A message from Roger

The UCU general secretary ballot result has now been declared and Sally Hunt has been elected. The union and our members face major and difficult challenges from employers and government in almost every aspect of our working lives. The turnout was just 13.9 per cent which in itself suggests the scale of the challenge the union faces. I wish Sally Hunt very well in meeting those challenges. To meet them successfully will require a clear strategic vision and a determined articulate response which members can have confidence in and ownership of. I will seek to play my part in ensuring that is the case through my continuing role as Head of Equality and Employment Rights Finally I would like to sincerely thank the hundreds of members who sent messages of support and campaigned during the election.

Wednesday, 10 January 2007

Tuesday 9th January 2007

“Why doesn’t UCU spend more time trying to convince the wider public that what we do is a 'good' thing? Until we do won’t we have difficulty on issues like pay and workloads.”
Sue – Senior Lecturer, Liverpool

I agree we have to spend more time on explaining better what we do and how society benefits. To do that most effectively I think we need to have a strategic view of the link between our self interest and the wider interest of students and society.

In my view UCU needs a vision that sets out why, for example, if you pay lecturers and researchers poorly, the best staff won’t be attracted and both students and research will suffer. We should be able to easily explain that tens of thousands of researchers and lecturers are employed on temporary or variable contracts, it must be bad for students as well as for staff.

The same sorts of arguments can be made over excessive workloads, mountains of paperwork, poor equality practices, a bullying culture and so on.

Moreover we have at the moment a very good example of the overlap between our interests and those of out students and wider society – our campaign against cuts in access to ESOL provision.

If you want to find out more please read my article in The Guardian

Science and academic freedom

I’m not a scientist – though I thought I was going to be until changed degrees mid stream many years ago - but a report in New Scientist demonstrates is the importance of academic freedom in science.

The case of Aubrey Blumsohn at Sheffield and the attempts by the pharmaceutical industry to misuse his work illustrated why this is a key issue for UCU. I have been involved in supporting a number of whistleblowers in previous trade union roles. It’s an area that trade unions don’t always get right. We have to make sure we do.

Read the full article here

ESOL

On a different important issue that I’ve already discussed, the campaign against the ridiculous cuts in ESOL provision continues. If you want to know more you could start with my article in The Guardian today here

More details here
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Old Blogs

A trade unionist all his working life. An activist and a proud campaigner, Roger has consistently worked to defend human rights of workers. As the leader of the Equality and Employment Rights team in the newly formed UCU he continues to unite the movement around equality and keep employment rights at the top of the agenda.