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UCL UCU AGM 2023

Thursday 22nd June 2023 at 1pm Basement Lecture Theatre, 1-19 Torrington Place and online via zoom

AGM Agenda:

  1. Chair's Business (and solidarity speakers, including IWGB Security Guards facing 40 redundancies)
  2. Draft minutes of previous AGM on 29 June 2022

  3. Matters Arising

  4. President's Annual Report
  5. Accounts 
  6. Subscriptions for 2023-24 - and proposed increase in local subs
  7. Returning Officer Report & Committee Election Results 2023-24
  8. Delegates Report from Congress 2023 
  9. Motions for Debate
  • Motion 0: Local Subs
    PROPOSED: SEAN WALLIS

UCL UCU notes 

  1. if UCL implements the current punitive deductions in the Marking and Assessment Boycott the local Branch Hardship Fund will be dramatically reduced
  2. that UCU is arguing that branches will need to increasingly rely on local Hardship Funds for future industrial action
  3. that local subscription rates were frozen for several years, and following merger with the IOE branch, local subscriptions for UCL members were reduced, because at the time there was no need to increase them
  4. UCL UCU local subscriptions for 2022-23 are currently set at the following rates per month:
    • F0 (£60K and above) £5.00 
    • F1 (£40K-£60K) £3.20
    • F2 (£30K-£40K) £2.40
    • F3 (£22K-£30K) £1.60
    • Below £22K and retired: 0
    • Attached members: £0.50.
  5. union subscriptions, including local subs, are 2/3 tax exempt (see https://my.ucu.org.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/469/~/tax-relief-on-subscriptions)
  6. that local subscriptions currently bring in approximately £48k per year, which funds a branch administrator and office as well as supports the hardship fund

UCL UCU resolves

1. to increase local subscriptions by 50% for all members that pay subscriptions.

2. to review subs at the next Annual General Meeting

3. to remind members to claim tax relief on their subscriptions

  • MOTION 1: SOLIDARITY WITH BRIGHTON UCU (DEFERRED FROM PREVIOUS GM). 
    PROPOSED: Tony Brown

UCL UCU notes:

  1. The University of Brighton has proposed plans to sack at least 100 academic staff, saving £17.9 million, with approximately 400 members at risk of redundancy.
  2. The most recent financial statements from the University of Brighton boast of the high levels of capital expenditure, with £24m on the balance sheet in 2021-22 and £28m the year before. The huge spend on new buildings is part of a plan apparently intended to allow the University to “grow student numbers”. 

UCL UCU notes:

3.  The student-staff ratio is already one of the very worst in the UK: 97th according to one source. Reducing staff while also planning to increase student numbers can only aggravate the  workload. If anything, staff numbers should be increased. 

4.   Cross branch solidarity is needed to stop this pattern of targeted redundancies within the sector.

UCL UCU resolves:

1.       To donate £2,000 towards Brighton UCU’s hardship fund
2.       To publicise Brighton UCU’s campaigns against the redundancies.
3.       To support cross-branch solidarity actions that Brighton may call during their campaign.

MOTION 2: SOLIDARITY WITH UCL SECURITY WORKERS
PROPOSED: Eve Dickson 
SecondeD: Matteo Tiratelli

This Branch Notes

  1. UCL’s subcontractor Bidvest Noonan has informed outsourced security guards at UCL that they will all need to reapply for their jobs, with 40 redundancies made in the process.
  2. Those not being made redundant will be required to accept worse working conditions and cuts to their hours. The new working hours proposed mean many workers face losing £13,500 a year from their salaries.
  3. UCL and Bidvest Noonan's plans also involve removing building attendants from their roles. These roles are incredibly important for the functioning of UCL buildings, and this move will vastly decrease campus safety.
  4. This move is on the back of a longstanding campaign from UCL security staff to be brought in-house, as already this workforce (the most racialised workforce at UCL) has among the worst pay and conditions on campus. 
  5. Fire and hire restructures and redundancies are becoming common managerial strategies in HE to demobilise union branches and increase staff workloads.

This Branch Believes

  1. Outsourcing should be eradicated from Higher Education as it creates a tier system between university workers and directly contributes to institutional racism.  
  2. That security workers are key to running our institutions, and they risked their lives to keep our universities secure during the pandemic. Their struggle is our struggle. 
  3. That every effective local campaign against redundancies in the sector strengthens the position of all university trade unions and will dissuade university employers from taking this approach in the future. 
  4. That cross-branch and cross-union solidarity is one of the strongest resources we have in the fight against corporate managers and the erosion of our sector. 

This Branch Resolves

  1. To make a donation of £400 towards IWGB’s strike fund. 
  2. To publicise IWGB’s campaign against the redundancies at UCL.
  3. To send a template email to UCL’s Provost.