Dear subscribers,
We’re a week into our NEC election campaign already, and the energy from the UCU Commons campaign has been infectious. Emma and David both performed brilliantly at the officer hustings on Thursday, and we’re thrilled at how much support we’re getting.
Let us introduce Dr Vivek Thuppil, the UCU Commons candidate for NEC migrant rep, on a lively picket at his workplace, Bangor University. Vivek is Secretary of the Bangor UCU branch and a Lecturer in the School of Human and Behavioural Sciences. Originally from India, Vivek has lived in the US, Malaysia and has now settled in beautiful North Wales. He’s made a short captioned video explaining what he considers to be at the crux of these elections:
Industrial action strategy
The hostile environment
Casualisation
Having experienced first-hand the hostile environment of the UK’s visa regime, he will use the security he has now to organise against casualisation, build momentum and strategise for effective strikes that will hit our employers where it hurts most: the bottom line.
You can read Vivek’s election statement on our website, or just scroll on down to read it below. Vivek also has a personal website which you can check out here.
In solidarity,
UCU Commons
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Election Address | Vivek Thuppil | Representative of Migrant Members [non-EU]
However exploitative the FE/HE sector seems, as a migrant living in the UK since 2019, I know that it is so much worse for migrant members. When a migrant member is made redundant, they lose not just their job, but also their right to remain in the UK, as well as that right for any family members dependent on their visa who lose their right to work or continue their schooling.
When employers tell our migrant members that they are required by law to report strike action absences to the UK Home Office, that exacerbates the hostile environment. And even when our members make it to apply for settlement, they face the hostile environment in the form of salary thresholds and needing a letter of support from their employer.
In addition to providing a voice for migrants, I am contesting this election because we need a democratic union that can deliver wins, carry our membership, and grow our union. We need to end the proliferation of special HESCs and Branch Delegate Meetings (BDMs) to influence decision-making. The problem with these meetings is that an activist core tends to dominate proceedings, and the decisions taken can be steeped in privilege and out of step with our membership.
Strike action is the most powerful tool we have, and it is a tool that we should use judiciously. We need a clear strategy that respects our membership and only calls them out to the picket line with loss of pay (and for migrant members, exposes them to the hostile environment) as a last resort.
Our union needs to be goal oriented. We are here as a union to fight for our members’ pay, benefits, and working conditions, including campuses free of all kinds of bigotry, including transphobia. We are not here to act as the official opposition to the UK Government, or to advance the agenda of the Socialist Workers Party.
I am originally from India and lived in the US and Malaysia before eventually coming to the green and pleasant land of Wales. I work at Bangor University, and I am also the Bangor UCU branch secretary. I am a Plaid Cymru member, and on Plaid Cymru’s National Council representing Undeb, the trade union section of Plaid Cymru. On the National Council, I was proud to vote to approve the historic Co-operation Agreement between the Welsh [Labour] Government and Plaid Cymru. If elected to NEC, I will continue supporting pragmatic, goal-oriented policies that deliver results for our members.
I am a member of UCU Commons, and endorse other Commons candidates, including Emma Battell Lowman for VP and David Harvie for Treasurer. Personally, I endorse Dyfrig Jones for UK-elected member HE.
