Congress 2025: Business of the strategy and finance committee

Motions have been allocated to a section of the NEC's report to Congress ( UCU2173 [809kb]). Paragraph headings refer to paragraphs within this report. CBC may have added some new paragraph headings to facilitate the ordering of motions.

Section 6: Business of the Strategy and Finance Committee (open session)

Paragraph 2, Working with other unions and political overview 

62  A strategy to defend post-16 education - City and Islington College (Camden Road) 

Notes:  

1. Higher education institutions are facing an historic funding crisis.  

2. Further, Adult and Prison Education are facing further real terms cuts in funding.  

3. The refusal of the Starmer government to address the growing inequalities of access to post 16 education.  

4. UCU's pursuit of localised campaigning to stem the tide of attacks.  

Believes that:  

a. The root cause of the crisis in post 16 education has been over 40 years of competition and the market.  

b. The continuation of this funding model is a betrayal of the values of our movement.  

c. UCU's localised campaigning strategy has not be able to stem the tide of attacks.  

d. The attacks on F/H, Adult and Prison Education are UK-wide attacks and UCU needs an industrial and political strategy to defend the sectors.  

Resolves:  

i. UCU to construct a UK- wide industrial and political strategy to defend Post 16 Education.  

CARRIED

63  Enough is enough! Post-16 education needs new political representation - Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College  

This Congress notes:  

1. The funding crisis across all sectors of post-16 education.  

2. UCU research found a 4.5% increase in corporation tax would raise £17 billion, enough to inject more money into FE & HE and end tuition fees.  

3. Labour's clear signalling its intention for further austerity, not funding.  

This congress believes:  

a. Post-16 educators need political representatives that back our union's policies, including for fully funded, free education for all  

b. It is time for UCU and the broader trade union movement to look for an alternative political voice to Labour.  

This Congress resolves:  

i. To invite Jeremy Corbyn, the Independent Alliance in parliament and other pro-worker MPs to attend our National Executive for discussion about how they can support our union's fight for post-16 education funding in parliament  

ii. To encourage UCU members to stand in elections, linking up with other trade unionists, to fight for our union's policies.  CARRIED

64  Defend Palestine Solidarity & the Right to Protest - London regional committee 

Congress notes: 

1. University of Cambridge's application for a 5-year injunction restricting Palestine-related activities near administration buildings; the granting of a similar 1-year order at the request of University of London in November 2024.  

2. Over 100 staff and students nationally face disciplinary action for pro-Palestine activism. 

3. On 18 January, police imposed arbitrary restrictions on a peaceful Palestine solidarity rally in Whitehall, leading to 77 arrests and the prosecution of protest organisers. 

Congress believes: 

a. Crackdowns on Palestine solidarity activism—through police repression, legal injunctions, and university disciplinary measures—are part of a wider attack on free expression.  

b. Universities and trade unions must resist this suppression. 

Congress resolves: 

i. To condemn legal injunctions and other measures stifling Palestine activism, and to actively resist the crackdown by building a national public campaign with campus unions and relevant stakeholders.  

ii. To donate £1000 to Palestine Solidarity Campaign's legal fund. CARRIED

65  Palestine solidarity and the right to protest - University of Cambridge 

Congress notes: 

University of Cambridge's application for a 5-year injunction restricting Palestine-related activities near administration buildings; the granting of a similar 1-year order at the request of University of London November 2024. Over 100 staff and students nationally face disciplinary action for pro-Palestine activism. Police imposition of arbitrary restrictions on a peaceful Palestine solidarity rally 18/01/25 in Whitehall, leading to 77 arrests and the prosecution of protest organisers. 

Congress believes: 

Crackdowns on Palestine solidarity activism—through police repression, legal injunctions, and university disciplinary measures—are part of a wider attack on free expression. Universities and trade unions must resist this suppression. 

Congress resolves: 

To call on the NEC to work with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, European Legal Support Centre, Liberty and other campus unions to build a national campaign opposing this crackdown, including providing political support and training for branches faced with such measures. CARRIED

66  Congress motion on policing - Goldsmiths, University of London 

UCU Congress notes:  

The heavy-handed policing at the Palestine national demonstration on 18 January, including the violent arrest of chief steward Chris Nineham and the subsequent charges brought against both him and PSC director Ben Jamal. 

