The following motions were passed with large majorities by members at the well-attended meeting on Wednesday 12th March.
Motions for Congress
1. Reporting back of NEC members to constituencies
Congress instructs the NEC to formulate rule change motions to ensure the following:
NEC members canvass opinions from branches and regions in their constituencies prior to NEC and NEC subcommittee meetings.
NEC members produce a written report within two working weeks of NEC and NEC subcommittees to be circulated in the appropriate constituency.
Appropriate mechanisms to be established by UCU to support circulation of reports from NEC members to constituencies.
Rule Change Motions for Congress
2. Change to Rule 16
Add new rule 16.5.1
Where National Congress or Sector Conferences do not meet during the times referred to in rule 16.5, the relevant National Congress or Sector Conferences must be recalled as soon as reasonably practicable to consider the motions submitted to the National Congress or Sector Conferences. Additional late and emergency motions can be considered at the recalled Congress or Sector Conference in line with rules 16.8 and 16.9.
Purpose: To enshrine in rule that in the event of cancellation, Congress or Sector Conference need to be rescheduled. Rather than, as has happened when the rules were silent on the matter, motions disappear into a void in spite of the hard work submitting bodies undertook to compose them and the efforts of elected delegates to prepare to debate them.
3. Change to regional committee standing orders – Environmental Representative
To Standing order 7 of the UCU Regional Committee Model Standing Orders, add ‘an Environmental representative’ after ‘a representative of members on casual contracts’
So the amended Model Standing Order 7 would read:
Treasurer, the Secretary and the Chairs and Secretaries of the sector committees, and for each sector, a representative of members on casual contracts, an Environmental representative together with such other Officers as may be deemed necessary.
Purpose: The importance of environmental issues and the seriousness of climate change means that there should be an Environmental representative on regional committees. The rule change will add one.
Today’s well-attended members meeting centred around two sets of motions. The first motion passed with 96% in favour directs the branch to enter into dispute to combat the risk of compulsory redundancies.
Motion on UoN No Compulsory Redundancies
This branch notes:
The investment of £91.5m (including VAT) for purchase and base refit of Castle Meadow Campus (CMC);
Management’s admission that the sale of CMC in part or whole is currently being discussed, as this campus does not fulfil UoN’s needs;
After decades of neglect, UoN infrastructure is falling apart. The list of buildings in dire need of repair include the Sir Clive Granger Building, the Medical School and several Student Halls amongst others;
Due to the Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme in 2024, almost 300 colleagues already left UoN recently, resulting in an increase in workload for remaining staff;
Management’s current widespread use of ‘protected’ and ‘without prejudice’ conversations in several parts of the university in an attempt to push people to leave the university based on spurious and non-existent performance criteria;
The ongoing capability mapping of APM staff, while our APM colleagues do their best to accommodate the additional work that is required in making Unicore fit for purpose;
Several people in school leadership roles have reported that they are being asked to reduce activities in their schools by 20 per cent. This seems to be happening right across the institution;
On Monday February 17, our Branch President wrote to the Vice Chancellor to ask formally if she could rule out compulsory redundancies this academic year and next. The following morning she replied making it quite clear that she was not prepared to rule out compulsory redundancies in either case.
This branch believes:
That while there is a challenging financial environment across Higher Education in the UK, the scale of the projected deficit at the University of Nottingham is due to ongoing local financial mismanagement, evidenced by infrastructure investment in excess of affordability and the spectacularly disastrous purchase of CMC;
That management continues with its failed top-down approach to decision-making overlooking existing expertise at UoN;
That management is currently moving towards a large-scale phase of compulsory redundancies;
That staff have lost trust in management as a result of the manufactured uncertainty causing significant levels of additional stress;
This branch resolves:
Not to accept any compulsory redundancies;
To declare an industrial dispute over the VC’s failure to rule out compulsory redundancies this and next academic year and to lay the groundwork for a ballot for industrial action unless the University agrees in writing to rule out compulsory redundancies in this year and the next.
On 24th October UCU UoN President Lopa Leach represented UCU UoN at the signing of a new joint recognition agreement between the University of Nottingham, represented by Vice Chancellor Shearer West, and all three campus unions, with Vicki Morris representing UNISON and Declan Brady representing Unite.
The whole of our branch has been shocked and saddened by the untimely death of Agnes Flues – a hugely valued and much loved member of UoN UCU. The branch committee send our condolences to Agnes’ partner and family.
Agnes became involved in UCU during the 2018 USS strikes, when members took 14 days of industrial action in a powerful defence of our pensions. Agnes had a long prior history of championing human rights and social justice but by her own admission, her knowledge and experience of trade unions was limited.
Agnes was not one to assume others would do the organising. She quickly became much more involved in the union – helping to organise picket lines, becoming UCU rep in the School of Law and joining the branch committee. It was soon apparent that Agnes brought something very special – not just a willingness to ‘get stuck in’ and work tirelessly to make things happen (Agnes never stopped being a caseworker, supporting individual members), but a commitment always to seek to bring people together, even across deep divides. This is a very rare skill. It requires a sharp intellect, to be able to analyse context and chart ways forward, and a generosity of spirit that focuses on constructing consensus rather than imposing pre-determined agendas. Agnes combined both qualities in a unique way. For many of us it was entirely natural that Agnes should become branch President when the position became vacant in October 2020.
