Lena Wånggren (University of Edinburgh)

Election address

I am standing as UCU Scotland President to work together with colleagues across Scotland and the UK to continue the fantastic work members are already doing, and to create a more inclusive, accessible, organised and representative union.

I have been involved in UCU for ten years, joining the UCU Edinburgh branch committee as a PhD student in 2011. Since then I have represented members in different roles: as Ordinary Member of the branch committee, PG rep, Caseworker, Anti-casualisation Officer, and branch Vice President. The last two years I have also served as UCU Scotland Vice President, following some years as a member of the UCU Scotland Executive. Always putting equalities at the heart of trade union work, I am especially keen that UCU continues and improves our work for equality, fair representation and inclusion. The institutions we work in (and also our own union structures) reproduce racist, sexist, and ableist structures; changing this requires proactive work. In my own branch I have worked with colleagues to establish equality structures and promote social justice, organising around LGBT+ inclusivity, antiracist action, and international solidarity, alongside representing members in individual casework and in policy working groups.

I am also particularly keen to centre anti-casualisation in our union work, and have been involved in a number of campaigns for improved job security and working conditions. I set up the local postgrad/postdoc network in our local branch, after realising that most PhD students and precariously employed colleagues did not know they could join UCU, or did not see a reason to join. Precarity concerns everyone, not only for colleagues on insecure contracts: casualisation is continuously creeping into further areas of work, with serious detrimental impacts on the workloads of permanent colleagues.

Currently employed as a fixed-term Teaching Fellow/Tutor at the Universities of Edinburgh (my main employer) and Heriot-Watt, and previously an employee also at Glasgow and Napier Universities, I have a good knowledge of the differences and similarities between institutions in Scotland, and the struggles of especially casualised colleagues across the country. Having represented members for the last two years as the UCU Scotland Vice President, I have a clear understanding of what the position as President entails, and will do my best to represent members in this role.

My favourite part of being a union representative is working alongside members for fair working conditions and equalities, taking their (your!) ideas forward and organising to create change. I hope to continue doing this on a national level, working with members in Scotland and beyond.