted for discussion by the Black Workers Standing Committee with the term ‘Black’ replacing ‘BIPOC’)

NEC notes:

The resurgence of BLM protests against global Anti-Black racism in the wake of George Floyd’s murder
The pervasive and sinister nature of Anti-Black racism, perpetrated at every level of society, by institutions and individuals

NEC Believes:

Institutional racism and structural inequality within the sector are upheld systematically by the sector
WE are the sector
The fight for the future of education cannot – should not – succeed if this fight doesn’t centre the work of anti-racism in a sustained and consistent way

NEC Resolves to:

Seek affiliations with regional anti-racist organisations, offering ‘unlearning racism’ training courses across UCU
Officially sponsor the Free Black Uni, and make a donation of £1000
Explore, with UCEA & UUK, expansions to ‘employment relations’ to include BIPOC hiring and retention disparities
Campaign for racial equality reforms across the sector, to enable BIPOC staff and students to thrive, and not just survive, in the sector

Motion 2. UCU is committed to rooting out sexual harassment and violence (Amended)

NEC notes

#Metoo created a movement to stamp out sexual violence
Remittance of the part of Congress 2019 motion 18 calling for a specific rule expelling from membership those found guilty of sexual harassment
Sexual harassment and violence can, and have, occurred within the union

NEC BELIEVES:

The UCU has no place for those who commit sexual violence nor for ostracization of survivors.
We need rules and procedures which do not silence survivors, and which are fit for purpose
An independent inquiry into SH within the UCU would help us all understand how abusers gain and retain power

NEC agrees to present the following as an amendment to the Congress motion from Sheffield branch

Congress commits to rooting out sexual violence and instructs NEC to urgently appoint an independent review of past cases within the UCU, with the aim of helping our work on stamping out sexual harassment.

The Inquiry to be:

conducted with trauma informed procedures and counselling available to all
conducted with appropriate confidentiality for all parties

Inquiry terms to be designed by survivor led organisations e.g. 1752 in conjunction with the equality committee and with input from NUS

The work of the sexual harassment task force to feed into the equalities committees