Grady4GS

The questions below have been submitted by UCU members and I provide my answers here (in chronological order of receipt). You can contact me with your questions via Grady4GS@gmail.com and I will continue to update this page.

1. What are your experiences in the education sector and as a UCU member?
2. How do I vote in this election?
3. Is there any intention to merge UCU with another education union, such as the National Education Union (NEU)?
4. What is UCU doing about the climate emergency?
5. What is the relationship between UCU and the Labour Party? What are your own political affiliations?
6. Which football club do you support?
7. Why did a journalist ask if you were pregnant?
8. How did you vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum?
9. What is your position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?
10. What is your position on the Israeli-Palestinian war?
11. What is UCU doing about Minimum Service Levels brought about by the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023?
12. I am working in further education and I am really worried that T-Levels are not working. What is UCU’s position on T-Levels and what are we doing about the mess that the Conservative government created?
13. What is your position on trans rights?
14. Why does UCU have positions on international politics–why can’t the union just stick to employment issues?
15. How can we meaningfully tackle and reduce workload? The prospect of reducing it seems so impossible.
16. Why didn’t UCU provide financial support for the USS court case (McGaughey & Davies v. Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited)?
17. Is it true that UCU has lost several thousand members in recent years, causing a £2m loss in income?
18. Why do you keep calling ballots and strikes?
19. Despite the wins, it has seemed like the union is enmeshed in internal battles. It feels chaotic and messaging is confusing. What confidence can you offer UCU members that these conflicts will change?
20. Questions from USS negotiators.
21. Questions from Divest USS.
22. What is your view on e-polling as a way of capturing members’ voices and enhancing democracy in UCU?
23. What are you going to do to address and fight against casual contracts in higher education?
24. Questions from University of Winchester UCU branch.

1. What are your experiences in the education sector and as a UCU member?

Before elected UCU general secretary in 2019, I was Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations at the University of Sheffield, and before that I was Lecturer in Human Resources Management and Employment Relations at the University of Leicester.

I joined UCU as a Lancaster University postgraduate student in 2006, and held numerous roles in the Leicester and Sheffield UCU branches. Before university, I studied at Wakefield College, a further education college in my hometown. I have written in greater length about my experiences in the education sector and as a UCU activist here.

2. How do I vote in this election?

The ballot opens on Thursday 25 January 2024 and closes on Friday 1 March 2024. Note that this is a postal ballot administered by the independent election scrutineer Civica Election Services (CES), and you should receive your ballot pack by post at your preferred address (home or workplace). Please click here for more details on election practicalities.

3. Is there any intention to merge UCU with another education union, such as the National Education Union (NEU)?

Any decision regarding any merger between UCU and another union have to be made by union members.

I believe that there is strength in having a confederation of unions, but personally I do not think that one enormous national education union, covering all the education sectors across the United Kingdom, will be desirable for members. Unions are at their strongest when they are clearly aligned with the sectors that they represent. This is not to say that there are no commonalities amongst people who work in all types of education–all education workers are suffering problems on pay and working conditions–but there are issues for, say, prison educators and academic-related professional services staff in higher education that are different from schoolteachers.

It is important that UCU continues to work with its sister unions in education closely, as we have always done, but I am not in favour of mergers as things currently stand.

4. What is UCU doing about the climate emergency?

On the climate emergency, I have written about this in the manifesto and you can also read the speech I delivered to the UCU climate and ecological emergency annual meeting (dated 7 December 2023). We have well-established green policies and resources in UCU now, for example, we need to get USS pensions to properly divest from fossil fuels, we continue to work with organisations such as the Greener Jobs Alliance (which UCU co-founded), and we have a suite of training programmes and materials for branches to submit Green New Deal bargaining claims in the workplace.

We need to continue to put pressure on employers on the climate emergency. To realise the union’s green ambitions, we need more members in the union so that we can have bigger and more far-reaching campaigns. Passing motions through the democratic mechanisms of the union–however important that always is–will not bring about quick changes if the union does not have enough power in the workplace. For example, the government and employers in general are not helping staff, particularly in further education, to take their current curriculum and ‘green-proof’ it to meet our present ecological challenges and to boost the green skills that our society will need in the immediate future. I propose that we start our own databases to pool and share our resources.

