UCU - Pensions and Pay Disputes

[Lord Camomile]

Yeah, we're due to reballot, having failed to meet the threshold back in <checks notes> May. Half a year between balloting on an issue...

Have to say, I'm not convinced by the strategy. As you say, if UCU don't get a mandate (which, even then, wouldn't necessarily guarantee branches going out, going by last time), then it's going to be a handful of UNISON branches taking action around February, just before negotiations get started for the 24/25 pay round.

We know from last time that this confuses the issue, and members, and that UCEA will exploit that.

At a recent Regional Committee, we did ask for more details from the SGE on how the strategy is expected to work. I think my request was "could they draw a line for us from this action to an improved offer?" Genuinely interested to see what comes back.

If the members vote for it, then out we'll go, but particularly coming from a branch where we lost a lot of momentum with our failure last time, I do wonder if it'd make more sense to hold that energy for a big, extended push again on the 24/25 offer*. Otherwise we're likely to still not get anywhere with 23/24, and run out of steam before we can make any significant impact on 24/25.

I do hope I'm wrong, though





*yes, I am rather assuming we won't be happy with the 24/25 offer either.

 

[hitmouse]

Yeah, we're due to reballot, having failed to meet the threshold back in <checks notes> May. Half a year between balloting on an issue...

Have to say, I'm not convinced by the strategy. As you say, if UCU don't get a mandate (which, even then, wouldn't necessarily guarantee branches going out, going by last time), then it's going to be a handful of UNISON branches taking action around February, just before negotiations get started for the 24/25 pay round.

We know from last time that this confuses the issue, and members, and that UCEA will exploit that.

At a recent Regional Committee, we did ask for more details from the SGE on how the strategy is expected to work. I think my request was "could they draw a line for us from this action to an improved offer?" Genuinely interested to see what comes back.

If the members vote for it, then out we'll go, but particularly coming from a branch where we lost a lot of momentum with our failure last time, I do wonder if it'd make more sense to hold that energy for a big, extended push again on the 24/25 offer*. Otherwise we're likely to still not get anywhere with 23/24, and run out of steam before we can make any significant impact on 24/25.

I do hope I'm wrong, though





*yes, I am rather assuming we won't be happy with the 24/25 offer either.

Yeah, that is pretty much my thinking exactly, my branch haven't yet fully confirmed if we'll be opting out or not but think we're leaning that way. Obviously if UCU manage to get another mandate and then work out an actual coherent strategy then the picture would look very different, but I'm not going to hold my breath too much over that.

 

[hitmouse]

Results aren't out yet, but the fact that UCU were literally suggesting that members who'd not voted might want to walk down to Civica and deliver their ballots by hand might suggest something about how confident they're feeling:

 

[Lord Camomile]

I've bloody well suggested we do that in previous ballots, but been told we can't

Oh, wait, actually... my suggestion is we offer to take them on behalf of members if it's got to the point we're not confident they'll arrive in time by post. I think the objection is it could be open to tampering or summat

Anyway, yeah, it's not the most encouraging

 

[hitmouse]

I've bloody well suggested we do that in previous ballots, but been told we can't

Oh, wait, actually... my suggestion is we offer to take them on behalf of members if it's got to the point we're not confident they'll arrive in time by post. I think the objection is it could be open to tampering or summat

Anyway, yeah, it's not the most encouraging

I think we've offered to meet the costs of next-day delivery for stragglers before? Quite a cheap offer that one cos I don't think anyone ever takes us up on it. Anyway, I suppose the "you can still just go to Civica" thing is maybe a tiny bit more workable for branches in London, wouldn't be too practical for people working in Aberdeen or wherever.

 

[hitmouse]

Don't think anyone will be too surprised by this result:

Anti-union laws stop university staff striking for fair pay & conditions

UCU has criticised anti-democratic trade union laws for frustrating the wishes of members who voted for strike action over pay and working conditions.

www.ucu.org.uk

 

[Benjamin F]

Don't think anyone will be too surprised by this result:

Anti-union laws stop university staff striking for fair pay & conditions

UCU has criticised anti-democratic trade union laws for frustrating the wishes of members who voted for strike action over pay and working conditions.

www.ucu.org.uk

Highly predictable, that people would lose faith in a leadership that lied to its members (for instance remember Jo Grady's claim that there had been movement on all fronts, only to admit later that employers had offered nothing new on pay) and whose tactics of a few days strike here and a few days strike there, cost members their wages, disrupted student's learning but did little to inconvenience management who knew that the vital work would be picked up on return. To say nothing of the balls up on the MAB. The only surprise, for me, was that UCU membership seemed to be higher for the 2023 ballot (68000) than for the October 2022 ballot 65,996 (3% increase). At my work place Union membership and density is sadly more than a bit down what it used to be.

