Vote by tomorrow for a more equal HE sector

If your branch misses the 50% turnout threshold, even if it's just by one vote, everyone in it will be unable to take industrial action.

Equality is a crucial part of the Four Fights dispute. There are substantial and persistent pay gaps across the sector for women and black and disabled members of staff.

UCU's demands to employers include action plans in every institution, on a concrete timetable, to close these pay gaps.

It can be done: just look at the agreement which the University of Bristol UCU branch reached with their employer in 2020.

There is no excuse for employers not to reach similar agreements throughout the sector and for all marginalised groups of staff.

Casualisation and workload are equality issues, too

At the same time as we struggle for targeted actions to reward women and BAME and disabled staff equally, we also need to recognise that winning on casualisation and workload — two of the other Four Fights issues —  will also help to achieving justice for those groups.

Women and BAME staff are disproportionately likely to be employed on casualised contracts, as our comprehensive and recently updated report on precarious employment shows.

The extreme workloads which everyone in HE experiences are even more extreme for women and disabled and BAME colleagues — as recent surveys of staff conducted in December 2020 and April 2021 demonstrated.

Equality benefits everyone

There is a really important conclusion to take from this evidence. Equality is not divisive. Everyone is impacted by excessive workloads and work-related stress. Nobody wants to be precariously employed.

When we pay attention to the issues that are disproportionately affecting our BAME, disabled, and female and non-binary colleagues, and put them at the centre of our campaigning and bargaining with employers, we can lift the bar for everyone.

But that will not happen without a mandate for industrial action. If you don't vote YES for action — and post your vote to Civica Election Services by tomorrow, Tuesday 2 November at the latest — you are giving employers license to claim that staff don't care about these issues.

Show them you do. Vote for action.

Jo Grady
UCU general secretary