5. What is the relationship between UCU and the Labour Party? What are your own political affiliations?

Following UCU Congress policy, UCU is not affiliated to the Labour Party and does not make donations to the Labour Party. Political affiliations are a matter for UCU members to decide.

UCU works with all political parties in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that are open to UCU’s point of view, to protect the working conditions and advance the interests of UCU members in further education, higher education, adult and continuing education, and prison education.

I am a member of the Labour Party. I am not, and have never been, a member of any other political party or political group such as Momentum, the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) or Socialist Workers Party (SWP).

Until there are significant reforms to the electoral system in the United Kingdom (e.g. moving from ‘first past the post’ to proportional representation), I believe that the Labour Party offers the best opportunity for many of the changes that the education sector, and this country in general, desperately need.

With that being said, UCU should never rely on wishing and waiting for a transformative social-democratic or socialist government. A future UK government that is less hostile towards educators will not necessarily succeed in implementing a progressive post-16 education policy, and will certainly not be able to transform the working conditions of UCU members overnight or even within a single election cycle. That is why my manifesto has always concentrated on organising and building our own power, regardless of the larger political circumstances we find ourselves in.

6. Which football club do you support?

I have been a season ticket holder for Sheffield Wednesday Football Club. Sadly the 2023-24 season has been a difficult one for all Wednesday fans.

7. Why did a journalist ask if you were pregnant?

In February 2023, a UK journalist asked UCU to confirm if I was pregnant. This questioning came in the middle of national industrial action in higher education, in the pay and working conditions and USS pensions disputes. I suspect the journalist’s motivation was to undermine and dismiss UCU members’ sacrifices by choosing to focus on my body and reproduction, instead of asking me any questions about picket lines and ongoing negotiations.

I discussed this episode on social media because I wanted to draw attention to the sexism, misogyny, malicious gossip and smearing that women in public, political roles often have to endure. Moreover, 10-20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage and lots of women are carrying around grief, or anxiety on conception, and such kind of questioning, especially based on speculation and rumour-mongering, could cause a lot of hurt. I have, not long ago, nursed a dear friend following her hysterectomy so I know up close just how traumatic, painful and upsetting these questions about pregnancy can be. Finally, I have personally never wanted children, and I am not and was not pregnant. 

8. How did you vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum?

During the 2016 EU referendum, I was a UCU member working at University of Leicester, and strongly campaigned and voted for ‘Remain’. It should be clear by now, as legal and economic experts–including many UCU members–have long predicted, that Brexit has been and continues to be a disaster for this country.

More broadly, I do believe that Brexit has reinforced anti-migrant policies, emboldened attacks on migrant workers and international students, and our union has to continue doing its best to resist the hostile environment that the current government actively inflames.

On higher education specifically, we have seen UK researchers losing access to vital EU funding and grants (until the UK was able to re-join Horizon again last year), and our European colleagues have departed to seek employment elsewhere. There are now fewer students from the EU studying in British universities, and the Turing Scheme–the UK government’s post-Brexit replacement for the Erasmus study exchange programme–has now been shown to be not fit for purpose, especially for working-class students.

Finally, I support the UK rejoining the European Union. I have never campaigned for Leave.

9. What is your position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

At the time of writing, it has almost been 700 days since Russia brutally invaded Ukraine. Tens of thousands of civilian lives have been lost, and millions have been displaced. UCU has sent steadfast solidarity to all those affected and our union has made a donation to UNICEF’s emergency appeal and is demanding governments ensure all Ukrainians are able to reach a place of safety. You can read my full statement here dated 2 March 2022.

UCU has been working with Education International (EI), the global union federation for education workers, which launched a solidarity assistance fund for members of Ukrainian educational unions who are still in Ukraine or have been forced to flee the country. UCU, alongside our sister unions, also collaborate with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to support trade unionists in Ukraine and to provide humanitarian aid through the FPU Solidarity Fund.

