UCU: Precarious work and building UCU

Motion

Motion text: Congress recognises:
1. that the UCU faces a major fight to defend educational provision, national collective bargaining, jobs, pensions and living standards.
2. the increased precarity of work for a large number of academic and academic-related staff (hourly paid lecturers, fixed term contracts) and the difficulties they face in being active in the union
3. while this situation presents the union with major challenges, it also offers an unprecedented opportunity for building an active, vibrant and democratic union.
Congress believes that in the next year, NEC should continue to make progress in:
1. recruiting new members to the union
2. focusing recruitment on precarious workers such as hourly paid lecturers and those on fixed term contracts and embedding these in branch (as well as national) activity
3. encouraging branches to hold meetings of members on precarious contracts where these members elect representation to work with the branch committee
4. building strong workplace branches
5. developing a shop steward system.
Congress asks the NEC and national officers to produce guidelines for recruiting and integrating precarious workers into branches.