May 2018

31st May UCU Congress report

Colleagues, Please find here my second report from UCU Congress. It will be circulated to delegates on Friday as the UCU Left response to the statement issued by the dominant faction of the National Executive Committee.
Tom Hickey, University of Brighton delegate to UCU Congress 2018

30th May UCU Congress shut down – the war of Sally’s face

Remarkable scenes are unfolding at UCU Congress. Both morning and afternoon sessions have been brought to a halt by the walkout of UCU employees. 

The issue at stake is the right of UCU Congress delegates to represent members ‘ criticisms of the conduct of the General Secretary in the recent USS dispute. The Unite union claims that these criticisms on the floor of Congress would infringe the employments rights of the General Secretary.

A motion from the majority faction on the NEC to withdraw the motions of criticism fell by 144 votes to 123. The motions address the role of the General Secretary in getting industrial action suspended in the USS dispute. One was a motion of no confidence calling for the General Secretary’s resignation; the other was a motion of censure. Those who voted against withdrawal included many delegates who had reservations about one or both of the motions, but insisted on their right to debate them and vote on them.

In effect, depriving Congress of the right to censure the General Secretary, or the elected leadership as a whole, would render them immune from criticism by the sovereign body of the union. This and future General Secretaries would then be at liberty to act in defiance of democratic decisions taken by members’ delegates at Congress. 

 It would also silence the voices of all those UCU members in branches who expressed their disapproval of the handling of the biggest dispute in the union’s history.

Cyprian Njue

Tom Hickey

Brighton UCU delegates

8th May Motions passed at branch meetings at Falmer and Moulsecoomb

Moulsecoomb:
This branch notes the threat to jobs caused by the loss of another year’s cohort at the Hastings campus.
This branch believes that it is perfectly feasible to avoid the threat to academic jobs by positive steps being taken to absorb – under similar contractual conditions as previously applied – academic staff based at Hastings and agreeing with them alternative teaching and responsibilities on other sites. This branch calls on the UEB to guarantee that there will be no redundancies of academic staff as a result of the winding down of Hastings campus.

Falmer:
This branch notes the threat to jobs caused by the loss of another year’s cohort at the Hastings campus.
This branch believes that it is perfectly possible for schools to avoid the threat to lecturers’ jobs by absorbing the relatively few academic staff based at Hastings and agreeing with them alternative teaching and responsibilities on other sites.  They should not have to apply for alternative posts and equality means all staff being offered alternative teaching and responsibilities on other sites.
This branch calls on the UEB to guarantee that there will be no redundancies of academic staff as a result of the winding down of Hastings campus.