UCU Congress believes: 

That these actions are an affront to our democratic right to protest and an attempt to criminalise solidarity with the Palestinian people at a time when they are facing genocide and ethnic cleansing.  

The Metropolitan Police's actions are part of an authoritarian political attack on peaceful protest. They have been empowered by laws passed over the last decade that have been used to limit effective strike action and picketing. 

UCU Congress resolves:  

i. To support those unjustly arrested and demand the charges against Ben Jamal and Chris Nineham are dropped.  

ii. To demand an independent inquiry into policing on 18 January and the repeal of the Public Order Act. CARRIED

67  WASPI Women - Cymru retired members 

Congress is concerned that the decision by UK labour government not to compensate WASPI women for the delay in receiving notification of changes to the pension retirement age which has left many women facing financial hardship. The Ombudsman ruled in favour of the WASPI women agreeing that the previous government had acted badly in terms of the communication of these changes. 

The women may have been aware that changes were coming but that is not the same as being formally informed of the changed timeline.  

The changes to the state pension age affects about 3.6 million women not, including, those who have died since.  

Congress therefore asks UCU to lobby UK labour government to: 

1. Pay full compensation to those surviving women for the losses they have suffered; 

2. To issues a full apology for the failings of the previous government CARRIED

Paragraph 5, The TUC and joint union work 

68  Employment Rights Bill - Repeal Anti Trade Union Legislation - South Devon College 

Congress notes the recent amendments to the Employment Rights Bill. 

UCU welcomes any improvements to workers' rights and conditions. 

Congress notes with concern that the bill has been significantly weakened. In particular, there is no outright ban of fire and rehire or zero hours contracts, no "right to switch off", and commitments to sectoral collective bargaining have largely been abandoned. 

Congress believes these omissions in the bill must be corrected. 

Congress resolves to: 

1. Demand that the TUC implements TUC 2024 Congress policy; to call a special congress to review and demand the Bill be strengthened. 

2. Demand the TUC presses for the immediate repeal of all anti-union legislation.  

3. Demand as a minimum, that the promised repeal of the Minimum Service Levels Act 2023, and the Trade Union Act 2016 should be separated from the Employment Rights Bill and immediately voted through parliament as fast-tracked legislation.  CARRIED AS AMENDED

68A.1 London regional committee

Add after the paragraph "Congress notes with concern"

Congress notes with zero-hour contracts, the Employment Rights Bill is particularly weak. The bill must require that employers cannot avoid (subject to penalties) independent audits, transparent reporting mechanisms, pension recalculations, and continuous employment on a guaranteed number of stable hours after a set period (e.g., 12 months' regular work).

Add new Resolves 4:

4. UCU calls on branches, working with other trade unions and student unions, to lobby parliament for robust enforcement mechanisms for all zero-hour contract workers.CARRIED

68A.2 Northumbria University

In paragraph 3, insert "(i)" after "Demand as a minimum", and insert the following at the end of the paragraph:

(ii) - that the Secretary of State for Business and Trade follow the recommendation of the 2017 Report of the Independent Review of Electronic Balloting for Industrial Action ("the Knight Report") to carry out a pilot of electronic balloting, with the view to exercising his power under s54 of the Employment Rights Act 2004 to introduce e-ballots in trade union disputes.'CARRIED

69  ASOS Deductions and Detriment in the Employment Rights Bill  - Queen Mary University of London   

Congress notes  

1. Members have endured employer detriment as disproportionate deductions for ASOS with negative impacts on workers' welfare and UCU's power to organise for jobs, pay and working conditions  

2. Congress resolved to develop a legal strategy to challenge ASOS deductions in 2023 (motion 11)     

Congress believes    

a. Workers need to have meaningful legal rights to defend themselves   

b. The Employment Rights Bill 2024-25 (ERB) provides an important opportunity to secure, for all workers, a statutory right to be free of detriment for industrial action 

Congress resolves to call on Parliament to   

i. support the right to be free of employer detriment in clause 63 ERB       

ii. strengthen the right by removing the limiting words 'of a prescribed description' from proposed s 236A TULRCA 1992, and to  

iii. specify disproportionate ASOS deductions as a kind of prohibited detriment in the statutory regulations.  CARRIED

70  Defend and improve the state pension - Retired members standing committee 

Congress notes that: 

1. a decent non-means-tested State Pension benefits all UCU members. 

