In response to concerns expressed by members about the role of student feedback in PDRs, UCU has been in communication with the University to raise those concerns. They include such factors as low response rate from students and potential gender discrimination in the feedback – see attached letter
As a result the University, as stated in the response we have received from Pro-Vice Chancellor Martin Stringer, has agreed to review the whole process after Easter and in the meantime we have proposed that the University carry out an ethical review of this issue and also an equality impact assessment.
UCU Local Committee member, Mahaboob Basha, has written an article just published in the South Wales Evening Post, arguing strongly for increased public investment by governments and highlighting the vital role played by trade unions in defending jobs and maintaining living standards: See the article here
Transcript:-
Yesterday saw the start of Heart Unions Week, which runs until February 14. It’s a chance for active campaigners to tell the story about why unions are important for everyone at work and encourage people who aren’t yet in a union to join. Here, Dr Mahaboob Basha explains why the world would be different without unions.
The capitalist world came to an abrupt halt in March last year. The global economy shut, borders closed, and countries went into lockdown. Now, as many countries begin a cautious reopening, the shape of the new world is yet to be defined. But the coronavirus crisis seems like a definitive break, a full stop. The pandemic perfectly exposes globalisation, and its long, opaque supply chains. Everything is connected to everything else, but it’s not always clear how, or what we can do to influence the flow of money, power and information. This is the environment trade unions have operated in since the 1980s attempting to find local solutions to complex global problems, and learning to confront formless, footloose capital through growing international cooperation. Today most can comfortably perform their white-collar jobs from home, with the space and equipment they need. Working class people have borne the brunt of the crisis, the health workers and hospital cleaners who have had to go to work without protective equipment. The supermarket, transport, cleaning, and delivery workers, until recently disparaged as low skilled, have suddenly been recognised as the essential glue that holds our societies together. Further inequalities have been exposed there are more women than men in dangerous frontline jobs, and more people of colour. Those who were already vulnerable in this economy have been made more vulnerable. Unions have responded well, mobilizing their activists and resources to defend working people. The furlough schemes that provide support for workers are the result of union campaigns, as is the pressure to provide PPE.
Unions have highlighted the essential role played by underpaid workers in key areas of the economy. By negotiating pay during lockdown, millions of workers have been able to shelter safely, slowing the spread of the virus and saving countless lives. Unions have also been at the forefront of providing public health advice, and distributing sanitiser, masks, and gloves. But the initial shape of the post-Covid-19 world is not good, at least if you’re a trade unionist. It is devastating to confront the carnage of lost jobs, recognizing that each one was supporting a family and a community. But we have to resist the conclusion that this carnage is the inevitable consequence of the coronavirus crisis After World War Two, Europe lay in ruins. Money was found to reconstruct the continent, and that rebuilding laid the groundwork for the welfare state that was so successful until it was torn apart by Thatcher neoliberal counter-revolution. Firstly, employers and right-wing governments are using coronavirus as an excuse to force through changes they would not be able to achieve in normal times. Secondly, many companies are cynically using the health crisis as an opportunity to lay off workers they wanted to get rid of anyway, while taking bail out money from governments. Finally, that coronavirus dramatically accelerated processes that were already underway. We also know that fast fashion is not sustainable. We know that we need to transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to a green economy. We know there is no long-term future in oil or coal.
We are clear that climate change requires a very different economy. What has been missing so far is political will. Most governments have been content to take a hands-off approach, hoping that a few gentle nudges will be enough to entice the private sector to invest in transformation Coronavirus showed that it is possible for governments to act quickly and boldly, to take decisions that will have dramatic consequences. Tory governments that spent years complaining of empty coffers suddenly found billions to stop the collapse of society. Millions of workers were placed on furlough, receiving public money, and companies received financial support. These responses have reignited conversations around Universal Basic Income, the value of essential and frontline workers and many other aspects of the old normal that were taken for granted. The recovery from Covid-19 must be another moment like this. Governments and companies must find the resources to rebuild a just and green economy. We need a globally coordinated effort to create a new deal. We need more than bailouts. We need massive public investment in the future. Our role as trade unionists is to demand this, to argue for it, to promote our policies, and to strike for the future if we must.
Dr. Mahaboob Basha was awarded the British Empire Medal last year for services to the community in Sketty. He is an is active University College Union (UCU) branch member of Swansea University, the Unite Swansea Services and Energy Branch of South West and Mid Wales.
We ran a series of political engagement events in advance of the Senedd elections that took place in May 2021. These remote sessions give members an opportunity to quiz politicians from different parties representing constituencies or regions around Swansea University on whatever topics they wish.
