Grant Buttars (University of Edinburgh)

academic-related

Election address

I am standing for NEC because I want UCU to be a union that properly represents and fights for members. This comes by encouraging a truly member-led union, grounded in action and both defending what we have and fighting for better.

I work as an archivist at the University of Edinburgh and have been branch President since 2018, taking up office in the aftermath of the USS dispute of that year. I played a key role in moving my branch to a Revise and Resubmit position during the dispute and we have grown as a branch both in overall numbers and in terms of active members in the two and a half years since and this year we were recipients of the  UCU Scotland Branch Organising Award.

Also as Branch President, I was a key member of the negotiation team which delivered an agreement with university management on anticasualisation, building on years of determined mobilisation by some of our most precarious members. Most recently it has been the fight to defend members in the face of our management's response to the Covid epidemic that has been to the forefront, working with other campus unions to deliver for our members. Since 2019, I have also been an ordinary member of UCU Scotland Executive and have just been re-elected for a further term.

My objective in standing is to make NEC and HEC more transparent to members. The workings of these bodies should not be seen as something that happens elsewhere but something that is aligned with and responsive to what is happening on the ground at branch level. The democratic health of our union is essential to our effectiveness as a union.

I am wholly committed to equalities issues within our union, amplifying marginalised voices and challenging racism, sexism, transphobia and any form of discrimination, prejudice and bigotry, wherever it occurs. A strong union can only be so if it is inclusive.

I believe that our union needs to become more agile and able to adopt easily, when necessary, a more combative stance. Our structures and our culture need to be meaningfully democratic, with devolved nations, regions and branches better supported and empowered to take action. Due process is important but should not be used as a shield for doing nothing.

Although no longer a member, I remain critically aligned with UCU Left. By that I mean I share many of the same perspectives on what a trade union can and should be. However, the fragmented state of the left within the union frequently gives rise to a lot more heat than little light and I am keen to explore other means of creating a vibrant and diverse left within UCU.