Recruitment and campaigning motions

Motions allocated to section 7 of the NEC's report to Congress (UCU/2040):

Section 7:  Business of the recruitment, organising and campaigning committee

58  Continued work in recruitment, organising and campaigning - National executive committee

Congress notes the progress made by ROCC in implementing the policies set by Congress, notably:

1. support for national disputes in HE, FE, and Prison education
2. support for branches, including with GTVO and disputes
3. strengthening recruitment to build greater union density in all our sectors
4. developing training and education for activists
5. providing support for priority, national industrial campaigns.

It further notes the impact of the pandemic on this work.

It supports continued focus on these areas working:

1. to engage and involve our diverse groups of members
2. to actively support recruitment, campaigning and organising activities nationally, regionally, and locally
3. to ensure issues of climate justice and sustainability are integral to our work
4. to oppose the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and oppose the workings of any subsequent Act
5. to progress ROCC related Congress resolutions.

CARRIED

59  Levelling up, post-16 education and the Green New Deal - Yorkshire and Humberside regional committee

Congress notes:

1. government statements about 'levelling up' in economic and social provision
2. the extent of deprivation and disadvantage in much of the UK, including the Yorkshire and Humberside Region;
3. the negative effects that poverty, bad housing, digital poverty and poor transport provision have on student learning;
4. the importance of social justice and inclusion in building the Green New Deal;
5. the contribution that post-16 education makes to economic, social and environmental regeneration.

Congress resolves to:

1. continue and strengthen campaign work with local authorities, including elected mayors, trade unions, student and educational organisations for significantly better funding of post-16 education
2. support curriculum developments which contribute to the Green New Deal and economic, social and environmental regeneration
3. work with environmental groups to promote education and research which build the Green New Deal
4. campaign with the TUC and other trade unions for Government 'levelling up' policies to deliver improved living standards and be environmentally-friendly.

CARRIED

60  Strengthen organising by pursuing a Green New Deal through a national joint claim; climate emergency anti-casualisation - Composite: University of Liverpool, Open University

Congress believes:

1. climate change, and decarbonization have implications for job security, pay and terms and conditions in HE and FE
2. precariously employed members of staff are particularly exposed to these risks
3. casualisation undermines the capacity of workers to live sustainably, and to participate and contribute to the shift to a more sustainable education sector
4. National Joint Claims' power to secure improvements beyond pay uplifts, and so to recruit and organise members, is under-recognised
5. climate emergency anti-casualisation is an area of potential transformation
6. that precarious employment is often carbon intensive, featuring significant commuting and home moves
7. that decarbonisation will negatively affect some jobs.

Congress resolves that UCU:

1. exemplify collective bargaining by developing and submitting a Green New Deal national claim to FE and HE negotiating forums, including but not limited to:
   1. a Just Transition Commission in HE and FE, including transition planning and job (role) frameworks, job security, and review of research funding tied to environmental harms
   2. sustainable, just work providing stability for employers and employees to adapt, and a roadmap out of precarity.
   3. skills transition; paid time for sustainability CPD, including on casualised and outsourced contracts
   4. trade Union environment representatives' facilities time
2. use Trades Union Congress structures to promote multi-union campaigning for a Just Transition.

CARRIED

61  Climate Justice - South West retired members branch

Congress supports the development of a climate justice movement demanding action for a just transition from fossil fuels to climate jobs in the UK, and for support and reparations for those in the global South experiencing the deepening climate catastrophe.

Congress continues to value the trade union work of the Greener Jobs Alliance and the Campaign against Climate Change in the UK.

Congress resolves to:

1. develop our climate justice policies, utilising the knowledge and skills of UCU Green Reps;
2. support mobilisations by trade unions and others around Climate Justice and publicise these to members;
3. develop a Just Transition Plan involving skills audits, training, workplace mitigation and adaptation;
4. disseminate the 'Climate Jobs' pamphlet from the Campaign against Climate Change TU Group https://www.cacctu.org.uk/climatejobs, as a blueprint for emergency transition to a carbon-free economy.

CARRIED

62  Climate crisis: training for zero carbon jobs - West Midlands retired members branch

Congress notes:

1. the urgency of the climate crisis;
2. the positive impact of retrofit action for energy efficient homes;
3. Glasgow's impressive in-house model of retrofitting
4. the need for all homes to be energy-efficient, initially to reduce, then as part of plans to totally eliminate, burning of fossil fuels.