At UCU Congress 2023, a motion was passed by Congress delegates that undermined our solidarity with the people of Ukraine. I issued a statement on how deeply disappointed I was that that motion passed. As general secretary I am never entitled to vote in the democratic structures and processes of UCU, but if this were the case, I would have voted against the motion and joined the many delegates who did. This underlines the importance of members participating regularly in UCU’s democratic structures and processes, such that the union’s positions on international events reflect the beliefs of the majority of UCU members.

Personally, I unequivocally condemn Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, and I continue to support an independent, democratic Ukraine and Ukrainians’ right to self-defence and self-determination.

10. What is your position on the Israeli-Palestinian war?

It has been just over 100 days since the slaughtering and murder of civilians at music festivals and elsewhere in Israel–a terrorist attack by Hamas which I, and the union that I represent, utterly condemn. Since then we have seen Israel’s military assault on Gaza, leading to a humanitarian crisis and horrifying tragedy. There must be an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and unrestricted access to aid by Palestinians. 

Dozens of those killed in the 7 October attack in Israel were educators and students. In Palestine, authorities confirmed 439 higher education students and employees were killed, and the complete destruction of many colleges and universities. My thoughts and solidarity go to all those affected. No educator and no education union can simply look on. Any ceasefire must be matched with efforts from the international community to help rebuild Gaza.

You can read UCU’s two official statements on Israel and Palestine (dated 10 October 2023 and 21 November 2023). UCU also unequivocally condemns instances of antisemitism and Islamophobia, which have intensified in recent months. Nobody should feel unsafe in our communities and we must advocate for peace and humanity in a way that unites everybody.

Similar to what I have said above about Ukraine, it is paramount that UCU members participate regularly in UCU’s democratic structures and processes, such that the union’s positions on international events reflect the beliefs of the majority of UCU members.

11. What is UCU doing about Minimum Service Levels brought about by the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023?

UCU are not involved in the ‘first round’ of unions that are impacted by Minimum Service Levels (MSL), introduced by the Conservative government through the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023. MSL at the moment is primarily weaponised by the government against railway and NHS workers.

However, we are in the ‘second round’ of unions to be impacted. At present UCU are deeply involved in Trades Union Congress (TUC) organisation of protests and political interventions (for example UCU is joining the ‘Protect the right to strike’ march and rally in Cheltenham on Saturday 27 January). We are also working on potential legal challenges–I cannot say much more about this right now because those discussions are ongoing with our sister unions. Whether it is political, industrial or legal, UCU will use every avenue to resist such repressive legislation, and on this issue we will as always collaborate with the wider trade union movement to make us greater than the sum of our parts.

12. I am working in further education and I am really worried that T-Levels are not working. What is UCU’s position on T-Levels and what are we doing about the mess that the Conservative government created?

T-Levels, on their own terms, are not necessarily a bad thing to introduce as a suite of qualifications that students can pick from, but what the Conservative government has done in their introduction is to reduce student choice (e.g. by scrapping BTECs).

T-Levels have been implemented in a rushed and clumsy way, and there are huge workload implications for UCU’s further education members who are already overworked and underpaid. T-Levels combine the pressures of A-Levels (with a large amount of grading) and the pressures that come with placements of vocational degrees, while some UCU members are reporting that students cannot get progression to universities via T-Levels.

The question is not whether we scrap T-Levels–the Labour Party says that they do intend to keep T-Levels if in government–but how do we make sure that T-Levels can be reformed in a way that works with both students and staff. To that end, UCU has been heavily involved in lobbying and briefing politicians who are sympathetic to the views and experiences of UCU members, so that they know exactly the current problems with T-Levels and make the necessary changes to the system.

13. What is your position on trans rights?

I am an unequivocal supporter of trans and non binary rights, and the right to gender self-definition under the law. This will not come as a surprise to anybody who knows me or has followed my public pronouncements in the past. 

The rights of trans and non binary people are under constant attack in this country, in the mainstream press, in workplaces, and, unfortunately in our colleges and universities. Trans people suffer disproportionately from numerous forms of discrimination, abuse and violence. They are amongst the most vulnerable targets of the far-right ideologies that have become highly visible and influential in society. No candidate for general secretary should be able to claim that they care about equality unless they have vocally and publicly defended transgender rights.

