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UCU - Pensions and Pay Disputes

Unite's role in this has been astonishing. How can they think it is a good idea to intervene in the democratic processes of another union like that? Just batshit.
 
aqua said:
I don't understand this I'll be honest. I don't get what there is to benefit from from the events this week. Why did they walk out? What's all the stuff about unite and employment issues and people's children being affected? I must have missed the memo where our children weren't affected by the strike action or by the reductions in pensions. Maybe I'm just too stupid.
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I have no idea what's going on either. Could someone please post up a simple summary? I'm at work so can't listen to the Soundcloud clip.
 
I was at the Congress but haven't had the Sally Hunt email (though I have had one supporting her from regional officers). :hmm:
 
Brainaddict said:
Unite's role in this has been astonishing. How can they think it is a good idea to intervene in the democratic processes of another union like that? Just batshit.
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TBF I don't think there's been any official Unite statement whatsoever. AFAIK there is no UCU Unite branch, this was an unofficial move by some members of Unite. That's one of things that needs clearing up (there's a discussion on this in the SoundCloud interviews I linked to).

PursuedByBears said:
I have no idea what's going on either. Could someone please post up a simple summary? I'm at work so can't listen to the Soundcloud clip.
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What Santino said, the OurUCU statement gives a good summary of the business.

But essentially there were a number of motions - one from Sheffield calling for a democracy review, one from Exeter calling for a vote of no confidence in the GenSec, one from KCL calling a censure motion on the GenSecs actions during the USS strikes - that the GenSec, some of her allies in the Independent Broad Left (IBL) faction and some full time staff opposed on the supposed basis that these represented reprimands of workers outside of the proper complaints procedures.

After a bit of revision the Sheffield motion was put to Congress and passed. However, UCU staff refused to allow either of the other motions to be debated. To which end they turned all the equipment off, walked out and held a demo outside. There were a number of attempts to get things moving again but ultimately to no avail.

Current status is that there will be a recall of Congress for one day to finish business, plus two HESCs coming up.
 
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SpackleFrog said:
My report of Congress if anyone's interested: Congress shut down by staff walkouts
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Cheers. I haven't written mine yet, I may plagiarise borrow. :p

More seriously... has anyone heard more details of the claimed Unite action around Sally Hunt? In terms of attacking the leadership/IBL, the key issue is the utter contempt they obviously hold Congress in, their willingness to shut the whole thing down rather than account for their actions. But the other strand is pinning down whether there was an actual Unite branch in play, what it decided and when. Also, the supposed declaration of a trade dispute - what was the wording and who was it communicated to? All of this leads inevitably into the absurdity of a trade dispute/unofficial walkout in favour of a Sally Hunt, against the Exec, lead by Sally Hunt... and so it goes round. I expect a fair bit of this starts to unravel in the face of detailed questioning (from left leaning members of the Exec?).
 
Wilf said:
Cheers. I haven't written mine yet, I may plagiarise borrow. :p

More seriously... has anyone heard more details of the claimed Unite action around Sally Hunt? In terms of attacking the leadership/IBL, the key issue is the utter contempt they obviously hold Congress in, their willingness to shut the whole thing down rather than account for their actions. But the other strand is pinning down whether there was an actual Unite branch in play, what it decided and when. Also, the supposed declaration of a trade dispute - what was the wording and who was it communicated to? All of this leads inevitably into the absurdity of a trade dispute/unofficial walkout in favour of a Sally Hunt, against the Exec, lead by Sally Hunt... and so it goes round. I expect a fair bit of this starts to unravel in the face of detailed questioning (from left leaning members of the Exec?).
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Help yourself!

The exec narrowly supported the walk out and to ask Congress not to debate the motions. I have heard tell though that this was not an officially agreed action in the staff Unite branch though and whether or not they have any legitimacy for the action I have no idea.
 

Update from Sally Hunt

Message for all UCU members.

I want to let you know about what happened at UCU's recent Congress and also about our plans for the year ahead.

The union's priorities are clear: pensions; workload; job security; pay and public funding.

But these are just words, and mask the human impact on many of you of longer hours and more intensive work; the failure of salaries and pensions to keep pace with inflation; the fear of being made redundant; and the worry that falling government support may lead to course closures or loss of research income.

In these circumstances, our union must step up to the mark. In July, your newly elected National Executive Committee (NEC) will meet to discuss our strategy, guided of course by the decisions of UCU's Congress.

I intend to work closely with the NEC and the five nationally elected officers on a positive and realistic programme which can garner support from branches and members across the union. I will write with more details following the NEC.

I also want to mention the debate on UCU's own structures which took place at Congress.

As has been reported in the media, while in the recent ballot 80% of members voted for reforms such as a smaller NEC with savings spent on increased branch support, 80% of delegates to Congress voted to 'set aside' the ballot and reject the plans.

Instead, Congress voted to elect a Commission from among its own delegates to examine the issue further and report back in a year's time. I am personally disappointed with this delay, but of course I will engage fully with the Commission as I hope will all branches and members.

I continue to believe that the key to success for UCU is to increase your participation in the union.

Therefore as we face what will by any standards be a challenging period, I hope you will consider getting more involved in the union locally, and that nationally we can continue to rely on your support.

I am always interested in your views so feel free to contact me.

Sally Hunt
UCU General Secretary
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What's the bit I've put in bold all about?
 
