The University and College Union Glasgow (UCUG) stands in solidarity with Serbian students, academics and the wider movement protesting government corruption and Aleksander Vučić’s presidency. We are gravely concerned at the violent suppression of demonstrators which obstructs their democratic right to protest.
Student-led protests initially emerged in response to the collapse of the Novi Sad railway canopy which killed 16 people. Protests have spread across the country as people demand government transparency, accountability and full implementation of the rule of law.
Protestors have been met with insults and intimidation. Journalists have been subject to threats of physical violence for covering the movement. A smear campaign directed at the University of Belgrade’s rector escalated into a full-scale campaign by pro-regime figures calling for his arrest. These attacks against citizens exercising fundamental democratic rights are designed to silence critical voices and undermine academic autonomy.
The alleged use of an illegal sonic weapon at a demonstration on March 15 was intended to incite fear and undermine the right to assembly as well as presenting a risk to life with the panic it caused.
We echo the call made by Serbian academics and students for Serbian authorities to conduct a transparent investigation into the events of the protest and to hold accountable those responsible for any use of unlawful means against demonstrators. We urge the international academic community to share this call and affirm our commitment to the right to protest.

We are very pleased to say that at our General Meeting last week we agreed to resolve our dispute with management over their failure to adequately support staff when MRC pulled SPHSU’s funding. The concessions made by management were in the email sent out on Thursday afternoon, but this is a great result for our members, and we should all be proud that the solidarity we showed with SPHSU members resulted in such a positive outcome.

One aspect of this victory that will play out over the next several months is an agreement by senior management to develop a trial to move some research staff onto open-ended contracts, to bring them into line with most lecturers, technicians, and administrative staff in the university. Shamefully, this trial will be almost unique across the whole Higher Education sector*, never mind in the University of Glasgow, and so is a really important step forward for the reduction of casualised employment for research staff in HE.

UCUG is involved in designing this trial, and the first meeting about it happened yesterday. We now need your help to make it a success. If you are involved in research as research staff or PI/Co-I on grants, or in other roles such as a project administrator or Director of Research for your school, you likely have vital information that will help make this trial work. Please fill out this survey – https://forms.office.com/e/cQ37kqZcxg – which we think should take about 5 minutes in most cases, so we can get a picture of where trials of moving researchers onto open-ended contracts might have the best chance of success in the University.

If you have other thoughts, or you’d like to get involved, please feel free to email us or the anti-casualisation group – ucug-anticas@glasgow.ac.uk. We really value any insights you may have, and we’d welcome anyone who wants to get involved in working on this!

In solidarity

UCU Glasgow

* UCU launched a researcher manifesto on exactly this topic in January – https://www.ucu.org.uk?mediaid=14731 – and the first major trial that we are aware of has recently started at the University of Bath. The only existing group at UofG that we are aware of that was specifically set up like this is MVLS’s Research Software Engineering (RSE) group, with the first staff employed in that group last November. Similar RSE groups exist in most universities in the UK. However, apart from the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics, which provides statistical and clinical trials expertise at UofG, we are not aware of other groups either inside UofG or in other universities that operate like this.

The University and College Union Glasgow (UCUG) is gravely concerned at the response of the university’s governing bodies to peaceful student protests relating to divestment and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The way to deal with a student occupation and hunger strike should be to engage immediately with the students whose health and wellbeing is in danger, not to refuse to call an emergency meeting of Court to discuss student demands, nor indeed to invite police on campus for three days in a row to intimidate protesters.

We in UCUG have been clear that we wish to see divestment from the arms industry and a just peace in Palestine. We will also continue to vocally oppose the global crackdown on basic human rights and civil liberties on staff and students involved in the divestment and pro-Palestinian movements, especially when it happens on our campus.

We call once again on the senior management group and members of Court to examine their conscience and change course.

More info here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/13734/UCU-UK-elections-2024-25

A list of candidates is available here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/13734/UCU-UK-elections-2024-25

The UCU Glasgow inbox has received various election communication from candidates, all of which are copied below. Please note that these are NOT ENDORSEMENTS, just a collation of materials we have received. UCU Glasgow does not endorse candidates in internal elections.

If you are a candidate and would like for your materials to be displayed here, please email ucug@glasgow.ac.uk.