UCU has policies upholding trans rights, updated most recently at its 2023 Congress. I will continue to uphold UCU’s policy on trans rights if I am re-elected general secretary. I hope that the other candidates in this election will also commit to doing so.

14. Why does UCU have positions on international politics–why can’t the union just stick to employment issues?

The short answer is that UCU have positions on any political issue because UCU members and branches take part in UCU’s democratic structures and processes. For example, members and branches submit motions on international politics/events to UCU’s annual Congress, these are then debated and voted on by Congress delegates, and if carried, they become UCU’s policies and positions.

I understand that members and branches can disagree, sometimes very strongly, with the positions on international politics that have emerged from UCU’s democratic structures. When that happens, the only current option available to change that is for members and branches to take part in UCU’s democratic structures and processes, by putting forward alternative motions and viewpoints, stand for committee positions. As general secretary I am never entitled to vote in the democratic structures and processes of UCU.

The larger point–on why UCU has positions on international politics at all, instead of just concentrating on employment issues–is that (a) trade unions operate on the principle of solidarity and (b) trade unions historically have always been thoroughly international organisations. If you suffer from injustice and oppression, the union stands with you. If our neighbours, close or distant, suffer from injustice and oppression, our trade unions will stand with them–an injury to one is an injury to us all. Therefore, when there are individuals (especially educators and trade union organisers) suffering from injustice and oppression, for example Ukrainians who have been killed or displaced by Russia’s invasion, or trade unionists and labour organisers who are persecuted in Iran or Colombia, and those individuals need our support and amplification, we will provide that support and amplification. Because we know when injustice and oppression happen to us, they will also speak out for us.

Relatedly, UCU is one of the most international unions in the UK precisely because we have large numbers of international and migrant workers in further education and higher education. When injustice and oppression happen in the countries where our migrant members come from, and where their family members are suffering, the union stands behind them.

Finally, there is the question of whether UCU having positions on political events will make any difference at all. If we believe that nothing we can do or say–as an individual or as a union–will make any difference to what is happening in the world, then that indeed will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We will disempower ourselves and rob ourselves of the capacity to bring about change and justice.

15. How can we meaningfully tackle and reduce workload? The prospect of reducing it seems so impossible.

UCU members often ask me how we can turn around intractable problems in our workplaces. I want to talk you through one example to show you how my plans for integrated strategies will help over the next years. The example I have chosen is one of those that you often highlight: workload.

Workload is a problem that cuts across all of post-16 education, but the ways in which we tackle it will vary depending on the sector.

In higher education, we all know that colleagues leave and are often not replaced, and that job roles expand to cover gaps. Our working day extends to include more and more tasks. Extra hours here and there are added to workload models, often without any discussion. That’s for institutions where workload models exist. This is before we examine the amount of extra work we do to accommodate growing student numbers or chasing goals set for us by employers or politicians.

In further education, class sizes are out of control. Administrative tasks are all-consuming and take teaching staff away from planning and preparing engaging lessons. Global contact time is creeping up and cover is expected on top. I have heard from many FE members that the bungled introduction of T-Levels has led to unbearable workloads. Time off in lieu (TOIL) can never be taken and parents’ evenings, open days and weekend events are commonplace.

In prisons, more and more is expected of educators, with education staff on the wings and accompanying prisoners without the appropriate training. Additional learning budgets have been cut to the bone and teaching staff are expected to support struggling students in their own time. Gate time is not always included in the working day.

In adult education, casualisation is rife and educators are working from the boots of their cars, then rushing across town to the next site without time for a break or to plan lessons or mark students’ work.

All of this has to stop if we are going to retain staff in post-16 education. We are professionals who love our jobs. We need time and resources, but are so often deprived of both, leading to burnout and mass exodus of skilled practitioners.

