Andrew Feeney (Northumbria University)

Election address

I have been an active trade unionist and workers' representative in various countries, including Spain and Colombia. I am now a senior lecturer in linguistics at Northumbria University, and Vice Chair of Northumbria UCU.

At Northumbria we have won several local disputes over redundancies, privatisation and working conditions. We were the first branch of any union in the country to win a ballot for action over COVID-19 issues.

As an elected officer since 2000, I would bring to the NEC my experience of running disputes and generally organising a strong branch focused on members' priorities. I have undertaken a wide range of union duties, including representing individual members, negotiating policies, attending regional meetings and national congress, and helping lead and strengthen the branch, including through industrial action of diverse kinds.

You deserve and want a union that fights for what matters to you.  In that fight, we cannot rely on VCs as 'leaders', because they have been lamentable in their abject failure to defend academic values. From tuition fees to the REF and TEF, they have capitulated to successive governments and have embraced the idea of Universities as little more than degree retail outlets. We will soon have the final government response to the Augar review which will undoubtedly bring new challenges to the sector, and it will be up to the trade unions to secure jobs and working conditions. Members, non-members, students and the public need to know that UCU is the true champion of quality - and equality - in education when it demands better resources and fair workloads for all its members. I am the only candidate in this election for NE HE from a post 92 institution and, while it is vital that we focus on issues that affect us all, we must fight to protect the national contract as part of national bargaining.

In order to resist attacks on our rights at work, unity and solidarity must permeate UCU. We will only win the challenges ahead if we learn the lessons from past disputes and ensure we retain a membership that is engaged and united, and an NEC focused on the concerns that matter to members. This must include a wider discussion of a more creative use of tactics in the fights ahead.

I am asking for your support to ensure that UCU thrives as a member-led, fighting union that, crucially, is united. I will use my position to ensure the attention of the NEC is firmly directed on what members see as the priorities of the union: workloads, protecting and improving terms and conditions, ensuring fairness and equality, and resisting commercialisation and bullying micro-management.