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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

Last updated: 1 February 2019