UCU: Environmental sustainability as an anti-casualisation issue

Motion

Motion text: Congress believes:
1. Climate change, biodiversity- loss, and unsustainable development are serious threats to human wellbeing.
2. Action on sustainability should be part of, rather than in tension with, supporting casualised members.
3. The contractual status of casualised workers often excludes them from sustainability measures requiring staff status or minimum employment length.
4. High profile campaigns on labour- environmental issues can increase the diversity of UCU’s membership and activism
Congress resolves:
a. UCU will campaign for a ‘Green New Deal’ which prioritises measures that reduce casualisation, including special employment-interest specific ‘asks’ designed to motivate recruitment and organizing in highly casualized and low membership- density areas.
b. Guidance to branches on sustainability should incorporate anti-casualisation, including:
• Measures supporting ‘sustainable behaviour’ must be accessible to casualised employees.
• Employers must reduce environmental impacts and absorb associated costs, rather than transfer these to employees, particularly casualised employees.