 

[hitmouse]

Interesting, if pretty harsh, article from Lorna Finlayson here:

Lorna Finlayson, The Sycophant — Sidecar

On academics.

newleftreview.org

 

[redsquirrel]

Harsh but accurate in a lot of respects. Can certainly recognise many of the behaviours described.

The current UCU president has defended insurance members, arguing that because the contribute money they should not be challenged.

 

[hitmouse]

On a less contentious note, I hadn't realised how bad the situation is with redundancies at some places:

The University Worker: 28th November 2023

by The University Worker // The wave of redundancies

notesfrombelow.org

Does point to another way that national bargaining's broken, cos in a fully marketised education sector you will have some very profitable institutions and others that are losing money, so agreeing a national pay deal tends to mean setting a rate that's affordable to the very brokest employers. Dunno how you'd fix that situation short of proper state investment though.

 

[lazythursday]

Please can someone who pays proper attention to all this tell me who to vote for in the upcoming elections? Not Jo Grady, obviously.

 

[Serge Forward]

Probably Vicky Blake.

 

[redsquirrel]

Yeah I'm going Vicky Blake #1.
She was a good president, tried to push through more democracy, is a professional service staff (good as the union has typically been too academic focused).

 

[Benjamin F]

Disappointed to see a few people I know and like standing in the UCU elections backing the deceitful and incompetent Jo Grady. They are usually pretty sound, so I wonder if I'm missing something?

 

[redsquirrel]

Could be friendship, anti-UCU Left politics, or just general belief of Grady's politics.
Anyone in particular Benjamin F ?

 

[Benjamin F]

I doubt it can be personal friendships as I don't think any have ever worked in the same institution as Grady (and at least one is new to standing in national elections). I see that across a slate of different candidates, there are expressions of support for Grady, from ones that I would usually be inclined to vote for.

 

[redsquirrel]

I can't say much about most of the UCU Commons / GS inclined lot standing this round apart from

• Steve Sangwine -> total arsehole, old Independent Broad Left / UCU Agenda, old Sally Hunt supporter and prick to be opposed
• Ann Gow -> As above, another campaign for UCU Democracy, i.e. support the GenSec at all costs and oppose any rank and file initiatives. Also may be one of those weird Stalinists in UCU Democracy that support China (could be wrong on that)
• Andrew Feeney another UCU Democracy person
• Dr Chris O'Donnell -> Not a member of UCU Democracy but with absolutely terrible politics. For a start which berk uses Dr in their election bump. But has again consistently argued against industrial action at all turns and for the union to stand down. Backed the 'deal' that came out of the Acas process last year. A huge liability
• Janet Farrar - current Past-President, terrible chair of Congress
• Jo Edge - someone from Commons that I actually have time for, but I think she is hugely wrong on Grady.

BTW if anyone was undecided the tin foil hat smears and stupidity of this piece will hopefully make them think about backing Vicky.

For Blake, decisions taken by Congress or its committees, even when they demonstrably lack the support of the broader membership, are sacrosanct and must always be upheld. It is our opposition to this fundamentalist reading of the UCU rule book that has led us to recommend that members do not vote for Blake, even as a second preference.

Decisions taken by the supreme body of the union should be enacted - what is this madness!

 

[hitmouse]

BTW if anyone was undecided the tin foil hat smears and stupidity of this piece will hopefully make them think about backing Vicky.

Decisions taken by the supreme body of the union should be enacted - what is this madness!

I thought this was a memorably shit smear attempt as well:

The focus is on the SWP since it has been the dominant force in UCU for the past five years and mainly responsible – though they deny this and blame betrayal by the General Secretary and UCU “bureaucracy” – for years of costly, unproductive strikes... In addition, there are others who claim to be independent of any faction or party but in fact have a record of voting with UCU Left that is not apparent from their election statements.
For example in March 2023, Vicky Blake, a past president of UCU who is standing for election as General Secretary, and other “left independents” on the Higher Education Committee (HEC) joined with UCU Left (and in fact tipped the balance) in voting against a formal consultation of HE members on offers made by UUK and UCEA even though a Branch Delegates Meeting (BDM) and an informal e-survey participated in by over 36,000 members had indicated a strong wish to be consulted.

Are you now, or have you ever, voted the same way as UCU Left in a meeting, etc.

