Category Archives: F.E.

NEC Elections 2017 – Vote for a strong, united and independent union

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The independent broad left (IBL) is a network of like-minded UCU members who tend to have shared views on issues crucial to our union. We are firm in our belief that repeatedly calling for national strike action, regardless of circumstances or members’ views, is the wrong strategy, misleading and counterproductive.

UCU needs to act in the interests of all members – not just the few

In these uncertain times of national and international upheaval we need a leadership that continues to focus on members’ core concerns of professionalism and pay & conditions. We do not need a ‘UCU LEFT/ Socialist Workers Party’ backed leadership with a political agenda often set by external organisations, bent on empty militant posturing and a culture of blame

UCU needs a leadership with current, credible and relevant experience.

Vote Sally Hunt for UCU General Secretary

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Re-elect Sally Hunt as General Secretary

We believe that Sally is by far the best candidate for this crucial role, given her successful track record as UCU’s General Secretary, her professionalism and her commitment to national and international trade unionism. We agree with her intent to further develop and strengthen support for members and branches and to give members even more say in shaping union priorities. She will ensure elected committees have credible & deliverable plans for industrial action and make UCU more relevant to young staff – the next generation of members.

Vote Douglas Chalmers for UCU Vice President

Douglas Chalmers - a candidate with a record for the job

Douglas Chalmers – a candidate with a record for the job

Currently  President of UCU Scotland with much active experience as branch officer, caseworker and national negotiator, Douglas speaks for us all when he says that most members [whether HE, FE, Adult Education or Prison Educators] want to be able to provide a good comprehensive education service and receive proper professional recognition and reward for doing it. Members need their union to prioritise protecting their jobs, their terms and conditions and not seek conflict for the sake of it.

Vote Steve Sangwine for UCU Treasurer

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Steve Sanguine – ready to hit the ground running

Based on his professional background in computer science and computational mathematics and his in-depth local and national UCU experience, we agree with Steve that, given the current political climate,  UCU really needs a numerate treasurer, who is experienced in complex legal and financial matters and can ‘hit the ground running’

 

 

Vote for a member-led leadership

IBL believes that members deserve better than being told what they should, could or must think. Leadership is about making decisions through listening and consulting with all members.

ALL members from ALL sectors are entitled to vote for the above 3 candidates – PLEASE USE YOUR VOTE

IBL also suggests you support the following candidates:

Trustees: Randy Banks; Alastair Hunter; Philip Burgess

UK Elected HE: Julie Charlton, Michael McKrell; Dominique Lauterburg

UK Elected FE: Anya Cook

Representative LGBT: Ryan Prout

Midlands HE: David Ridley; Justin Mercer

Midlands FE: Simon Bruce-Jones; John Sullivan

North East FE (By-election): Richard Bathgate

Southern HE: Pauline Collins,  Denis Nicole

For further information, contact: IBLcontactaddress@gmail.com

To download the above information in leaflet form: click here

UCU President’s Perspective

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Rob Goodfellow, a lecturer at Hull College was recently elected as President of UCU for 2016 – 2017.
Between spots at the rostrum of this year’s TUC, where he presented UCU’s view on post 16 education he took some time out to talk about his views on all things UCU. Interview by Scottish UCU President and NEC member Douglas Chalmers, and thanks to Julia Charlton for helping with the filming.

“We’ve made an impact at the TUC – everyone who wanted to speak on a motion did so. If we hadn’t been here….. less people would have been ‘educated’ ”.

This view of Rob Goodfellow, half in jest, encapsulated the feeling of the UCU delegates to the TUC in Brighton this year. Speaking on a whole range of issues from Post-16 Education, the European Union, Professional Status, to Challenging the Politics of Hate, our delegation made a very positive impact both from the rostrum and in our networking between times.

NEC member Julia Charlton spoke on immigration, HE Vice President elect Joanna de Groot spoke on the European Union, Vicki Knight, VP spoke on Prison Education, NEC member Pauline Collins spoke on the need for people to work smarter, not just longer, and Vicky Blake from the UCU’s anti-casualisation committee, asked a question about the TUC’s work on casualization and Douglas Chalmers moved a successful emergency motion on Colombia.

Between appearances at the rostrum, Rob took some time out to give his views on a range of issues UCU will encounter under his presidency (Interview 12 mins long).

In England, for H.E, a priority for the union had to be the White Paper – which allowed private providers to operate a ‘smash and grab’ – taking profits and disappearing, leaving taxpayers to clear up the mess and help students affected.

In F.E,  the area reviews were essentially just a means to save money “but it’s a paltry sum, but will have a huge impact on staff, on students and on the local communities”

A key question that post 16 education had to answer was “how far a distance would be travelled by a student and their families” while on their educational journey – “that’s not measured in league tables”

In terms of his own role, Rob saw the President’s job to be to safeguard the democracy of the union, while the union had to take some pragmatic choices.

In terms of the ‘culture’ of the union – making  Congress better in terms of its own culture and practice? “I want branches to see what’s in it for them – get them engaged by sending resolutions and delegates. If it’s a case of two blocs voting I don’t want that anymore than anyone else does”…

Sally Hunt

UCU Gen. Secretary Sally Hunt talked against ‘The politics of Hate’

 

 

 

 

 

Help our colleagues at Hull College!

