“We have to do something and we have to do it now, not tomorrow, otherwise UNISON will be no more.”
That was the message from Loughborough University’s Martin Stringfellow, addressing the union’s higher education conference, as he called on members to do more to engage and recruit young people to come into the union: using Facebook and Twitter isn’t enough, he said.
And while Andy Cunningham from Manchester Metropolitan University agreed that “Facebook isn’t a silver bullet”, Rebecca Davies from the national young members’ forum reminded conference that many people would expect UNISON to have an online presence.
Delegates called for “vibrant, imaginative and exciting action” to engage young people and for joint working with students’ unions and other community groups.
Assistant general secretary Karen Jennings emphasised recruitment.
“Our representation depends on our strength in the workplace,” she said, reminding delegates to continue recruiting new members as part of the union’s national recruitment campaign.
She also thanked delegates for the “work that you do, that you continue to fight for others, even though you’re under greater pressure.”
And she urged delegates to continue “to battle against inequality, against discrimination and for justice.”
Cheers greeted her announcement that London Metropolitan University activists Max Watson, Jawad Botmeh and Steve Jeffreys, who had been suspended by their employers, were now reinstated at work. Andrew Beech, vice chair of the service group executive, also made a statement welcoming the news.
Conference condemned the outrageous difference between the pay of vice chancellors and principals and that of the lowest paid workers. It called for staff representatives to be on the decision-making bodies for managers paid over the nationally agreed pay spine.
Service group executive chair Denise Ward reported that the executive believed that, with a pay claim of RPI plus catch-up, “we think we’ve got it right”. The union would get information on the claim out to members “earlier than ever” she said, to enable them to vote confidently and conclusively should the situation demand it.
Pay campaigning materials were important, but no substitute for “face to face” communication said vice chair Andrew Beech, urging delegates to get out and talk to their members about the pay claim.
The government has promised an extra 75,000 apprenticeships, Mhairi Threlfall remarked. But with an apprenticeship minimum wage of only £2.65 an hour and an average hourly rate of just £4.25 many young people were left with the choice of heat or sleep as well as heat or eat.
Unpaid internships are “absolutely brilliant” added Rebecca Davies, “if you’re an employer.”
They called on UNISON to campaign for fair pay and rights for apprentices and interns.
London Met’s Max Watson spoke out against a new wave of privatisation that “we have to fight”. He reported that his university had wanted to outsource everything except teaching.
“We fought them and we beat them” he said, explaining how the branch campaigned: mobilising members, emailing the vice chancellor, commissioning an APSE report and printing tshirts and posters.
“We beat them on the narrative, we said it isn’t shared services” which sounds “cuddly”, he said, “it’s about privatisation”.
Writer and researcher Andrew McGettigan spoke on privatisation within higher education.
University administrations, previously acting mainly as funding distributors, were moving to focus on generating income, leading to an increase in privatisation, university shareholders, vice chancellors playing the bond markets and cherry picking courses.
He urged delegates facing these issues to “talk to journalists, talk to your local media.”
Conference condemned the use of restructuring as a way to make cuts “under the radar”, the increased workload for those left behind and the growing use of performance management as a way to “intimidate, harass and manage out” workers struggling with these workloads.
They also called for clear policies and procedures to deal with violence against women at work after delegate Katie Hall described being viciously verbally abused at work.
Delegates also spoke up for the role overseas students play in society, the economy and the higher educations institutes they study at and called on UNISON to monitor issues around overseas students following the threat to deport overseas students including 2,500 from London Met.