So how do we address workload? The broad answer is: through a combination of UK-wide, national and local action. A diversity of tactics can be used together to effect change. Across the board, we need:

• to build on the excellent ‘It’s Your Time’ workload campaign to equip workload reps with the training and knowledge they need to challenge workload issues collectively with the employer. These workload and health and safety reps can be resourced to use the power of the law to force change across institutions. We have already piloted this in some UCU branches, but I will commit to rolling this out across the union and giving it the resource required
• effective strategies across the nations and regions to address specificities in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and build intra-regional networks of solidarity. Where we get victories in one area (such as Wales FE) we must use this to provide evidence that the benchmark should be implemented elsewhere
• revitalised branches with higher density can hold employers to account.
  Establishing UK-wide benchmarks on workload are part of ongoing formal negotiations in HE, and can help underpin the work above.

We already have begun to do some of the above. For example, in higher education as part of the UK-wide joint negotiating committee for higher education staff (JNCHES), we are set to commence negotiations on workload that should set a standard for all UK higher education institutions. Obviously, anything negotiated at a UK-wide level will need to be enforced and monitored on the ground by strong and well-organised UCU reps and branches. The same will be true of negotiations in further education, where we are also pushing for sector-wide agreements on workload. Once these measures are in place, we need to use all the tools at our disposal, from legal challenges to empowered local negotiators to industrial action to force improvements from employers across all the sectors we represent.

One size does not fit all, but with proper resources committed to realistic plans, we can together make real change to your day-to-day working lives.

16. Why didn’t UCU provide financial support for the USS court case (McGaughey & Davies v. Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited)?

In short, UCU did not provide support because it was clear from the legal advice we were given that the case was highly unlikely to succeed.

UCU commissioned multiple Queen’s Counsels (QCs)–as they were at the time–to investigate all the potential ways that we could hold Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited to account legally. UCU owes a debt of gratitude to Academics for Pensions Justice in UK Higher Education, as they carried out an incredible amount of groundwork. However, in the end, the unfortunate truth was that there was insufficient evidence or grounds that UCU would win on any of the cases that we wanted to pursue. To have pretended otherwise and backed the McGaughey and Davies case would have given members false hope in a legal remedy, and would have squandered a substantial amount of UCU members’ money.

Beyond the fact that there was an extremely low chance of success, there were other reasons why UCU did not provide financial support. As was made clear by the elected UK officers, in a communication sent to all USS branch officers on 1 December 2022, the claimants (McGaughey and Davies), at first, chose not to follow UCU’s established procedure for legal support. UCU’s rulebook, specifically rules 4.5 and 4.6, set out the process for any legal case to be considered for support. The individual claimants (or their branches) would have needed to request for legal support, and the case would then have been put through UCU’s legal panel for consideration. This procedure would apply to everyone and all cases. In the first instance, McGaughey and Davies did not do this.

When McGaughey and Davies eventually did submit to UCU’s legal panel, they declined to give control of the case to the union (as required by UCU’s rules), and they did not accept UCU’s Counsel. These factors made it impossible within UCU’s rules to support the case. UCU also sought the advice of external legal experts, who looked at the McGaughey and Davies claim in detail, and the feedback UCU received was that McGaughey and Davies were not going to succeed in court. So from the legal perspective, the merits of the McGaughey and Davies claim were not strong enough. Moreover, the union would be exposed to the risk of a ‘costs order’ in the event that the case was lost–UCU would likely have to pay for the entire legal costs of both USS and the claimants. This could be in the region of £1m.

McGaughey and Davies lost in the High Court in May 2022 and their case was fully dismissed in the Court of Appeal in July 2023. I chose not to speak about this case, whilst it was being fought in the courts, this was despite public criticisms of UCU by McGaughey and Davies. I believe it was a serious error of judgment for McGaughey and Davies to pursue the case and to encourage UCU members to believe that it could be successful, when all legal opinion that was given on the matter concluded the opposite. In the end, UCU members voted for and participated in industrial action in large numbers to win back their USS pension, and they were successful in doing so.