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Jenny Prideaux who works at Sheffield College and is a member of the NEC, the Chair of the Recruitment, Organising and Campaigns Committee and FEC Vice-Chair, writes about a crucial campaign for the UCU in the FE sector.

 

 

This is a call to all members to support Hull College UCU in its battle to save the college, save members’ jobs and defend the union. It’s  time to stop Hull College bosses in their tracks!

On 25th August 2016 Hull College issued a notice that threatened over 140 posts at the College with redundancy  – including 60 lecturing staff
This is the sixth year in a row that job losses have been announced resulting in just short of 400 job losses

Staff at the College believe that

  • these job losses are short sighted
  • profit is being put first.
  • significant financial shortfalls are a result of years of mismanagement
  • what was once a great college is being run into the ground.

It’s also an attack on the union itself. 

The branch officers who orchestrated last year’s successful pay and lesson observation dispute have been threatened with redundancy. This includes the branch secretary, the vice-chair and our president Rob Goodfellow.

Our members at Hull, as you would expect from this branch, are determined to fight back.

They have a successful ballot for strike action and are taking strike action on Thursday 13th October

Actions you can take immediately:

Keep yourself updated by visiting the branch’s facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/ucuhull

Retweet its tweets

https://twitter.com/ucuhull?lang=en&lang=en

Sign the petition

https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-hull-college-for-the-people-of-hull.html#.V_KNzKRiGFg.twitter

send messages of support to the branch secretary Dave Langcaster at

dlangcaster@gmail.com

Watch this space for details of where to visit picket lines

In full solidarity with our members at Hull

Jenny Prideaux

Last day… but not least

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Broadcast logo

Friday’s copy of Broadcast can be downloaded here

Although this is the last day of Congress, it’s by no means the least important. As well as giving Congress the chance to demonstrate UCU’s solidarity with  Malia Bouattia, president-elect of the National Union of Students, and the first black and the first Muslim to hold that post – in which she has already suffered Islamophobic media attacks, and totally unjustified allegations of antisemitism, there are also important issues of rules and finance to be decided upon.

It is not our intention on the issues of finance and rules to give voting advice on all motions – although we point out some issues in Broadcast relating to some of the proposals before congress. We note that it’s to the credit of the Treasurer and the staff advising her that the finances are in a robust situation and this should be acknowledged and applauded. With some exceptions we would simply advise listening to the arguments in the debate.

One motion, however, which we suggest must be passed is 55, on model branch rules, (with or without amendment 55A). There have been bitter arguments on this topic at previous Congresses, and now we are essentially back to the situation at merger. These are of course, only model rules, and a number of branches may need to seek variations. But, given the current climate, we believe it is essential for the union’s protection that all branches have rules of this nature in place, and that they are lodged with the national office.

On the other hand, motion 56 from Yorkshire & Humberside Regional Committee would set a dangerous precedent with regard to the status of elected members of our national committees. The rules state that members must be, or have recently been, in qualifying employment in order to be nominated for the NEC. They do not require NEC members to resign if they subsequently retire – and that is because they are elected to represent a constituency of members who are employed, and they could themselves become re-employed. In the HEC, there has been a convention that members in USS branches do not vote on TPS matters, and vice versa; but the arguments for that are not strong, since all HE constituencies comprise members in both pension schemes – who are disefranchised if their elected HEC member cannot vote. Motion 56 would extend that disenfrachisement, and it would be the start of cake-slicing: for example, should only NEC members from the various equality strands be allowed to vote on matters relating to those strands? We think not.

As always – points of view on the above are welcome. And if anyone would like to submit a ‘think-piece’ or opinion piece on something that they think should be part of the ‘UCU Agenda’ – please do so to: unionadmin@ucuagenda.com

Build the Fight against the HE Bill and an effective fightback in FE

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Fight vs HE Bill

Download Thursday’s copy of HE Sector Broadcast here and Thursday’s copy of FE sector Broadcast here

The determination of our union to fight against the Green Paper/ White Paper/Bill has already been shown at several fringes during congress, and 13 of our motions today in the HE Sector conference will look at how best to oppose this, and ultimately defeat it.

There are clearly some good motions here which will take the fight forward by developing the understanding of our members, students and the wider communities, and clearly there is everything to play for. However we suggest that there are a couple of points that conference should be wary of endorsing as they lack the specific details needed for a successful fightback – we give our suggestions in Broadcast.

It is to be expected that not everyone will agree on the strategy and tactics necessary to successfully win a substantial pay increase, and this disagreement shows in the resolutions tabled.

Members need to be congratulated however for what they have done so far, and given every encouragement to engage in tougher and sustained activity and sanctions, should they prove necessary.

However, what is most important is that Conference comes out of this debate with a united policy to take to both the employers and members. Statements which demean in members’ eyes the leadership of the HEC and the negotiators, and the action that members are already taking, actually undermine the union’s ability to pursue the dispute successfully. 

