Sent on 13th December 2024
Dear General Secretary,
We are writing to you to communicate the position of the Goldsmiths’ branch of UCU on the two industrial disputes Unite UCU (Unite LE 127) has entered into with UCU this year, following a branch meeting last month where we passed this emergency motion.
We are dismayed that our comrades in Unite UCU, who are committed to serving UCU members and upholding UCU democracy have been forced to take industrial action over a toxic workplace environment, where serious issues and failings relating to racism, safety, stress, gender identity and pay exist, and yet they have not been adequately addressed by the employer. We find it staggering that while launching the nationwide ‘It’s Your Time’ campaign over working conditions and Health & Safety, UCU have made no meaningful contribution to resolving the ongoing dispute over the working conditions of our Unite colleagues.
We are concerned to hear that UCU management are planning a restructure, which Unite UCU feel will weaken democracy within the union as well as further undermining their workplace conditions. As our branch – along with so many others – is battered by aggressive restructure after aggressive restructure from university management teams, we ask that the same not be enacted by the very union that we look to for support in our fights.
We fully support Unite UCU’s decision to open a second dispute against UCU over the refusal to enter pay negotiations for the current year. Unite UCU members are already suffering financial hardship due to the ongoing cost of living crisis, and this has only been exacerbated by their employer deliberately holding down their wages. We are ashamed that UCU are enacting an effective pay freeze on our Unite UCU comrades whose job it is to facilitate and support the work of our union, at a time when UCU has consulted its own members on a pay dispute over a lower than inflation pay rise.
Unions as employers should model best practice. UCU’s treatment of Unite UCU members not only falls short of this standard, but also undermines trade union rights. UCU’s refusal to negotiate on pay whilst the dispute over workplace conditions remains live effectively penalises workers for exercising their trade union rights, and is absolutely indefensible. Further, it is incredibly concerning for a trade union to breach union recognition agreements.
We cannot feel at ease as UCU members until we see genuine progress in both of these disputes. We are calling on you and the senior management team of UCU to enter into negotiations over Unite UCU’s pay claim for 2024/25 immediately, and to agree to a substantial pay uplift for their members that is appropriately backdated. We echo and support Unite UCU’s call for restructure plans to be paused until the outcome of the organisational review is available.
Joe Newman/Margaret Remana, co-president of GUCU on behalf of the GUCU branch