Sarah Brown (Anglia Ruskin University)

woman

Election address

Since 2006 I have worked at Anglia Ruskin University where I am a Professor of English Literature.  I represent London/East on the NEC, and am seeking re-election to this role.

I have been an active member of our UCU branch committee since 2010, taking on various roles: Secretary, Membership Secretary, negotiator, caseworker.  I have represented our members on several committees and steering groups, most recently on a university committee whose central remit is to determine strategies and policies in response to Covid. I have worked to promote the interests of our members in relation to issues such as workload and safety. I have experience of fighting on the workload, equality and casualisation issues which are at the centre of UCU's current work.

Since being re-elected to the NEC in 2020 I have been elected to serve as one of the two vice chairs of the HEC, assisting the Chair to run meetings of this key committee.  In this capacity I also serve as one of the UK negotiators. I am also a member of UCU's Congress Business Committee which works independently of NEC to oversee the material and business dealt with at our Congress and sector conferences, thus supporting the democratic and campaigning work of our union. This is my second term on CBC and the committee has faced particular challenges in adapting its usual procedures in response to Covid and the move to online Congress/sector conferences.

Both HE and FE have faced unprecedented challenges in dealing with the pandemic and its impact on our workload, our ways of working, and of course our personal wellbeing. We have seen some employers respond hawkishly, cutting pay, threatening jobs, and imposing still heavier workloads. But our members have responded with inspiring local campaigns to counter these threats, and have fought back against these attacks. Nationally the response has been equally impressive, with strong results in the recent ballots, as well as a significant rise in membership. This is a crucial time for our union, and it's vital that union members and elected representatives work together collegially, focussing on our shared interests and problems rather than sectarian politics. I seek to work with all UCU colleagues, building on what unites us to win substantive progress for members. I am not a member of any political party. 

If re-elected to the NEC I will continue to make the concerns of members my priority, and to support the best strategies to promote them. In order to be effective, strikes should be used alongside other tactics, combining activist strength with considered strategy and aims to win identifiable gains.

I am supporting Maxine Looby for Vice President.