Policy: solidarity with Queen Mary’s UCU after suppression by management
The following motion was carried at a branch general meeting 5 March 2024. The text here is subject to approval of the minutes of that meeting and the approved minutes will be the correct version.
This Branch condemns:
- The reports that UCU offices at Queen Mary University were broken into by security who tore down UCU ceasefire posters causing damage to the office.
- That Queen Mary management justified the actions because of the “chilling effect on freedom of speech” displaying the posters caused.
This Branch Believes
- That the “chilling effect on freedom of speech” is the not the displaying of posters, but rather their forcible removable by university management.
- That an injury to one is an injury to all and we cannot allow a UCU branch to have their organising rights openly attacked by management without a robust response from the national union. Queen Mary management were amongst those who deducted the pay of our members who took part in the marking boycott.
- University management are emboldened by the Tory government, who continue to erode worker and trade union rights and who have made university campuses as flash point in the so called “culture wars”.
This Branch Resolves:
- To call on the UCU leadership to immediately release a statement condemning this blatant attack on the right of trade unions to independently organise.
- To call on the UCU leadership to co-ordinate a national campaign to defend Queen Mary UCU, which should include an appeal for solidarity from other trade unions.
- To call on the UCU leadership to call and mobilise for a national demonstration in support of the Queen Mary branch and against ongoing attacks against trade union organizing rights as well as freedom of speech.
This page was last updated on 11 March 2024