SpackleFrog said:
Zenscara didn't call anyone a scab, just for clarity - several allegations about delegates using the word though.
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No, I know, sorry if it wasn't clear. It was Emma Jane-Philips (from Northumbria) that made (and continues to make) that claim.
At that point I left, I will not support scabs.

I am absolutely disgusted that union delegates would openly scab. Unite members withdrew as they were in dispute and for UCU members to appoint people to do the work they were not doing due to dispute is outrageous and unacceptable in my view, it will be interesting to see what happens in the next dispute when universities bring in people to do the marking and teaching that they are refusing to do due to being in dispute, one thing is certain, every one who signed the statement that came out of that meeting supported scab behaviour and therefore cannot complain when it is done to them.

Emma-Jane Phillips

NEC Disabled Member Representative, Northern Regional Secretary, Northumbria Branch Secretary, Northern TUC
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SpackleFrog said:
It is, Congress 2012.
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Sorry about that.
I see from my reading of things from a while back though that there seems to be a long running thing going on between "UCU left" and Sally Hunt. In other words this is not just about recent events. Or at least, this gives a bit of context to how UCU staff reacted to the motions.
 
redsquirrel said:
No, I know, sorry if it wasn't clear. It was Emma Jane-Philips (from Northumbria) that made (and continues to make) that claim.

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This is a nasty little allegation in what is already a toxic dispute. That aside, it's also difficult to follow the internal logic of the allegation. It's far from clear that this really was a declared 'trade dispute', in fact it's hard to work out which Unite branch the relevant players were members of. But beyond all that, what was the actual scabbing? It could only refer to people remaining in the hall at the end and trying to carry on discussions. It soon became clear that we couldn't carry on Congress business as the UCU senior staff refused a further request to turn the sound system on. It became simply a meeting of the majority of delegates - who ultimately agreed the statement that has been circulated. There were no tellers appointed, nobody ran the powerpoint, nobody turned the mics on - there was no scabbing.

Just on the majority bit: from memory, votes in the morning were going around, say 128 - 122 i.e. there were about 250 delegates present. After the various shutdowns and long delays, it's reasonable to assume some of these people had gone off to get trains by the afternoon. Nevertheless, the statement was signed by 140 delegates, though I'd guess a further 20 or so had been present for the impromptu meeting but drifted off before the statement was by the door to sign. A few estimates and guesstimates in there, but the signatories were a clear majority of delegates present on the final day. All of that undermines any claims that this was merely an SWP or UCU Left thing. In fact plenty of people who stayed made that point that were members of neither of these.

Sorry, plenty of obvious points, but one more... the whole thing was a staggering miscalculation by the leadership and the thing they got wrong most of all was about the no-confidence vote. Whilst there were majorities to keep it on the agenda, my guess is that SH would have (just) won the day. But as a result of the walkouts her position has now weakened and it's hard to see how the union can even conduct business at the moment. It's almost as if the leadership wanted to prove the SWP right about bureaucracy and betrayal. Strange days.
 
Wilf said:
snip
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Agree with all that.

Like you say this whole debacle doesn't just shown the national leadership up as undemocratic but also as fucking incompetent. I think it's pretty inconceivable that SH would have lost the VoNC (Exeter even admitted that they tabled their motion more as a symbolic protest than anything else) and I think the KCL would probably been voted down (at least in the form it was initially proposed), they've actually managed to harden the opposition.
 
BUMP for discussion of the pay ballot.

What's the feeling at other places regarding the pay ballot?

Unfortunately I have to say that at my branch there doesn't seem to be the anger and mobilisation of this that there was about the pensions dispute. That could be down to local conditions (we are in the midst of a very serious local crisis) and/or the fact that people are scribbling around trying to get ready for the beginning of term.

BTW SpackleFrog would you be ok with me getting a mod to change the title to something like "UCU - Pensions and Pay disputes"?
 
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I find the naivety of some members pretty annoying/disturbing. It doesn't matter what the exact nature dispute is about, the very act of taking industrial action strengthens us for all disputes
 
redsquirrel said:
BUMP for discussion of the pay ballot.

What's the feeling at other places regarding the pay ballot?

Unfortunately I have to say that at my branch there doesn't seem to be the anger and mobilisation of this that there was about the pensions dispute. That could be down to local conditions (we are in the midst of a very serious local crisis) and/or the fact that people are scribbling around trying to get ready for the beginning of term.

BTW SpackleFrog would you be ok with me getting a mod to change the title to something like "UCU - Pensions and Pay disputes"?
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Yes please do so!

I think at our place it'll be a big vote for action but we're a big well organised branch, plus we've already begun a campaign to get the vote out and make sure we do. As for the rest, who knows? Will be an interesting test of mood. Perhaps particularly in terms of post-92 branches that weren't involved in the USS dispute. A lot of anger around though.

Think it's very important to make clear that it's not just about pay but casualisation, the gender pay gap and workload too, particularly if where you are the issues people are having relate to those.

By the way the ballot closes on 19th October - the day after the recall Congress where we're gonna have the vote of no confidence in the GS.
 
I see Sally Hunt has just gone on the sick, 11 days before the vote of no confidence. I'm (genuinely) not going to cast aspersions about that, as a union rep I've no problem with people going off sick, full stop. And much as I'm in the opposite camp to her, I imagine the stress of the situation may well have affected her health. She seems to be alluding to that in her email. Same time it will have an impact on the congress, with arguments that you can't criticise/censure/sack someone who is off sick - which all gets back to whether she is a politically elected official or an employee. It's all a fucking mess and emphasises how shabby the manoeuvres by the right were in the Summer. :(
 
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