Against a funding crisis and job losses in post-16 education
Marco Tesei, University and College Union NEC member, personal capacity
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the University and College Union (UCU), comprising representatives from both higher and further education sectors, met on Friday 7 November.
With a funding crisis raging and the very survival of post-16 education at stake, reps and activists in UCU are fighting hard to win national ballots for strike action in both sectors. Socialist Party members are confident that with a serious campaign we can exceed the turnout thresholds and build for the successful action members desperately need.
Unfortunately at this NEC meeting, an external observer with no knowledge of current issues would have been hard-pressed to spot that we are in the middle of national ballots.
The NEC – the elected lay leadership of the union – should have been dominated by discussions around how to maximise the effectiveness of the union’s ‘Get the Vote Out’ campaign, and the detail of building the fighting fund to support action.
But a serious focus on the battle plan for the weeks ahead was ably dodged by repeated filibustering by NEC members from the ‘UCU Commons’ faction (of which the general secretary, Jo Grady, is a part). An over-replete and unprioritised general secretary’s report did not allow enough time for questions. A fighting fund ‘update’ was unsupported by a proper treasurer’s report on paper to be voted on by the NEC.
The filibustering also reduced time for NEC members’ motions at the end of the day. Only four of eleven got heard.
Lurking in last place was a motion from the left drawing attention to the fact that in the ongoing dispute between UCU senior management and staff members in Unite, UCU managers have shockingly imposed 100% deductions for action short of strike. This was not a challenge either the general secretary or senior officials around her would have relished having to address, particularly as such behaviour contravenes UCU policy which condemns the same action by unscrupulous university and college employers!
TUC – name the date
Socialist Party members on the NEC put forward a motion calling on Jo Grady to urge the TUC (Trades Union Congress) to name the date for a demonstration against Labour austerity, as agreed at TUC Congress in September. This motion did get heard – in the very last two minutes of proceedings! – and passed with a comfortable majority.
This was a flash of bright light in an otherwise lacklustre day defined by a leadership and union apparatus that may have stopped making open avowals of faith in Starmer’s Labour but is evidently still averse to mounting the massive fightback that is needed.
The vote on our motion was 37 for, six against and four abstentions, despite the current balance of forces on NEC being against the left. It indicates that the pressure of members and depth of the crisis in education mean that some of those around the general secretary and even on the right of the union cannot vote against the need to challenge Starmer’s austerity agenda.
No doubt the fact that voting at NEC is still conducted by a show of hands played a part. It can’t be easy for a UCU rep to publicly admit to being against expressing a massive collective ‘no’ to 15,000 planned university job cuts! The pressure being exerted on national reps by the rank-and-file membership to fight is very clearly huge.
For one left list in NEC elections
All this underlines how important it is that in the NEC elections at the start of 2026, a strong left challenge is mounted. Socialist Party members, including myself and fellow NEC member Duncan Moore, are discussing this with members of the ‘UCU Left’ group (in which the SWP predominates) and the left independents.
Nominations for the officer and NEC elections close as we go to press. There are more voices agreeing that, unlike a year ago, the left should discuss together and agree a list of left candidates. As an absolute minimum that should include no other left candidates standing against incumbent left NEC members. Socialist Party member Duncan Moore is standing for re-election to a UK-elected further education seat.
Winning a majority on NEC and a left vice-president is pre-eminently the main task ahead for those activists in UCU who seriously wish to shake the top of the union out of its torpor and transform it into the fighting force UCU members need.
- Further Education ballot closes 17 November
- Higher Education ballot closes 28 November