Our first session saw questions put to Suzy Davies, Conservative Senedd member representing the South West Wales region. The session was chaired by Prof. Michael Draper, Director of the Swansea Academy for Inclusivity and Learner Success and Professor of Legal Education at Swansea University. There were questions on topics ranging from Brexit and Erasmus+ to electoral reform to governance of public sector organisations.
We are most grateful to Suzy for giving up her time to talk to us, Michael for chairing and UCU members for attending and providing thought provoking questions. The next session will be with a panel of Labour Party MS on the 5th February at 12:30pm. This session with Suzy is available in full here:
In the second of our political engagement events we were pleased to host a panel of Labour Party MS from Swansea and the surrounding area via zoom for a question and answer session with UCU members. On the panel were Rebecca Evans, MS for Gower and minister for Finance and Trefnydd, Jeremy Miles, MS for Neath, counsel general and European transition minister, David Rees, MS for Aberavon and Mike Hedges, MS for Swansea East. The session was chaired by Professor Sue Jordan, UCU Swansea branch president
Questions were put to the panel on a variety of topics from big national issues like Brexit and electoral reform to more local issues directly affecting Swansea UCU members, such as the current issues affecting university finances and the use short term contracts in higher education institutions. We would like to thank the panel for giving up their time to talk to us when there is so much pressure on diaries and UCU members for attending and providing thought provoking questions.
If you weren’t able to attend the session with Labour MS, check it out here:
In the last in our series of political engagement events before the 2021 Senedd Elections we hosted two members of the Senedd representing Plaid Cymru; Helen-Mary Jones, MS for the Mid and West Wales region and Dai Lloyd, MS for the South West Wales region. The session was chaired by Professor David Blackaby, Professor of Economics and former head of the Department of Economics.
There was a lively discussion around Welsh independence and answers to questions from UCU members on Brexit, university finance; jobs and pensions, health and social care and Covid-19 amongst other topics.
We would like to extend our thanks to Helen and Dai for giving up their time during what must be a very busy period for them, and to UCU members for attending and asking questions. If you would like to ask any further questions or make comments please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the UCU committee. The full session with Plaid MS is available here:
The University’s ‘Declaration of Outside Interests’ form, which requires staff to declare any potential conflicts of interest with their University employment, contains a section where staff are asked to list
‘Details of other interests which are felt to be relevant, e.g. memberships of associations, societies, cooperative movements’.
Members have asked us whether this means they should declare their membership of UCU. For avoidance of doubt, the University has made clear that members are neither required nor expected to declare their union membership or membership of a political party or association. UCU membership details are confidential to the union and not disclosed to the employer or any other third party.
After nearly a decade of lobbying and negotiation, the campus Trade Unions are delighted that Swansea University has now agreed to be a real Living Wage employer starting April 2020. This will immediately benefit 1014 staff who were previously paid below that level. The Trade Unions have been at the heart of this campaign since the day it launched.
In 2016 Swansea UCU brought this matter to the attention of the Wales Education Minister asking him to urge HEFCW to mandate the Wales HE sector to address and implement the Living Wage for their employees. In a letter dated 20 March 2019 to the Chair of HEFCW, the Minister clearly stated that the Welsh Government expected HEFCW to prioritise fairness and equality for to staff working in the HE sector by the 19/20 financial year as a condition of continued funding from the Welsh Government.
As a sabbatical officer in Swansea Students’ Union, along with UCU, Unite and Unison we organised Living Wage campaigning, inviting several national speakers to come and speak. I recollect in particular the speech delivered in 2012 by David Miliband, former Foreign Secretary. Addressing staff and students, he said: “This policy was condemned as a ‘job killer’ when it was first introduced, but it will turn out to be one of Britain’s biggest ever policy successes for living standards.” The deeper motivation is that a decent and fair minimum wage for all pays dividends in a happier workforce who feel properly rewarded for their labour. In turn it means less necessity for state benefit support, thereby enabling taxpayers’ money to be diverted elsewhere, e.g. social care, care for the elderly, primary/secondary education, policing, transport, NHS, etc.
While touring Wales during the 2019 election, the previous Chancellor stated: “The national living wage is set for another big rise next year after Brexit.” The present Chancellor is right to be signalling now where it should go after 2020. However, I personally believe he should also ensure that the next phase of increase in the Living Wage should be based on careful examination of the evidence in the post Covid-19 situation.
We congratulate Swansea University management for taking this difficult decision at a time when the whole sector is struggling financially. We would also like to add our personal thanks to the Welsh Education Minister, local MPs & AMs, HEFCW and present and previous members of UCU, Unite and Unison for continuous lobbying on this issue.
The University and College Union (UCU) represents over 120,000 academics, lecturers, trainers, instructors, researchers, managers, administrators, computer staff, librarians and postgraduates in universities, colleges, prisons, adult education and training organisations across the UK
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