Endorsement from Dr Demelza Jones, University of Gloucestershire

I endorse Jo Grady as my first preference candidate for UCU General Secretary. Jo offers a unique combination of expertise in employment relations, with rank and file experience as a UCU member and in the grass-roots mobilisation and information sharing that made the 2018 USS strike such a powerful instance of collective action. She has front line experience of the challenges faced by teaching and research staff, while valuing the skills, contributions and experience of professional services colleagues (who often seemed side-lined during the 2018 dispute). Jo’s manifesto offers an exciting vision for the future of UCU. Key issues of precarity and casualisation, the racialised hostile environment (and its extension to our EU students and colleagues), and toxic marketisation and metrics, are placed front and centre as issues the union should be proactively addressing in ways which effectively engage the expertise of the membership, and the love we have for our sector.

Published by Jo Grady