2. the New and Basic State Pensions are inadequate in level and indexation 

3. From April 2025, the weekly New and Basic State Pensions will be £230 and £176 respectively, while the officially defined poverty level is £456 (60% of the median wage). 

4. Frozen tax thresholds mean more people will pay tax on their state pensions. 

5. No Government has specified what a fair pension should be or on what criteria it should be based. 

6. The Triple Lock reversed erosion of State Pensions but may never raise them to an acceptable level. 

Congress opposes moves to introduce means-testing of the state pension. 

Congress instructs NEC to liaise with the RMC, TUC and the NPC to press the Government to determine a fair level and method of indexation of the pension system, and a date for these goals to be achieved. CARRIED

71  Welfare not Warfare - Composite: Westminster Kingsway College, University of Liverpool 

Congress notes: 

1. Britain currently spends £54 billion a year on arms 

2. Starmer's 2.5% increase in arms spending will mean an extra £13.4bn a year spent on weapons. 

3. This could be spent on things we need, such as: 

· 26,000 nurses (£1 billion) and 1000 new ambulances (£½ billion) 

· 37,000 new council houses (£6 billion) 

· Or increasing funding to Prison, Adult, Further, and Higher Education! 

4. Last year's TUC passed motions in support of the UK banning selling weapons to Israel and days of action against the escalation of war in the middle east. 

Congress believes: 

a. Additional spending on arms will not make the world a safer place 

b. The government will increase arms spending by cutting the welfare state and holding down public sector wages. It will be the working class in Britain who will also be made to pay the price for the increase in arms spending. 

c. It is a shocking indictment that a Labour Government is increasing arms expenditure by cutting overseas aid. We did not elect a Labour government for this. 

Congress resolves: 

i. To submit a motion to this year's TUC conference condemning the government's increase in arms spending and calling for it to be reversed 

ii. To support any and all campaigns at local, regional and national level, against cuts to benefits and public services CARRIED

72  Welfare not Warfare - University of Brighton 

Congress notes 

1. The intensified climate of war following Trump's election. 

2. Politicians' claim that 'we are in an era of rearmament' and the call for European countries to boost their spending on 'defence'. 

3. Starmer's intention to cut other budgets to increase military spending.  

4. Starmer's commitment to send British troops to Ukraine.  

Congress believes that 

a. The slogan 'welfare not warfare' remains central to trade unionism. 

b. Increased military spending inevitably means cuts to education, health and welfare budgets.  

c. Involvement of British troops in Ukraine will escalate conflict rather than making the world safer. 

Congress resolves to 

i. Oppose the involvement of UK troops in the Ukraine conflict, even in a 'peacekeeping' role.  

ii. Campaign vigorously with other unions and organisations to oppose increases to military spending. REMITTED

Paragraph 6, European and international work 

73   Reparations  - National executive committee  

Congress notes the growing demands for reparatory justice to reflect Britain's role - and that other former colonial powers - in the enslavement and colonisation of African peoples.     

Congress further notes:    

1. The work undertaken by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Afrikan Reparations, including the UK conferences on reparations held in 2023 and 2024.     

2. The annual RMT union reparations conference.     

3. The African Union theme of the Year for 2025 is "Building a united front to advance the cause of justice and payment of reparations to Africans".    

Congress calls on the NEC to ensure that UCU is actively involved in the campaign for reparative justice.     CARRIED

74  Attacks on trade unionists and rights defenders in the Philippines - National executive committee  

Congress notes the worsening climate of impunity in the Philippines and relentless attacks against education and trade unionists, and human rights defenders.      

The Anti-Terror Law, the government-formed National Task Force to End Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and other draconian measures from Duterte to Marco Jr. present serious challenges to academic freedom, and human rights in universities and schools.     

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), the largest education union in the Philippines, has been a target of vilification and harassment by the NTF-ELCAC and state security agencies. ACT members have been subjected to profiling and surveillance, trumped up charges, detention, and abduction.      