Congress resolves to press for:

1. trade union and residents' participation in local retrofit plans;
2. clear, funded plans for Centres of Excellence in Zero Carbon Skills, at levels from Entry level to HNC Diploma and degree, provided collaboratively by local FE colleges and universities and responsive to students' demands.

Congress calls on UCU branches:

to approach relevant councillors and council officers, in liaison with local trades unions and Trades Councils, to urge their local management to actively promote learning of Zero Carbon Skills.

CARRIED

63  Careers Services: informing students and supporting the low carbon economy - Academic related, professional services staff committee

Congress notes:

1. impartial, evidence-based advice by careers services is valuable for students and wider society
2. careers services promoting roles in oil, gas and mining industries is likely contributing to the global climate crisis, and leading students into careers which will decline as we rapidly decarbonise our economies
3. congress 2017 passed a motion resolving to campaign for a Just Transition to a low carbon economy.

Congress resolves to:

1. actively work with People & Planet to publicly support the student-led Fossil Free Careers campaign, calling on careers services to align their operations with sustainability considerations particularly by declining to promote oil, gas and mining companies
2. produce a website statement about this motion, UCU support for this campaign and amplify calls to action
3. support the activities of the Green New Deal and work with GND working group to promote this activity in parallel and in overlap where appropriate.

CARRIED

64  Waste incineration is an environmental disaster - London retired members branch

Waste incinerators currently release an average of around 1 tonne of CO2 for every tonne of waste incinerated. The release of CO2 from incinerators makes climate change worse and comes with a cost to society that is not paid by the companies incinerating waste.

In addition to greenhouse gases, incineration releases nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, hydrogen chloride, dioxins, furans, heavy metals, and particulate matter.

Waste incinerators are 3 times more likely to be sited in deprived areas.

We welcome the recent campaign against the Edmonton incinerator formed of coalition of Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, UNITE Community and local trades councils, with the full support of the TUC London, East and South East region.

We also welcome the legal challenge from Stop the Edmonton Incinerator Now.

Support just transition agreements for those workers currently employed in the sector.

We request UCU to consider supporting United Kingdom Without Incineration Network.

CARRIED

65  No escalation of fracking and nuclear power - National executive committee

Congress notes:

1. the urgent need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2030
2. the dangerous escalation of the nuclear arms race
3. Johnson's recent comments that up to six new oil and gas fields are to be approved and the moratorium on fracking will be reviewed in response to the war in Ukraine.

Congress believes:

1. increasing reliance on nuclear energy will not meet our urgent climate targets
2. we need to use the opportunity to make the transition to renewable energy and end fuel poverty.

Congress resolves to:

1. reaffirm UCU's commitment to oppose nuclear weapons, nuclear energy and fracking
2. order 500 copies of Climate Jobs: Building a workforce for the climate emergency, the new report from CACC
3. affiliate to Frack Off and encourage members and branches to join local anti-fracking groups and take part in actions against fracking and nuclear power.

CARRIED

66  Anti-casualisation toolkit and legal support - Anti-casualisation committee

Congress notes:

1. the success of Goldsmiths short course tutors in gaining worker status via a crowdfunded legal challenge;
2. the UCU toolkit 'Challenging Discrimination: How to Build an Effective Case'.

Congress resolves:

1. to encourage members with potential anti-casualisation cases to seek UCU legal advice via their branches or local associations
2. to invite feedback from members on how the UCU legal scheme might better support casualised members and anti-casualisation cases, especially collective and/or strategically significant cases
3. to produce a toolkit on using legislation to challenge casualisation both individually and collectively, including:
   1. an overview of the law on employment status and in relation to fixed-term, part-time and zero hours contracts, and
   2. practical and step-by-step advice on using our legal rights to challenge casualised employment practices (similar to that in the Discrimination Toolkit), including through the UCU legal scheme.

Remitted (not taken)

67  Union-busting and race equality - Black members standing committee

Congress deplores attempts to undermine trade union branches, including by targeting reps for disciplinary processes and redundancy. Time and again, employers have failed to address the legitimate concerns of black staff and students, including harassment at work, barriers to progression, eurocentric curricula and job insecurity.

Yet recently we have seen attempts by employers to misuse the rhetoric of equality to undermine trade union work and to victimise our reps.

