Monthly Archives: May 2025

Posts elected at Congress – Voting Recommendations

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Several key UCU roles are elected at Congress, by Congress delegates. Please remember to vote if you’re a delegate, and please support the following candidates. This is a cross-factional list, including members of the Campaign for UCU Democracy, UCU Commons and independent members.

Conduct of Members Committee

  1. Sophia Woodman
  2. Themesa Neckles
  3. Joshua Spears
  4. Julie Milner
  5. Andrew Oldham
  6. Suzi Toole
  7. Ann Gow
  8. Janet Farrar
  9. Jak Peake
  10. Umran Ali
  11. Pat Roche
  12. Philippa Browning
  13. Denis Nicole

Please vote for the candidates in the order of preference listed above

Congress Business Committee

FE Business Committee

  1. Julie Milner
  2. Pat Roche

HE Business Committee

  1. David Bretherton

Please vote for the candidates in the order of preference listed above

FE Pay and Conditions Negotiators

  1. Mark Murphy
  2. Stuart Bond
  3. Helen Kelsall

Please vote for the candidates in the order of preference listed above

HE Pay and Conditions Negotiators (New JNCHES)

  1. Ben Pope
  2. Umran Ali
  3. Caroline Proctor
  4. Robyn Orfitelli

Please vote for the candidates in the order of preference listed above

HE USS Pension Negotiators

  1. Mark Pendleton
  2. Jackie Grant
  3. Mattew Inglis
  4. Sarah Joss

Please vote for the candidates in the order of preference listed above

Voting on HESC 2025 Motions

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The following is a list of key Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) motions, with commentary from the Campaign for UCU Democracy and a suggestion on how vote on these motions.

There are many motions not listed here. In these cases we encourage degelates to listen to the debates and decide on the strength of the arguments.

MotionSupport / OpposeNotes
HE2 Composite: Rebuilding the fight over pay and jobsOpposeCampaign for UCU Democracy (UCUD) believe that it is both legally and tactically problematic to try and take UK-wide industrial action to fight redundancies. Many branches are already engaged in local action, and have had successes in doing so. Attempting to call UK-wide action will undermine the ability of local branches to fight on their own terms.    
HE3 Pay and security
HE4 Fight the Funding Crisis in Higher Education
HE5 Composite: Collectivise the fight against cuts in HE
HE11 Protect casualised staff amid budget cuts and redundanciesSupportCasualisation is an issue of high importance, and casualised staff are particularly impacted during periods of redundancy.
HE15 Securing financial security and effective governance in higher educationSupportGovernance reform is essential if we are to ensure our universities are accountably managed.
HE16 Reclaiming HE as a common good needs agile strategySupportIt is important that we prioritise student number controls, in order to build a more stable sector.
HE18 Improving USS member benefitsSupport Amendment 18A.1 Oppose the motion, even if amended.The UCU Superannuation Working Group is still investigating the merits of Conditional Indexation (CI), and it would be premature to oppose CI before this work has been completed.

Voting on FESC 2025 Motions

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The following is a list of key Further Education Sector Conference (FESC) motions, with commentary from the Campaign for UCU Democracy and a suggestion on how vote on these motions.

     For/Against/AbstainReason
 FE1 FE Pay      For
FE2 Build support for nationally coordinated action 2025/26 ForSupports branches 
FE2A.1 Further education committee Branch decision 
FE3 The New Deal for FE   AgainstAggregated ballot
FE4 FE pay and bargaining Against Ballot before the summer – how??
FE5 After the spending review prepare national action Against Impractical – not building from branches
FE6 Pay Parity with School Teachers   AgainstNational strike action impractical for September
FE7 Closing the Pay Gap in FE For
FE8 Renewed importance of national action AgainstAggregated ballot
FE9 FE Pay campaign – Call for escalation AgainstIt’s unclear – lack focus 
FE10 FE Funding Now ForNo commitments to action in this motion 
FE11 Holiday entitlements of staff and returning in August For 
FE12 Deficit budgets For  
FE13 Climate action in FE ForCampaigning 
FE14  Best deal for members from the new prison education contract For 
FE15 Protect casualised staff amid budget cuts and redundancies For 
FE16 Recruitment and retention of casualised members in further education  For 
FE17 Composite: Campaign to reverse cuts to the adult skills fund    For 
FE18  Composite: To seek realistic funding for ACE from the Labour Government For 
FE19 Fair Pay for Institutes of Adult Learning   For 
FE20 FE Staff Safety in the age of AI   For 
FE21 Working towards tackling workload   For 
FE22 Stop the erosion of hours for delivery of FE programmes  For 
FE23  Disclosure of relevant and confidential background information with staff For 
FE24 Renewing UCU’s Objection to OFSTED in FE For 
FE25 Resisting Reform UK’s racist ideology in education  For 
FE26 Building anti-racist colleges  Not sure – nice idea but workloadWorkload issues
FE27 Combatting far right in FE  ForWorkload issues
FE28 Women and the new deal for FE ForIt’s up to you
FE29 Protecting migrant workers: Fair visa support and workplace rights in FE   For 
FE30 Recruitment and retention of disabled workers in the FE sector For 
FE31 Increasing the visibility of young LGBT+ people in FE For 
FE32 Equality data in FE ForWorkload implications for regional staff
FE33 FE college pay: Investigate senior management excess salaries  For 
FE34 End VAT inequality for FE colleges  For 
FE35 Palestine and the war in Gaza – freedom to discuss             Personal choice 
FE36 Participation in regional FE committees For 
FE37 FE conference democracy  Against Branch independence 

Voting on 2025 Congress motions

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The following is a list of key Congress motions, with commentary from the Campaign for UCU Democracy and a suggestion on how vote on these motions.

UCU Congress 2025 – Saturday 24th of May

Late Motion 16 (No Confidence in the General Secretary) has been ruled out of order. Please do not suppport any motions to have it ruled back onto the agenda.

MotionSupport / OpposeNotes
32 Special Congress on UCU Democracy SupportWhile the Campaign for UCU Democracy (UCUD) do not necessarily support the recommendations of the 2018 Democracy Commission, we do think that there is a need for UCU members to discuss and possibly amend our democratic structures, so welcome calls for a special congress on this issue.
34 Rule Change: TransparencyOpposePassing this motion would allow employers to demand previously confidential information from UCU using the Freedom of Information Act. 
35 Rule Change: Recall of Congress and/or Sector ConferencesOpposePassing this motion would force UCU staff to make up work lost to industrial action, if they went on strike during Congress. 

UCU Congress 2025 – Monday 26th of May

MotionSupport / OpposeNotes
52 Conference on political BlacknessSupportThe Campaign for UCU Democracy believe that this conference would be a vitally important opportunity to focus on the racism being experienced by Black members.  
63 Enough is enough! Post-16 education needs new political representationOpposeUCU is currently independent of all political parties, and should not compromise this independence by selectively inviting some MPs to address NEC.