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.

Tuesday 27 February 2007

Wednesday 21st February

Deep disillusion

I visited Keele University today for only the second time since I graduated there well over 30 years ago. Most of the Nissan huts are gone but the grubby students’ union building remains. The campus has more than doubled.

I was visiting for an election hustings. What struck me was how deeply the shambolic end to last year’s dispute had affected good activists. It has weakened the Association at just when the university is seeking to revisit the Framework agreement (for the worse) and is generally seen locally as have little regard for partnership working with UCU.

Good activists feel badly let down and still struggle to comprehend how we let the moment slip last summer.

Once again I recommend Dr (now Professor) Bob Carter’s analysis of the dispute, you can read it here. I have also been given a second excellent analysis of the dispute by two UCU members at Bristol University, which I hope will be published soon and I will seek to post on my web site once it is.

We need to learn without blaming, and analyse with some rigour. Sally suggests we should look forward not backwards.

One backwards look we need to briefly take is to read tomorrow’s Times Higher which I understand contains details of the glorious self restraint and hypocrisy of the VC’s who paid themselves approximately twice what we settled for.

Those who don’t learn from the mistakes of the past are doom to repeat them.
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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.