Congress calls on the NEC to raise awareness about human rights in the Philippines by strengthening UCU's links with ACT, affiliating with Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines, and engaging the UK Government to pressure the Marcos Administration to maintain international human rights and academic freedom standards.    NOT TAKEN

75  Nigeria Solidarity - Kirklees College 

Congress notes 

1. Nigeria's cost of living crisis, to which workers and unions have responded through strikes and peaceful protest. 

2. Vicious repression of these protests with youth and union activists put on trial, reportedly tortured, and threatened with the death penalty. 

3. Cuts being made to Nigerian education funding, fee hikes in universities and the introduction of student loans. Deteriorating conditions in higher education. 

Conference believes 

a. International solidarity is a key component of UCU policy and a guiding principle of trade unions. State brutality must be condemned by our movement.  

b. We stand in solidarity with the mass movement, and with all those facing repression.  

Congress calls on the NEC to 

i. Write to the Nigerian president, police and judiciary demanding the immediate release of, and dropping of all charges against, all trade unionists and campaigners. 

ii. Affiliate to the Nigeria Solidarity Campaign 

iii. To promote this motion among the wider Labour movement. NOT TAKEN

76  Solidarity with Serbian Student Movement - University College London 

Congress notes: 

1. The tragic collapse of the Novi Sad railway station canopy in November 2024, which killed 15 people, was linked to corruption and negligence. 

2. Serbian students have led mass protests demanding accountability, democracy, and transparency. 

3. The protests have gained support from workers, including educators, highlighting shared struggles against corruption and austerity. 

Congress resolves: 

a. To express solidarity with Serbian students and workers fighting for justice and democracy. 

b. To call on the UK government and international bodies to support democratic movements in Serbia. 

c. To work with education unions globally to amplify Serbian students' demands. 

d. To raise awareness among UCU members about the protests and the broader fight for transparency and workers' rights in Serbia. NOT TAKEN

77  Campus Voices for Palestine Solidarity - Liverpool John Moores University, University of Leeds 

UCU Congress notes: 

1. The successful second Campus Voice for Palestine speaking tour that took place in November 2024 with Sundos Hammad (Birzeit University and Right to Education Campaign). 

2. The tour organised by the British Committee for Universities in Palestine (BRICUP), University and College Workers for Palestine in conjunction with the Emergency Committee for Universities in Gaza, the Right to Education Campaign and financially underpinned by UCU. The organisers also collaborated effectively with PSC, Scholars for Palestine and other explicitly pro-Palestinian groups.  

Congress resolves to: 

a. Authorise up to £3k financial support underwriting a third Campus Voices for Palestine tour in 2025-26 academic year. 

b. Continue to work with these organisations, BRICUP and UCW4P, to organise the tour. 

c. Support and publicise the work of the Emergency Committee for Universities in Gaza and the Right to Education Campaign within UCU. CARRIED

78  Solidarity with the Palestinian People! End the Genocide! - University of Warwick 

Congress notes: 

1. President Trump's proposed plan, endorsed by the Israeli Government, aims to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.  

2. The Israeli Government is blocking essential supplies, leaving Palestinians on the brink of survival, with the most vulnerable dying from preventable conditions.  

3. Since October 2023, Israeli military operations and settler violence in the West Bank have displaced Palestinians and destroyed civilian infrastructure. 

Congress believes: 

a. Palestinians face continuing forced displacement, either through military violence or attrition.  

b. The Israeli Government is emboldened by support from Western governments, including the UK, and continuing impunity. 

Congress resolves: 

i. To urge the UK government to publicly commit to respecting the ICC arrest warrants and to impose an arms embargo on Israel until it ends its illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory. 

ii. To campaign for UK universities to sever ties with companies and institutions complicit in plausible violations of Palestinian rights, including apartheid, occupation, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. CARRIED

79  No invasions, occupations, annexations or ethnic cleansing - Yorkshire and Humberside regional committee 

Congress condemns threats and moves to invade countries, to occupy and annex territories and expel populations.  

It condemns threats by Trump to take over the Panama Canal, in violation of Panamanian sovereignty, to purchase Greenland, against the wishes of the people of Denmark and Greenland and to occupy Gaza, expelling the Palestinian population.  

