David Chivall (University of Oxford)

David Chivall (University of Oxford) 

Election address 

I am a laboratory manager in the radiocarbon dating unit of the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford.  

I have been a member of UCU since 2015, have been active in Oxford UCU since the 2018 USS strikes, and have been a member of the branch committee since 2019. I was branch president from 2020 to 2023 and am again president for this academic year. Additionally, I am a caseworker, health and safety rep, and current lead for our side of the joint committee.  

I have led strikes, helped coordinate the 2023 marking and assessment boycott, and developed solidarity between our branch and other local union branches via the local TUC. I have helped increase our branch membership by over 25% since 2020. Beyond the branch I am a delegate to Southern Regional Committee and Congress.  

Our branch has grown and become more active when we have supported members in their campaigns to demand improvements to their working conditions - including fighting against the highly casualised contracts widely used at Oxford and its colleges. I believe in a member-led union that provides the infrastructure and support for members to collectively develop their own campaigns and strategy to improve the experience of working in post-16 education.  

At the moment, employers seem to have no appetite for seeking to change the funding models for post-16 education but simply to pass on the costs of the failures of the current system to those doing the teaching, research and all other jobs necessary for education and research. Together we need to demonstrate to those at the top how education could be funded and to force an improvement in working conditions from the bottom up.