The UCU Glasgow Committee met on Wednesday, 2 August 2023 and agreed to send the following message to the UCU General Secretary Jo Grady, and other UCU elected officials.

Dear Jo (cc: President, Vice-President HE, Vice-President FE, HEC members),

We are writing to you in relation to your all-member email sent on 1st August updating us on negotiations with UCEA.

Our branch committee met today. We are concerned that the current timetable you have set out for a ballot to renew our mandate would almost certainly leave a gap between our existing mandate and any future mandate. This will make it hard for branches to maintain momentum with their action. If members are required to complete outstanding marking during this gap, ballot turnout and the impact of future action under a new mandate could be negatively affected.

We agree that it is important to maximise democracy in decision-making and welcome discussion on the way forward. But we feel our members would feel more secure if they knew their discussion could take place with the safety provided to them of a renewed and continuous mandate.

We therefore urge you and the President and Vice-President to reconsider your decision and bring forward HEC as soon as possible to enact the decision of Congress to call a summer ballot. If it is impossible to call a live meeting, we urge you to enable an alternative mechanism for HEC to make the decision in a timely manner.

In solidarity, and on behalf of the University of Glasgow UCU branch committee,

Maha Rafi Atal and Vladimir Unkovski-Korica