In response, this meeting agrees to:

1. develop additional resources to counter union-busting tactics, including building community alliances for accountability and justice;
2. collate union-busting and 'fake' equality initiatives by employers and publicise to the wider community;
3. promote a social media campaign to explain the impact of union-busting on equality goals.

Remitted (not taken)

68  UCU condemns targeting of trade union activists at Goldsmiths - Goldsmiths, University of London

Congress notes:

That 16 redundancy notices sent to Goldsmiths' staff on April 8 2022 include the branch co-president, a branch treasurer, and two department reps.

That union members have been targeted for their part in preventing mass redundancies as a result of extensive strike action and ASOS.

Congress believes:

That targeting trade union activists is part of a wider strategy of attacking working conditions and academic freedoms, as at Leicester and UEL.

Congress resolves:

To provide support in fighting these redundancies, including legal and casework support, publicity for the campaign and the academic boycott.

To develop strategic oversight by calling a meeting led by branches and individuals affected before the end of June 2022, with experts in union busting and blacklisting.

To develop legal advice and support for branches to fight cases of trade union victimisation as soon as possible, no later than the start of the 2022-23 academic year.

Remitted (not taken)

L3  UK-wide campaign against cuts at University of Wolverhampton - University of Wolverhampton

Congress notes:

1. the outrageous attack on student provision and workers at the University of Wolverhampton, without any consultation with recognised trade unions
2. the disastrous plans for suspension of level 4 and level 7 courses across the university, leaving many applicants with nowhere to go in September; the closure of Burton campus; and the merging of two schools, resulting in job losses
3. the serious questions emerging around the financial competence of University leadership leading to the current situation
4. that this represents a cross-sectoral attack of national significance to educational opportunity across the region. Many of our students want or need to stay in the West Midlands so the suspension of our courses means that they cannot access HE.

Congress resolves:

To support the branch in a national campaign against this including:

1. public demonstrations with rallies
2. a petition against course suspensions
3. support for any dispute
4. EDM
5. a range of strategic industrial actions.

Remitted (not taken)

L4  Racial discrimination and constructive dismissal of migrant black members at the University of Wolverhampton - National executive committee

Congress notes:

1. the increasing structural racism and barriers faced by Black migrant staff at the University of Wolverhampton
2. intolerable racism, unachievable work demand on Black migrant staff causing serious health issues for some black migrant staff and their constructive dismissals
3. threat of massive jobs cuts has disproportionate effects on immigration status of black migrant workers and their families.

Congress instructs the GS and the executive to:

1. provide appropriate support including full Legal support to all the affected Black migrant members at the University of Wolverhampton
2. call out the racism, lobby local MPs and university management, coordinate public campaign condemning anti-black migrant workplace culture that exists at the University of Wolverhampton
3. to support the local branches on its fight to defend jobs and migrant workers and their immigration status.

Remitted (not taken)

69  Pensions and the rising cost of living - Southern retired members branch

Congress notes:

1. the catastrophic rise in the cost of living
2. the disproportionate impact on people on low and fixed incomes
3. the additional burden likely to be caused by the war in Ukraine
4. Britain has one of the lowest state pensions in the developed world
5. this will be exacerbated by the suspension of the triple lock, causing further hardship to millions of pensioners
6. attacks on occupational pensions, including USS and TPS

Congress demands:

1. that UCU continue to work closely with the National Pensioners' Convention to campaign for the restoration of the triple lock and an increase in the basic level of state pension to bring it in line with that of other developed countries
2. that all branches be urged to affiliate to the NPC and other appropriate groups to put pressure on the government to restore the triple lock and to end attacks on occupational pension schemes.

Remitted (not taken)

70  Crisis of social care - Yorkshire and Humberside retired members branch

Congress notes the ongoing and escalating crisis in social care, which impacts upon the lives of those needing care, their family and friends, and is an issue for the labour movement. The COVID pandemic has worsened the crisis in care homes and home care. With a severe labour shortage in the care sector and chronic underfunding of local authorities to provide care, progressive developments, such as moves to support independent living, are also undermined.

Congress instructs NEC to work within the TUC and with relevant campaign organisations to promote a National Care, Support and Independent Living Service (NaCSILS), funded by a fairer tax system, publicly provided and publicly accountable, to be mandated nationally and delivered locally. It must give more respect and autonomy to service users, their families, friends, carers and care workers.

It furthermore supports moves to improve the pay, status, training and employment conditions of care workers.

Remitted (not taken)