Michael Carley: to be an effective, winning union we must have strong branches and a strong centre
I’m backing Matt because we need a strategy for action and a general secretary who can deliver it, writes Michael Carley.
I am supporting Matt Waddup for General Secretary of UCU because I want our union to have a national organisation which can live up to our ambition.
I have been a branch officer for nearly twenty years, and am currently an independent member of the National Executive Committee. In the last General Secretary election, I voted for Jo McNeill; in the recent vice-presidential election, I nominated Vicky Blake; in this election, I am supporting Matt Waddup because having been through many disputes of varying effectiveness, I think he can deliver the organisation we need to win again.
UCU has begun to make gains across post-16 education. In Further Education, local action is getting wins in colleges across the country; in Higher Education, we have beaten back the employers’ attempt to remove the guaranteed USS pension. Branches and members are finding the courage for collective action.
But courage alone will not be enough: branches need national resources which give us a fighting chance in a dispute. The credit for building those resources up lies largely with Matt. In the USS dispute, the national machine was denounced by the gutter press because it was so effective: members had an ambitious fourteen-day strike plan; that plan was backed by full-time officials, we executed a media strategy, and directed resources to branches. The plan worked. The employers caved and took their proposal off the table.
To keep defending our profession, we need a union whose members have the confidence to act, a strategy for action, and a machinery which can deliver that strategy. Elsewhere, I have argued that we need a coalition between strong branches and a strong centre: without strong branches, our union cannot act; without a strong centre, we have no coordination.
In the USS dispute, we saw what we can achieve when branches and centre act in concert. That strategic coordination came from Matt Waddup.
For branches to have the strong centre we need, elect a General Secretary who has shown he can deliver.
Michael Carley
