Marketisation of Higher Education (HE)

Recent Government policy for HE in England has been dominated by the pursuit of competition, markets and privatisation. This will be compounded by measures in the Higher Education and Research Bill which introduces further competition into the sector and escalates the cost of attending university. Higher education is a public service providing benefits to the […]

Responsible buying in higher education institutions

Conference recognises that precarious work is becoming a growing occurrence across the world as some governments seek to develop their economies at the expense of their workforces. Precarious work include workers being forced to work extremely long hours for very little or no pay, sometimes in very hazardous conditions including unsafe buildings; the growing use […]

Senior Management Pay

Higher Education workers have undergone many years of pay restraint despite our many years of resisting and now our UK wide campaign to ‘Break the Cap’ this is not something our colleagues who are classed as senior management have had to endure. Conference notes that the average pay of University Vice Chancellors is now £278k […]

Fair Pay for the many not the few

Conference notes that members in the Higher Education (HE) sector continue to struggle to make ends meet. There has been a significant change in public opinion on austerity and pay restraint evidenced in the outcome of the general election. Inflation rates have risen sharply over the past 12 months and now stands at 3.7% Retail […]

Women and Automation

Women and Automation Conference notes that automation and digitisation of jobs is changing the nature, quality, and distribution of employment, not just within sectors such as manufacturing and distribution, but in the sphere of public services too. This means that there is a mistaken view that Automation affects jobs that are predominantly done by men. […]

Stop Porn Culture

The pornography industry has pushed its way into our lives, distorting our conceptions of sex and sexuality. Pornography offers people a vision of sexuality rooted in men’s domination of women and women’s acceptance of their own degradation. Pornography is not simply the sexist, naked Playboy photos from earlier times. Those pin-up-type centrefolds look tame when […]

Low Pay and Women in UNISON

UNISON’s principles of proportionality and fair representation means that some seats on elected bodies, including the NEC, are reserved for women and low-paid members, so that the make-up fairly represents the wider union. We have a variety of places where low paid seats exist, and low pay is included in branch delegations to national delegate […]

Femicide – not an isolated incident

The killing of a woman, especially in a domestic setting, is often reported as an ‘isolated incident with no further threat to the public’. Such descriptions dismiss the scale of the issue, and diminish the fact that gender-based violence is a society-wide issue. This conference applauds the work of Karen Ingala-Smith (Chief Executive of Nia […]