17. Is it true that UCU has lost several thousand members in recent years, causing a £2m loss in income?

No, this is false. There are two main distinctions in membership type in UCU: fee-paying and non fee-paying members. When it comes to full fee-paying members we have approximately 1,000 more now than we did in August 2019 when I took office. In August 2019 we had 100,929, and in August 2022 we had 101,886. To have held our membership steady at a time when other unions have lost members in 2021-2022 is welcome.

We do, however, need to increase UCU’s membership–it is only through increasing our membership that we will increase our industrial leverage and win the things members deserve.

With regards non fee-paying members, it is true that this category has declined. This is mainly because we have been taking steps to overhaul the number of standard free members who have stayed in that category despite leaving the sector, or have needed to transfer to become full fee-paying members.

Regular updates of UCU’s membership data are available to the elected representatives on UCU’s national executive committee (NEC) especially the recruitment, organising and campaigning committee (ROCC), to inform their decision-making.

18. Why do you keep calling ballots and strikes?

In UCU, the only body that can call for industrial action ballots and strike action are the further education committee (FEC) and the higher education committee (HEC), depending on the sector. The FEC and HEC are subcommittees of the national executive committee (NEC), and consist of elected representatives of the union. So, as general secretary, I do not have the power to unilaterally call an industrial action ballot or strike action.

Often I have communicated my clear views on balloting or on strike action to members of FEC or HEC, but have otherwise kept those views private, because the job of the general secretary is to operationalise and represent what the union’s democratic structures have called for. Given that this is a general secretary election, I urge you to read my strategy documents for further education and for higher education to establish where I stand on balloting and strikes.

19. Despite the wins, it has seemed like the union is enmeshed in internal battles. It feels chaotic and messaging is confusing. What confidence can you offer UCU members that these conflicts will change?

The first thing to say is that I acknowledge the situation is incredibly upsetting and difficult for many ordinary UCU members, who have sacrificed pay on freezing picket lines. Obviously, this has not been an easy situation for me, either personally or professionally. All I have ever wanted to do is work with our committees, as critical allies to one another. We are not always going to agree, but I do believe we can reach consensus if we work together.

The union has undergone a good degree of change. We have won aggregated ballots in higher education which many, including my critics within and beyond UCU, said was utterly impossible. By now, it would appear inconceivable for my critics to argue for a return to disaggregated ballots in higher education. We have also won back our USS pensions, and again we were repeatedly told that this was impossible. But we have not managed to change the strategy that we keep deploying for industrial action, or to break out of the current way of doing things in UCU. This has been the main source of conflict that has spilled out. As general secretary, I have more recently struggled to remain silent when I believe that the higher education committee (HEC) has failed to engage members. I have wanted to be more open with members, and engage them beyond the limited mechanisms usually available. This has put me at odds with HEC at times, who have in general been opposed to member consultation. But I cannot in good conscience remain silent when I feel members are being shut out.

I know members hate infighting. It is deeply unpleasant. It creates a toxic atmosphere, and ultimately it weakens us. The route to ensuring this conflict ends is mass participation in this election–and not just to re-elect me, but to vote for the entire platform of candidates who have pledged to support me and work collaboratively with me to deliver a strategy built by, and built for, the whole union.

The strategies I outline, in my manifesto, but also in the industrial strategies for both FE and HE, are based on hundreds of conversations with UCU members, and listening to what they want. We can break out of this cycle, but it requires members in large numbers to vote for it in this general secretary election.

20. Questions from USS negotiators.

The current elected USS negotiators, Mark Taylor-Batty (University of Leeds UCU) and Jackie Grant (University of Sussex UCU), submitted a set of questions. You can click here to see both the questions and my full response.

21. Questions from Divest USS.

We are a group pressing USS to invest more ethically and in particular divest from all fossil fuel investments. We are writing to all candidates in the UCU general secretary election to ask 1) do you agree that there is an urgent need for USS to divest from fossil fuels? 2) what actions would you take to make this happen if (re-) elected to general secretary?

I have addressed the question of ethical investment in my long response to questions from USS negotiators.

