Christopher O'Donnell (University of the West of Scotland)

Christopher O'Donnell (University of the West of Scotland) 

Election address 

I am Department Head at UWS, an academic with 20+ years of experience in HE. I've always been a union activist. I've worked as a caseworker, branch secretary, President, and member of HEC and NEC, and I'm currently a UK-wide pay negotiator.   

Please vote for me and those who stand up for us. We will call out bad actors in our union and face up to our employers, locally in Scotland and across all of the UK. Together, we can halt the vandalism of the ecoculture we have built, maintained and cared about.     

As a union activist, I know this to be true about you and your lived experiences:  

1. Staff are a "University". Valued, respected, and protected staff are authors of the university experience.  

2. We are stronger as a collective; FE, Pre, and Post 92 HE are protected and enhanced by each other; we will make changes from within that fortress.  

3. We are brave and honest. We strive to improve our working conditions through collective action. If they come for one, they come for us all.  

4. We have the solutions to our working, health, and equality challenges. We know the answers are complex and will take time; 20 years of erosion have brought us here.  

5. When the time comes to stand up and tell the truth, I'll be there. Our union is under attack from within, those who carry out and endorse bullying & harassment yet claim that they are "changing culture" whilst refusing to do that, call out or stand up to those who attack, and vote with them for personal gain.  

As Scotland's President, I will use the platform to stop attacks and rebuild our working environments within Scotland and the UK.  You've told me what you need they are:   

1.  A new direction on pay, a multi-year deal, with a reformed pay spine, thus improving our collective rewards.   

2.  A national framework with a Scottish context on workloads that makes local agreements and practises meaningful.   

3.  Security on the TPS pensions in FE & Post 92 institutions.   

4.  We need 'fair pay for fair days' work', ending gender and race pay gaps, precarious work and zero-hours contracts.   

5.  Reducing the regulatory burden; we know that the TEF, REF and NSS achieve little except make us sick.  

We can achieve these outcomes and improve our universities if you vote for those activists who will do the work required to achieve our goals. Please vote for those who want to do the hard work. I support Anne Gow as Scottish Honorary Secretary, Dyfrig Jones as Vice President, and Andrew Feeney as Treasurer.   I am a member of UCU Commons find out more here https://ucucommons.org/nec25.