Peta Bulmer (University of Liverpool)

woman

Election address

I joined UCU 12 years ago, and have worked as a university lecturer, a museum educator, and a researcher in Greek archaeology at the University of Liverpool.  My current job involves supporting researchers to make meaningful social change with their work. 

UCU NEC member 2022-present 

Member of Education Committee of NEC 

Member of Recruitment, Organising and Campaigns Committee of NEC 

Joint Branch Secretary University of Liverpool UCU 

I have been President, Campaigns Officer and Anti-Casualisation Officer for Liverpool UCU.  I participate regularly in regional meetings and have been the Equalities Officer for LGBT+ members.  Previously, I was a Rep and Chair of Unite/Amicus for 18 years.  This union experience, including NEC service, has increased my understanding of HE employment relations and UCU policies. 

I played an active role organising pickets, protests and online rallies during Liverpool's successful fight against redundancies in 2021, which used daily online meetings to build a strong, democratic and member-led branch.  I hope to use this experience to increase member and branch participation in decision-making processes across UCU - especially when we are in dispute - through BDMs and strike committees. 

As a member of UCU Left, I support a genuinely member-led, fighting union that challenges the priorities of the market and campaigns for an education system where needs of students and staff come first.  For too long, we have watched workloads go up and mental health go down amid an epidemic of casualisation and pay inequality.  I support UCU's work in promoting equality and have taken an active role by helping organise protests against racism and transphobia, and more recently solidarity with Palestine, on campus and in the Northwest.  I support the work of UCU's standing committees, which give voice to our more marginalised members. 

With the UCU Solidarity Movement, which I helped set up in 2020, I have worked hard to build solidarity between UCU branches (in HE, FE and prisons) to fight effectively over job cuts, casualisation and the increasing marketisation of post-16 education.  This rank-and-file activists' network has become vital in building support for disputes across different sectors of UCU. 

I am glad to be a member of a union that fights back, and I support the continuing campaigns on pay, pay equality, workloads and casualisation, and will fight to defend TPS pensions.  Our employers are complicit in the marketisation of post-16 education, which surrenders academic freedom and integrity, views staff as expendable, and treats students as sources of income.  They have not listened to our concerns, and only industrial action can turn things around.  Building a democratic, members-led union that is willing to take up these challenges is my priority in standing for election to the NEC.