It condemns incursions by Israel into neighbouring countries. It reiterates its call for withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.  

Congress believes that international relations should be conducted on the principle that no country is another country's backyard and that we oppose all forms of imperialism.  

Congress charges the NEC to uphold principles of the right to self-determination and no annexations in UCU's approach to international solidarity work and to lobby the UK government to support such principles.  

Congress calls on UCU members to support protests against invasions, occupations, annexations and to defend the right to national self-determination. NOT TAKEN

New paragraph 7, Cross-sectoral issues 

80  Linking equality and casualisation - a unified industrial strategy - City of Bristol College, Anti-Casualisation Committee (ACC) 

Congress believes that equalities and the casualisation of work are integrally linked.  

Congress notes: 

1. That UCU needs to take a more strategic approach through making the fight against casualisation central to all equalities work, and vice versa.  

2. Casualisation disproportionately affects women, migrants, Black, disabled staff, and those with caring responsibilities. 

3. UCU's data repeatedly show that precarious contracts and equality are structurally linked yet the bargaining agendas are often separate.  

Congress calls on the General Secretary and the NEC to work with the ACC to:  

a. Undertake research to identify how many workers in HE, FE, ACE and Prison Education work on casualised contracts and for how long  

b. Consider how we can more accurately identify people working on casualised contracts in HE, FE, ACE and Prison Education who are intersectionally minoritised / marginalised staff  

c. Develop a strategy to organise to win for casualised workers in HE, FE, ACE and prison education. NOT TAKEN

81  Providing Forensic Accounting during ALL local S188 redundancy consultations - Solent University 

Congress notes:  

1. The very large numbers of universities declaring financial distress and seeking to impose redundancies  

2. The generic reasons used by universities to justify cost-cutting, which focus on government funding rather than reckless decisions taken by management teams, sometimes borrowing huge sums of money to construct new university buildings.  

Congress resolves that:  

a. UCU should provide a forensic accountant service to every branch experiencing an S188 consultation, that will produce a report on the institution's financial position, and examine whether reckless management decisions have contributed to the financial distress.  

b. UCU may mitigate any costs involved in providing this service by putting together a panel of UCU members with financial and accounting expertise who will agree to volunteer this service to branches under direction of the NEC.  

c. UCU must call for all management teams who are deemed to have made reckless decisions to be removed. NOT TAKEN

82  Access to defined benefits pension schemes for all educational establishments - Coventry University 

Congress notes the increasing shift from Defined Benefits (DB) pension schemes to less secure Defined Contribution schemes. This trend undermines the financial security of education professionals, who deserve a stable and predictable income in retirement after years of dedicated service. 

Congress believes that: 

1. All workers in the education sector should have access to a Defined Benefits pension scheme. 

2. DB pensions provide vital financial security and attract and retain talented professionals in education. 

Congress asks for: 

a. A national campaign for the preservation of Defined Benefits pension schemes across all educational establishments. 

b. Lobby the government to ensure sufficient funding and regulatory support to make DB pensions accessible to all education professionals. 

c. Seek legal advice to fight employers removing existing staff from their Defined Benefits Pension into a Defined Contribution Scheme. 

d. A dignified retirement should be the right of every worker in education. NOT TAKEN

83  Pension justice for low-paid workers - London Metropolitan University (North) 

Congress notes: 

1. All eligible education staff, including fractional and hourly-paid workers, must have equitable access to the TPS.  

2. Employers often calculate the full-time equivalent (FTE) salary for hourly-paid staff to disadvantage them in pay and, thereby, in pension contributions and benefits.  

3. When UCU raised this with the Scheme Advisory Board, it was dismissed as a terms-and-conditions matter, not a pension scheme issue.   

4. Members on lower pay and on casualised contracts across FE and HE are being pushed into inferior pension schemes, severely reducing retirement security.  

5. This disproportionately affects the Equality strands, who are more likely to be casualised. 

Congress agrees reducing contributions and access to TPS weakens the scheme for everyone.  

Congress resolves: 

a. To undertake joint-union work to challenge employers on pension inequality.  

b. To campaign shaming employers using dishonest methods of calculating FTE hourly pay for casualised staff. 

c. To hold a UCU meeting for all TPS branches within 6 months. NOT TAKEN