I am standing because we need a democratic transformation in UCU.
When members take collective action, they should have control of their disputes.
- Branches should run local strikes through strike committees open to all members on strike. When we take UK-wide action, we should coordinate through a strike committee constituted by members elected through their branches.
- When the union makes decisions through its democratic structures, the role of union officials and officers is to carry them out. No individual or committee – not the GS, the NEC, nor the HEC and FEC sub-committees – should block, delay or undermine the decisions of members.
The General Secretary is the most senior official of the UCU. The role is not to second-guess democracy or restrict it, but to facilitate it.
Union democracy requires well-organised branches meeting regularly, debating questions and motions before voting on them. We debate first, vote second. But we also need collective debates between and across our branches because we need collective solutions.
The current General Secretary has promoted e-ballots, where union officials ask questions and members are expected to respond in isolation, and calls that ‘democracy’. We must engage in decisions on collective action collectively. In the HE disputes we saw how this was profoundly undemocratic and sowed confusion, with questions designed to encourage members to vote to end strikes, playing into the employers’ hands and breaking up the momentum of the action.
We need to make our democratic structures more open, inclusive and participatory. All elected officers should be accountable to members.
We need to change from a top-down union to one that is bottom-up. I am standing to turn our union around, so we can win campaigns in all parts of post-16 education. This can only be achieved by a sustained grassroots campaign, which is why I am standing alongside a broad range of UCU Left candidates for the NEC.
Saira Weiner for UCU General Secretary 