Unity for UCU 2013 conference

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Unity!

‘The Union Forever’: only if we make it so! The future for UCU

by Martin Levy “The Union forever, defending our rights,” sings Billy Bragg. Is there a delegate at this Annual Congress who doesn’t feel that way about UCU, who doesn’t want it to go from strength to strength? Certainly this union has achieved much since it was founded, building on the foundations of NATFHE and AUT, but going much higher – speaking with one coherent voice on post-secondary education; standing up to ruthless employers; challenging government austerity policies; driving forward the equality agenda; battling over pay, pensions and conditions; fighting casualisation; supporting individual members; and strengthening solidarity, both across the union and with the wider labour and progressive movement. The

whole is definitively more than the sum of its parts! But laurels are meant for wearing, not resting upon – and in these days you have to run simply to stand still. Workers across Britain are taking a battering – over jobs, pay, pensions, benefits and democratic rights – and the trade union movement is not immune from that. Membership in Britain fell below 6 million for the first time in 2012, and the process is accelerating. It is not for nothing that the government is attacking the public sector – not only do they want to provide new opportunities for profiteers, they are seeking to break the strength of organised labour where it still has significant density.

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Communists at UCU congress 2013

Sector conferences Pay and conditions Build fighting confidence for effective action The formation of the ConDem government in 2010 has facilitated an increasingly intense ideological offensive in the education arena. Working from the platform established by New Labour, this radical right-wing government is intent on further fragmenting the education service and opening up the system to profit-making private companies. The vast majority of HE and FE employers have swallowed the dominant political narrative in its entirety and have been slavishly doing their part – through a neverending round of restructurings, suppression of wages and attacks on hard-won conditions of employment. Casualised contracts are becoming more commonplace, inequality is endemic, and workloads are rising to unachievable levels. It is no wonder that many on the left, and in the centre as well, want the union to take action to defend our education service and to protect members’ working lives and living standards. continued on back page


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Unity for UCU 2013 conference by Communist Party - Issuu