Category Archives: UCU Democracy

The Consultation: HEC Recommends, Members Decide

At its meeting on 30 March, HEC passed motions tabled by UCU Commons members (those numbered 2 and 3 in this blog) and began a process of consulting UCU members as a whole on the proposed interim resolutions in both the pay and conditions dispute with UCEA and the USS dispute with UUK (with separateContinue reading “The Consultation: HEC Recommends, Members Decide”

“Making Employers Sweat 2023” – Some Positive Ideas for Effective Escalation

By: several members of UCU Commons As a union, we face some really big decisions in January 2023. Through a combination of branch meetings, a Branch Delegate Meeting, and any other correspondence it receives, the UCU’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) will be deciding on what the #ucuRising action will look like for the remainder ofContinue reading ““Making Employers Sweat 2023” – Some Positive Ideas for Effective Escalation”

Student Distribution Recap and Update

This post was by Bijan Parsia with lots of corrections and feedback by various UCUCommons members. As #UCURising progresses, I’ve seen several people raise the critical issue of student distribution in HE. This is particularly important in the pay and conditions dispute, because, for example, student-starved programmes face elimination, while other institutions turn to exploitedContinue reading “Student Distribution Recap and Update”

We’re Fighting The Chaos

Note: This post discusses some matters from the UCU HEC meeting on 12 May 2022. Most of that meeting is highly confidential, but we checked with the chair that it was ok to share this bit and she confirmed that it was fine as it is not directly and immediately related to the disputes. I’mContinue reading “We’re Fighting The Chaos”

Effective Industrial Action: What Does It Look Like?

This is clearly a crucial juncture for UCU members in higher education, and UCU Commons members were preparing a blog on the choices before us when the General Secretary issued a report containing very serious and substantial proposals for the future of the Four Fights dispute on Wednesday 13 April. We encourage everyone to readContinue reading “Effective Industrial Action: What Does It Look Like?”

UCU Commons Candidates for Equalities Standing Committees

A commitment to intersectional equalities work is central to UCU Commons, as set out in the first of our core values, where we state that we are for equality in all its forms. We are unequivocally committed to making our union and our workplaces trans-inclusive. We are anti-racist, anti-colonial, and opposed to the hostile environment.Continue reading “UCU Commons Candidates for Equalities Standing Committees”

TL;DR: Why did ‘the UCU leadership’ decide [for a short ballot | disaggregation | bundled ballots | ballot timing | …]?

by Bijan Parsia Reading time: over 10 minutes (3,200 words) For a (much) shorter Twitter thread going over the timeline please see Rhiannon Lockley’s thread. She also voted differently than I did, for the most part. Please don’t debate their decisions over on their thread, but take the description offered. This is going to beContinue reading “TL;DR: Why did ‘the UCU leadership’ decide [for a short ballot | disaggregation | bundled ballots | ballot timing | …]?”