The UCU Left is a national organisation of University and College Union activists. It is committed to ensuring that the new union has a democratic structure through which members can determine policy, and elected officers and professional officials can be held accountable. It seeks to defend educational equality, and to oppose the consequences of neo-liberal marketisation. It is opposed to all forms of racism, sexism, oppression and imperialism.
NEC Election - UK-Elected HE Seats

Maeve Landman (UWE)

Election Address

I am whole-heartedly committed to union activism. I want UCU to be the most powerful tertiary education union in the world - as well as being the largest. I want to contribute to this by bringing expertise, experience, energy and enthusiasm to the role of NEC member for higher education.

If elected, I undertake to work hard for:
  • Dramatic improvements in pay and conditions for all members;


  • A higher education system that is better and more equitably funded;


  • Equality issues as central to all aspects of the union’s activities.



Context

UCU came into being as the pay dispute ended. Many members were bitterly disappointed with the outcome of that dispute. However, the task now is to build the union so that we are ready for the next time. And there will be ‘a next time’, when industrial action will be needed to defend members’ interests and to ensure fair pay.

Successive governments - and not least the current administration – have sought to transform higher education provision. The prevalence of markets and competition; the stress on employability as an ‘outcome’; a differentiated sector by funding and volume of research activity – all this and more is experienced by members as unwelcome, often stressful, changes in the workplace environment. A strong and organised union constitutes our best chance.


Campaigning

There are currently significant areas that need focussed attention:

  • Local negotiations of the national framework agreement requires the focussed, critical attention of elected members’ representatives; two years on, progress is patchy.


    • National bargaining must be preserved; there is a need for constant vigilance against any drift towards local bargaining.


  • Inequities in pay and conditions for hourly paid lecturers require constant vigilance;


    • The casualization of academic work must be halted. It is not the answer to pressure for greater engagement in research or inadequate resourcing of teaching.


  • Combating discrimination against black members; disabled members; lesbian, gay and transgender (LGBT) members; and women members means being ready to challenge prejudice within our own ranks; crucially -


    • Equality is a central issue: employers who succeed in reducing the rights and working conditions of vulnerable workers will seek to generalise.


  • Fighting the closure of departments requires effective and fleet-footed campaigns in a union with strong local structures to support such responses;


    • We need to campaign against funding mechanisms that increasingly place pressure on individual departments - making members’ vulnerable to job loss.



Additional campaigning issues include:

  • Promoting social justice means taking on controversial questions: for example, simply raising the question of how a just peace for Palestine is served excites wide attention;


  • Different views on the future of pensions need to be reconciled if UCU is to conduct a credible campaign in its members’ best interests;


  • Defending academic freedom while acknowledging that it implies significant responsibilities.



This list is not intended to be exhaustive: rather, I want to show the ways in which I can contribute to strengthening the union at a crucial time. I would very much welcome the opportunity to do so.

Biographical information including service to the union

I am a sociologist based in the University of the West of England’s School of Sociology, in Bristol. My interest in innovative approaches to the teaching of sociology has resulted in specialisms in the sociology of food and in auto/biographical approaches in sociology. In addition, I advise more generally on learning, teaching and assessment.


Offices I currently hold, at all levels of the union:

  • Member of Transitional National Executive Committee

  • Member of the Higher Education Committee

  • Member of the Black members sub-group of the Equality Committee

  • Member the Western Regional Committee

  • Chair of the Regional HE sub-committee

  • Chair, UWE Branch (one of the biggest branches)


NATFHE: Recent past (2001-6):

  • Member of National Executive Committee

  • Member of Higher Education Committee

  • Vice-Chair, Higher Education Advisory Council

  • Convenor, Black and Minority Ethnic Members Higher Education Forum

  • Equality Advisory Council: Black representative for Western Region

  • Chair, UWE Branch

  • Other offices in UWE Branch: Vice-Chair, Secretary, Equality Officer, Training Officer

I have been a NATFHE delegate to Black TUC conferences on many occasions; and run work shops at equality and diversity conferences.


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