Dr Adam Ozanne (University of Manchester)
1 February 2019
Election address
About me
I am a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Manchester and have been a member of AUT and UCU for over thirty years.
I am proud to have taught in adult education and been an FE foundation course moderator too.
I am on UCU's National Executive Committee, USS Advisory Committee, Superannuation Working Group, Legal Support Review Panel, and Recruitment, Organising and Campaigns Committee.
I am an independent, progressive candidate who understands the problems UCU members face at work - problems that can only be overcome by a strong, united union.
My track record
I know what it takes to win for UCU members.
At the University of Manchester, as branch President and Secretary, I helped lead successful campaigns in 2015-16 and 2017 against mass job cuts. On both occasions, after ballots - and two days of strikes in 2017 - we fought off compulsory redundancies.
As a member of UCU's Higher Education Committee I helped organise the longest, most successful strike action in the union's history to defend USS pensions.
As a member of UCU's Superannuation Working Group I campaigned for the setting up of the Joint Expert Panel whose report on USS has vindicated the union.
UCU faces many challenges:
· Excessive workloads, casualisation, redundancies, declining real pay and gender and BME pay inequalities, all imposed by employers who treat education as a business rather than a public good.
· Government marketisation that undermines the important work we all do as educators.
· In HE, attacks on the post-92 national contract, pre-92 USS pensions, and on our vital colleagues in academic-related and professional support roles.
· In FE, where many members have not had a pay increase for 10 years, a government that will not provide adequate funding and employers who ignore agreed national pay recommendations and refuse to address spiralling workloads and job insecurity.
· In prisons, escalating health and safety problems.
My priorities are to:
· build strong branch membership, participation and confidence in UCU,
· use strikes effectively - as a last not first resort - to achieve clear objectives,
· enable members to express their views and always have the final say rather than being told what to do and think,
· think creatively about alternative action that harnesses public sympathy for our positions - like the successful 'no confidence' votes at Bath, the OU and City College Plymouth and media and political campaigns over union recognition at Coventry.
We need a strong, united union to defend education and those who work in it.
Winning requires working together, irrespective of party political affiliations or beliefs.
If elected I will continue to work for everyone in UCU and always put your interest first.
I support Steve Sangwine for Treasurer.
For more see: http://ucuagenda.com/elections
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