Agnes probably did not see herself as President of one of UCU’s largest branches. She always seemed rather reluctant to take on such roles (as those who sought to convince her to stand for the National Executive can attest!) – but, in a typically Agnes kind of way, once she decided to do something, she gave it all of her commitment.
Agnes shone as the brightest of lights during her time as branch President – the public face of the union through some of the most difficult of times. Always leading strike action through the USS and ‘Four Fights’ disputes, but also representing UCU in countless meetings with management during the pandemic, and helping develop the branch’s ‘Alternative Financial Strategy’. That provided a forensic critique of how national and local financial strategies were progressively dismantling any concept of the public university. In all of this work she displayed tremendous courage. She was never afraid to stand up and speak out on any issue impacting members of the university community – staff and students.
For branch committee veterans of these difficult years, Agnes’ leadership was, literally, an inspiration. She had a very gentle way of managing difficult meetings, making everyone feel included and valued, and winning broad support for the collective decision. Nobody felt ignored, marginalised or disrespected. Those of us involved genuinely felt we were part of something special.Whatever the outcome of our disputes (a tremendous victory on pensions, but sadly a very different story on ‘Four Fights’), many of us look back at that time as a moment when we experienced real meaning in what we were doing – not just fighting for pensions and pay but struggling for a much more hopeful and optimistic vision of what the public university could be.Agnes’ contribution to that collective effort can never be underestimated. She was always at the centre.
This contribution was also recognised by the branch members who offered unstinting support to the union throughout the disputes. That support was not an accident – it was built on trust between branch leadership and members that had been actively constructed. Members knew Agnes, knew they could approach her and knew they would be listened to.
Inevitably, Agnes’ qualities and skills were recognised more widely in the trade union movement and were in high demand. Agnes took on key roles in the UCU Regional Council, the Nottinghamshire Trades Council and on UCU’s National Executive – but she never sought these positions.Her activism never involved chasing this position or that, or making sure she was on the platform for some high profile event. Agnes’ activism was much more about drawing others in and building the movement for change.Agnes’ light shone very brightly, but it did so through an approach to ‘leadership’ that was quite different to how leadership is often enacted and experienced (whether in trade unions or elsewhere). That is why Agnes was special.
Agnes’ commitment to human rights and social justice was evident in so many aspects of her life. Most recently her dedication to end the genocide in Gaza and support justice for the Palestinian people. Only this last weekend, Agnes stood on the streets in Nottingham city centre to protest against Far Right and Fascist violence. All of this was consummate Agnes.
But for members of UoN UCU, and in particular those who worked closely with her, we have lost a colleague, a comrade and a companion. It is an enormous loss – and feels so unjust. Agnes was, quite simply, special. We all knew it – but we have been robbed of the chance to tell her.
Unfathomably, the bright light that was Agnes Flues has been extinguished. At a time when Agnes’ sharp intellect, generosity of spirit and uncompromising sense of social justice are needed more than ever, we must continue the struggles she embraced without her. At this moment, when grief feels raw, that feels like a more difficult task, but is a task we cannot evade. It is a task made easier by the example and inspiration that is Agnes’ legacy for all of us.
The best way to remember Agnes Flues is to continue to be inspired by her. Let us honour her by renewing our commitment to these struggles.
On Friday 10 May, students at the University of Nottingham began an encampment on Jubilee Campus outside the Advanced Manufacturing Building. On Friday 12 July, after two months of peaceful protest, the students agreed to dismantle the camp by midday in the face of University management’s threat to seek very high legal costs from an individual member of the encampment.
UCU at the University of Nottingham has strongly supported this entirely peaceful protest. We welcome students’ actions condemning Israel’s ‘plausibly genocidal acts’ in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We admire their resolve to speak up when so many people in the West stay silent.
The students have correctly highlighted the University’s close partnerships with several companies supplying arms to Israel; notably BAE Systems, Europe’s largest arms manufacturer (£19 million received in funding) and Rolls-Royce (£31 million in funding), both of which are at risk of corporate complicity in war crimes, according to the UN. The students also correctly pointed out that a University of Nottingham alumnus, Dr Said Al Zebda, was killed by Israeli airstrikes along with his entire family last December. The University’s collaboration with companies whose weapons killed their own alumnus is concerning to all.
As the UN expert on the right to education, Farida Shaheed, who spoke at a University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre event in April said:
‘I am completely, utterly shocked by how many universities have close links to the armaments industry and I don’t think this is something we would expect our academic universities to have and it just then shows the control over academic spaces which needs to be countered.’
Despite two meetings between students and management, facilitated by the Students Union, and the encampment students’ attempt to settle outside court, management continued to rely on intimidatory tactics in their dealing with the students, silencing their visible asks.
Andreas Bieler, President of the local UCU branch, states:
‘Our management shows itself from its worst side. The fact that management pursued legal action after only four days without prior engagement with the encampment and that they threatened our students with legal costs is appalling. It demonstrates that management was never interested in constructive engagement but focused on suppressing students’ voices.’
UCU at the University of Nottingham will continue working with the students to explore ways in which the University can be moved to a position of divestment from all companies linked to Israel’s war on the Palestinian people.