22. What is your view on e-polling as a way of capturing members’ voices and enhancing democracy in UCU?

I think asking our members what they think is never a bad thing, and we do not do enough of that in UCU. There has been a trend of asking for input when we want people to vote ‘Yes’ in an industrial action ballot, and then not asking them anything again until there is a further re-ballot – and asking them to vote ‘Yes’ again. And I do not think the average member believes that a branch delegate meeting (BDM) fills this void either. There are huge barriers to democratic participation and involvement in UCU. Currently, we tend to have a view of participation that means being present in a physical meeting and a debate about opposing positions. It is understandable that many find this off-putting. We need to foster cultures of participation, improve hybrid and mixed methods of consultation and accessibility. More meetings–if they are just the same as always–will not help.

I do think that over this last year or so, electronic consultation has helped capture members’ voices. In my view you can always trust members, especially if you are open with them about negotiations and where we are at. The higher education committee (HEC) has not always shared this view in recent years. For example, during the 2022-2023 pay dispute, despite every other union’s executive voting to put the pay offer out for a member vote, UCU’s HEC declined. I ended up taking executive action and put it out. It was the right choice, members voted to reject the employer’s offer in huge numbers, and UCU was able to go back to Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) with credibility and strength that our membership was behind us. UCEA and university vice-chancellors would have hammered us in the press if we had not done that, and we would have lost support. We avoided that trap. According to some, what I did was anti-democratic, because I was seen to have overruled the HEC to give our members a voice.

Could we have surveyed people better? Yes. And I think we have improved with every poll we have put out. But sometimes what is put out is determined by the union’s structures, like HEC. For example, in March 2023, HEC decided to put the USS offer out to members with a ‘note’ vs ‘reject’ option instead of the usual ‘accept’ vs ‘reject’–which I think was incredibly confusing and poorly conceived.

The final thing I will say is some will say that anything that does not adhere to the union’s standing orders about who does what is undemocratic. But we have not been e-polling people about things like union strategy, or how we do things. We have been polling people on whether they want HEC to give them a vote; and whether they want to reject or ‘note’ offers. And in response I have been told that in choosing to run surveys I undermined the union’s democracy. I think that is a poor argument to make. What we should be asking is why members were prevented from having a legitimate say after voting in their thousands to be consulted. That, to me, is anti-democratic.

23. What are you going to do to address and fight against casual contracts in higher education?

First of all, if you are or have been employed on casual contracts in higher education, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the gravity of your situation.

During our industrial disputes on pay and working conditions in higher education, employers have frequently said that they do not have enough money to pay any more than they offer us, and that they cannot move any further than they already have on issues like casualisation. I do not think this line of argument stands up to scrutiny–especially not for most employers. But even if it does in some cases, how have the people who lead our sector–whether they are politicians or vice chancellors–allowed a business model in universities to develop that only functions if it chews up and spits out the next generation of staff?

On casualisation, we have not been able to get the change we wanted by carrying out a UK-wide dispute. This is because employers in general are very wedded to an employment model that allows them to benefit from the flexibility that mass insecure employment gives them. This does not mean we cannot make UK-wide progress, but I do think we need to be clear about the effort that will be involved in doing so.

I discuss what we need to do to win on a UK-wide basis in HE here. But I want to address tackling casualisation locally. It is true that a massive amount of effort has gone towards winning on a UK-wide basis; this has meant that in almost all of our UCU HE branches, efforts to negotiate on issues like casualisation locally can sometimes be put on the back burner. There have been some notable exceptions where we have had a huge victory. For example, at the Open University, as a result of our campaigning, 4,700 staff were moved from insecure to open-ended roles.

This is why, in the last year, I have directed union resources into overhauling the bargaining information we collate for branches, and the database which branches use to access it. Shortly, the revamped and improved Organising and Bargaining Information System (OBIS) will launch for branches to use in their local bargaining. We will also prioritise local bargaining in every region of England and nation of the UK. What we have achieved at the Open University will become a reality for other branches, and we will use every single local win to apply pressure to our bargaining at the UK level with Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). We will not sit and wait for UK-wide action to happen; we will actively win locally to strengthen our UK-wide demands.

24. Questions from University of Winchester UCU branch.

University of Winchester UCU branch submitted a set of questions. You can click here to see both the questions and my full response.