University of East Anglia UCU

UCU seeks support for EU staff from Norwich general election candidates

 

The UCU branch at UEA recently asked all the general election candidates in Norwich North and Norwich South to sign up to a pledge to try to get the next government to grant existing EU nationals the right to remain in the UK.

UCU@UEA wrote to all the candidates on Friday 3 June, asking for replies by 6 June.

 

The branch issued a press release to local media, describing the challenge. The release was copied to the UEA press office, the SU, the UEA student paper/website ‘Concrete’ and to campus unions.
The story was published on the website of the Eastern Daily Press: http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/university-staff-call-on-norwich-election-candidates-to-eu-workers-rights-pledge-1-5045876

 

The effort was part of a campaign ‘Our universities are international – let’s keep them that way’, which UCU is running at UEA. This is linked to UCU’s national efforts on this theme: https://www.ucu.org.uk/we-are-international

 

By 1.30 on Tuesday 6 June, we had received supportive responses from all candidates except the two Conservatives, who had still not replied.

 

Norwich North

Green Candidate             Adrian Holmes                  Support

Tory Candidate                 Chloe Smith                        No reply

Labour Candidate            Chris Jones                         Support

Lib Dem Candidate          Hugh Lanham                    Support

Pirate Party Candidate   Liam Matthews                 Support

 

Norwich South
Green candidate              Richard Bearman              Support
Labour Candidate            Clive Lewis                          Support

Tory candidate                  Lana Hempsall                    No reply

Lib Dem candidate           James Wright                     Support

 

Support the campaign at UEA!

 

UCU@UEA is considering ideas for further activity in support of our EU colleagues. If you would like to join this campaign and offer ideas and support, write to us. We will send you  a pack of posters and stickers, a copy of UCU’s Post-Brexit guide and ideas for what you can do. Write to:

ucu.office@uea.ac.uk

 

With the snap election just called, you might have thought that the current government’s Higher Education and Universities Bill was going to be delayed, but it looks as though they’re going to try to push it through next week before Parliament is prorogued. On 6 March the House of Lords voted for amendments to two of the most controversial features of the Government’s HE Bill: (1) the intention to link TEF to the ability to raise tuition fees, and (2) allowing new private providers degree-awarding powers without four years of validation by a university or approval by a quality assurance body. This was a rare instance of good news for our sector, and was the result of intense lobbying: from UCU, but also from concerned academics, students, parents, and others worried by the ramifications of these ill-conceived proposals.

 

With the final reading of the Bill looming, we cannot let up on the campaign now: the Lords were receptive to individuals raising their concerns, and when it returns to the House of Commons, we need to put pressure on our local MPs–especially for those of us who live in a constituency with a Conservative MP–to agree to these amendments. With the election foremost on MPs’ minds, they’ll be particularly likely to be attentive to their constituents’ concerns, especially where a university is so integral to the economic and cultural life of the area.

 

Make no mistake: the HE Bill as it currently stands is an existential threat to academic life in this country. And it is UCU that is fighting it: the representative bodies of university leaders, GuildHE and UUK, sent out a joint letter on 2 March ‘signalling [their] strong support’ for the Bill, so we cannot rely on our employers to defend British Universities.

 

Being in a trade union is about coming together collectively to fight for workers’ rights.  Those who have followed the election campaign will know that it’s likely that unions are going to lose some of the hard-won rights and it’s going to be a lot harder to campaign and support our members.

Please think about what you can do to help UCU@UEA.

Strength in numbers – recruit a friend
Be public about your membership – mugs etc available from the office
Let the committee know what’s going on
Write something for the newsletter
Interested in negotiating, supporting colleagues in cases, admin? Get in touch!
 

Many of us are feeling angry, depressed, useless after the election result.  A brilliant call to action comes from Laurie Penny: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/05/dont-give-angry-population-hard-govern-depressed-population-easy

 

This blog post is inspiring:

http://classonline.org.uk/blog/item/five-ways-to-deal-with-a-full-blown-conservative-government

This group was set up after tuition fees were hiked up in the last government.  Many of you talented people could help out: http://www.arts-emergency.org/

And please, look after yourselves.  Academics have one of the highest workloads of any job & it’s exhausting.  Make time for you, whether you are academic or otherwise (written by ALC member at the weekend!). http://blobolobolob.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/looking-after-yourself-as-radical.html

Outside work there are campaign organisations that the trade unions support which you can get involved in:

People’s Assembly

38 Degrees