Tuesday 5th March

What’s climate change got to do with UCU?

I’ve just heard that a UCU branch may be submitting a motion on sustainability to UCU’s Congress in Bournemouth in June.

I hope they do.

And before I get emails saying “what’s this got to do with my union subscriptions”, let me explain why.

One. Climate change doesn’t have a UCU members' exclusion zone. It affects us all – union members or not, our families and our friends.

Two. Whilst the science isn’t conclusive enough for some people, it seems conclusive enough for most scientists. Conclusive enough to assert that there is some connection between human activity and a threat of global warming.

Three. We can make a difference as a union. Firstly, by how we organise ourselves – how we run our offices, for example. Secondly, how our employers run themselves, with a particular role for health and safety reps to extend discussions of work environment into wider environmental concerns. Thirdly, by whether we use appropriate opportunities to encourage critical discussion on global warming in our professional work. Fourthly, the extent to which we as a union join forces with others in supporting wider social movements and political lobbying on the issue.

To me it all seems relevant to UCU’s members interests that their union plays its own very tiny part in making sure the planet is there for us to be active in when our great grandchildren go to university.

If a motion does reach the conference floor, we’ll have the chance to discuss all these issues in sunny Bournemouth in three months’ time.