Today’s opinion piece in HE Sector Broadcast – on Health Educators is by Paul Errington a Health Educator himself at Teeside and an incoming member of the NEC.

Turning to the FE conference it is clear that the high quality motions on many of the issues from the 2015/16 pay claim, through the blight of the gender pay gap –  and the absence of equality monitoring on to the devastating effect of the area reviews, the cuts to ESOL, the Prevent agenda, and the de-professionalisation of the lecturer’s role, all show that our members are active and concerned on these key issues affecting the sector. It promises to be a high quality debate on these questions. The pay issue is one where differing opinions on the way forward exist. We suggest that calling for ‘national’ strike action on the question of ‘pay’ over and over again is however, the wrong strategy – it’s misleading and counterproductive. There is a way to organise, build and support confident, campaigning and unified branches and FE Sector Broadcast suggests some ways we can achieve this.

Elsewhere in each Sector Broadcast you’ll find the Independent Broad Left Network’s general take on some of the other key issues Congress looks at today. As a network, we don’t have a ‘party line’ on policy, and unlike Monty Python neither are we looking for the Holy Grail. So let us know what you think – e-mail unionadmin@ucuagenda.com

 

Congress 2016 – A Time of Danger, a Time of Opportunity

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Liverpool ArenaLiverpool Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre (El Pollock) / CC BY-SA 2.0

Download Wednesday’s  copy of broadcast here
Congress is meeting at a time when the Conservative government is clearly experiencing a whole range of crises – something that means both dangers and opportunities for the trade union movement, the UCU included.

Dangers, because the Trade Union Act, despite concessions still sets out to weaken our movement, dangers also for UCU members in FE, because of the area reviews and mergers being rolled out. And dangers for HE members in the Green Paper/ White paper proposals.

But there are opportunities too, because the government is in crisis as shown by the dearth of new ‘big ideas’ in the recent Queen’s Speech, and even in the concessions forced within the anti-TU Bill.

All these, and more, show that the government is weak and that means opportunities for the TU movement, but only by working in a strategic way to overcoming our weaknesses.

In today’s Broadcast read Joanna de Groot’s opinion piece on the importance of implementing our policies in a way that involves members,  plus ‘A view from Scotland’ by UCUS President Douglas Chalmers, plus ‘Northern Ireland at the Crossroads’ – an opinion piece from Mike Larkin,  NEC member for HE in Northern Ireland.

As well as that, you’ll also find the IBL network’s general ‘take’ on some of the issues to come up today. Let us know what you think – unionadmin@ucuagenda.com

Maybe interested in the Independent Broad Left Network in UCU?

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Monty Python had it right

….. “Are you the Judean People’s Front?    ###k off – we’re the People’s Front of Judea”

Well we’re the Independent Broad Left Network in UCU and as well as some good ideas for the union, we’ve also got a sense of humour. Why not come along, have a drink, in one of Liverpool’s most historic pubs, find out more, and let us know what you think?

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Hope to see you there!

Vicky Knight VP-elect answers your questions

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Vicky Knight is a trade union studies lecturer at The Manchester College with 25 years active experience within the public sector, in both the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and UCU.

She was recently elected as Vice President of UCU and will take up this position at the end of the UCU’s UK Congress 2016 .

As well as her NEC membership and being an FE negotiator, she has represented UCU at the TUC annual Congress,TUC Women’s Conference and TUC Women’s Committee and has been chair of the TUC Women’s Committee for the last two years.

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Here she is interviewed by Douglas Chalmers, president of UCU Scotland, and quizzed on her ideas on the big issues facing UCU, particularly in FE in the next 2 years. It covers Vicky’s ideas on cuts, loans, lack of bursaries,ESOL, training, student development, area reviews, national bargaining, membership density, making the union more attractive to women – and many other things.

The video is approximately 10 minutes long, and thanks go to Janice Aitken Scotland Hon. Secretary for the camerawork! Sorry about the slight slippage in lip-synch at bits  – we’re working on that.

 

 

 

 

NEC Elections 2016:A team to take our union forward

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A message from the Independent Broad Left network:

Dear Colleague

This year’s national UCU elections take place against the background of major threats to our profession and the trade union movement as a whole, including:

  • The Green Paper on higher education which will open up the sector to private providers.
  • The review of post-16 education, and the crisis in funding, which could see 4 in 10 colleges close.
  • The continued pressure on pay rises, and the intensification of work demands.
  • The Trade Union Bill, which is intended to neuter the ability of trade unions to defend their members’ interests.Standing up to these and other threats requires a union leadership which puts members first, seeks to involve them in decisions, and emphasises core professional and trade union issues – education, research, jobs, pay, conditions, equality and professional autonomy.The Independent Broad Left network has played an active role in shifting the union agenda towards a focus on the advancement of our professional and employment interests and the defence of members’ rights. We do not seek confrontation for its own sake but we are prepared to take industrial action when necessary, when it is widely supported and when it can achieve real gains for members. We strongly urge you to vote for the candidates below:
  • (Download pdf of leaflet here)

FE UK

FE UK Casual

North East FE

London and East

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