 

[PursuedByBears]

Jo Grady re-elected as General Secretary

Some 17,131 votes were counted, with Grady netting 5,990 first preferences (compared to Sara Weiner on 2,580, Vicky Blake on 3,837, and Ewan McGaughey on 4,724). At the conclusion of the transferable vote exercise Grady had 7,758 votes to McGaughey’s 7,576. There were 114,310 eligible voters – so this was a 15.1 per cent turn out, with the eventual winner netting just 6.8 per cent of the total possible vote.

It is notable how low these numbers are – 38,088 (of 65,996 entitled to vote on an HE specific issue relating to a sub-group of providers) participated in the industrial action ballot in October 2022.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “I want to thank every member who has voted to endorse my strategy for our union’s future”. She could probably ring them all up to do so over the next week or so.

The returning general secretary will have an overflowing higher education in-tray. To give just a few recent examples, a ballot opens tomorrow at Goldsmiths over the potential loss of 130 jobs, a strike is underway at the University of Aberdeen, and an indicative ballot is happening at SOAS University of London – where 34 English-language support roles are at risk. The next months will see 2024-25 New JNCHES salary negotiations open (with a previously agreed independent examination of university finances, designed to underpin negotiations by giving unions and employers a common understanding, yet to start).

There’s problems closer to home too – the Unite branch at UCU is in dispute over allegations of workplace racism, and the delayed conclusion to salary negotiations ended with a knife edge poll – just a single vote saw UCU’s proposed uplift accepted, with many members holding out for a pay rise that focused on lower paid staff.

Winning by 182 votes on a 15.1% turnout really is a"none of the above" result.

 

[hitmouse]

Huh, wouldn't have expected the lawyer bloke to come second.

 

[Serge Forward]

Two left candidates, Blake and Weiner, so split left vote. Dunno about McGaughey.

It's fucking abysmal.

 

[redsquirrel]

Huh, wouldn't have expected the lawyer bloke to come second.

No I was surprised by that. Can only think that he had a good social media game that helped.

 

[hitmouse]

How do transferable votes work? Would Weiner's votes have had a change to transfer to Blake in a second round, or would they have both been eliminated to make it a straight O'Grady/McGaughey contest?

Two left candidates, Blake and Weiner, so split left vote. Dunno about McGaughey.

It's fucking abysmal.

I think McGaughey's big thing is that he brought a legal case against USS, but I dunno how successful it was, or what was actually achieved by it. Just looked up the wikipedia page and it instantly made my eyes glaze over:

McGaughey and Davies v USS Ltd - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

So if that's his big selling point, not quite the most inspiring alternative to Gradyism.

 

[Serge Forward]

Some people are quite impressed with a bit of lawyerliness. See Sir Keir Starmer (not saying McGahey is a Starmerite mind).

 

[redsquirrel]

How do transferable votes work? Would Weiner's votes have had a change to transfer to Blake in a second round, or would they have both been eliminated to make it a straight O'Grady/McGaughey contest?

Weiner's votes would have been re-allocated to the next choice - 984 going to Blake, 451 to Grady and 582 to McGaughey, 563 no-transferred.
Then after Vicky was eliminated all her and Weiner's votes were re-allocated again.

https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/14324/General-secretary-election-2024-result-count-sheet/pdf/GS_result_sheet.pdf

 

[hitmouse]

Weiner's votes would have been re-allocated to the next choice - 984 going to Blake, 451 to Grady and 582 to McGaughey, 563 no-transferred.
Then after Vicky was eliminated all her and Weiner's votes were re-allocated again.

https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/14324/General-secretary-election-2024-result-count-sheet/pdf/GS_result_sheet.pdf

Right, yeah. A reminder of how unpredictable voter behaviour is, I suppose, I would've thought it'd be obvious for SW voters (appropriate acronym there), to put VB as #2 and vice-versa, but apparently around 20% of people who put Weiner as their first choice had Grady as their second. Can't imagine the UCU reps I know will be too enthusiastic about this outcome, but then tbf I can't remember the last time something made me think "I bet everyone in the UCU will be really happy about this".

 

[redsquirrel]

Right, yeah. A reminder of how unpredictable voter behaviour is, I suppose, I would've thought it'd be obvious for SW voters (appropriate acronym there), to put VB as #2 and vice-versa, but apparently around 20% of people who put Weiner as their first choice had Grady as their second. Can't imagine the UCU reps I know will be too enthusiastic about this outcome, but then tbf I can't remember the last time something made me think "I bet everyone in the UCU will be really happy about this".

Yep to all that
If I had to look for silver linings I think the attacks that are going on at the moment - and only going to get worse - could help unite people after the arguments of the last year(s)

 

[hitmouse]

Well, fingers crossed, I certainly don't envy you/them the job of trying to get UCU members enthusiastic for more action after how the last round ended though.