Vice President (Higher Education) – Rhiannon Lockley

Rhiannon for UCU VP (Higher Education) Vote Rhiannon Lockley (she/her) for UCU Vice President (Higher Education): ballots are live 27th January till 3rd March 2025 rhiannonforucuvp.wordpress.com

Trustee – Mike Barton

The UCU elections for the Vice President, Honorary Treasurer, Trustees and the National Executive Committee have opened and members are now receiving ballot papers.

I am standing for election for the position of trustee, and I would appreciate it if you would circulate my election material to all of your members for their consideration: https://bit.ly/MikeBarton4UCUTrustee.

This is in line with UCU’s policy to encourage the circulation of information about all candidates standing in elections.

In addition to circulating my election material, I would very much welcome the endorsement by your branch or region of my candidacy if you feel you are able to do so.

In solidarity,

Mike Barton

mikejbarton@gmail.com

UCU Scotland President – Grant Buttars

https://grantbuttarsucu.wordpress.com/2024/12/04/election-address-2025/ 

I am standing for the role of UCU Scotland President.  At present, I am UCU Scotland Vice President and this is my third term on UCU Scotland Executive, having also served 2 terms as an ordinary-elected member. I also chair UCU Scotland Education Committee.

I am also separately elected to NEC, sitting on HEC and Education Committee, and previously on ROCC. I also sit on Academic Related Professional Staff (ARPS) Committee.  I have worked as an archivist at the University of Edinburgh since 2001. Between 2018 and 2023, I was Branch President at Edinburgh, where I have also served as Communications Officer and as an Ordinary Committee member.  I am currently branch ARPS rep.  I bring knowledge and expertise of all levels of union work to the role of President.

It is incumbent on anybody holding elected office within the union to represent members and to hold power to account on behalf of members.  The power we hold as elected representatives is loaned to us by our members and is exercised on their behalf. If we see the union not functioning as it should, we must not be silent.

Anybody in elected office has the responsibility, when acting in that capacity, to represent the policy of the union and not engage in activity contrary to such policy.  That is not to say we are merely empty vessels with no opinions of our own and that dissent should be avoided.  I am an unapologetic socialist and these are my guiding principles. In appropriate fora I will argue and advocate from that position.  However, when representing our union as Scotland President, I will always put democratically agreed union policy first.

In the current crisis, with challenges around cuts and redundancies affecting every branch directly or indirectly, it is more important than ever that we fight back together, building solidarity with our fellow campus unions and our students.   Our strength comes from our numbers as a collective.  Atomised fights only benefit the bosses.

A trade union must be an exemplary employer and nurture within itself the same values and principles we demand of employers, government and others.  The ongoing disputes between UCU and its staff cast a very dark shadow upon all of us.  UCU staff are workers just like us and I reiterate my solidarity with them.  These disputes must be resolved satisfactorily without delay and likewise the one with Black Members Standing Committee with which they are entwined.  A union cannot properly fight for equality for its members with this issue unresolved.

UCU Scotland Secretary – Carlo Morelli 

https://uculeft.org/carlo-morelli-2/ 

Dundee University is at the centre of the storm over the funding of higher education
in Scotland. We have just successfully balloted for industrial action to save hundreds
of jobs due to a projected £30m deficit. As a member of the University at Dundee
and current Honorary Secretary for UCU Scotland I understand the need to ensure
branches fight redundancies and cuts but also ensure UCU Scotland gives its full
backing to branches resisting cuts.

Save Higher Education

Half of UK universities are cutting jobs. This includes many in Scotland. The
existence of the sector is under threat. Marketisation in Scotland is driven by
managements who share the group think of forcing debt via maintenance loans for
home students and exploiting international and rUK students’ tuition fees.
Simultaneously, the racist ‘hostile environment’ consciously used racism to
undermine the University sector.
Attempts to leave branches to fight these cuts institution by institution weakens us.
We need a UK-wide and Scottish-wide campaign to save HE, against job cuts and
end the racist environment. Unity is our strength. Unity can build a campaign to drive
the market out of education.
As Honorary Secretary for UCU Scotland I made the case for a lobby of the Scottish
Government and encouraging branches to ballot for industrial action when facing job
cuts.

Stand Up To Racism

Trump, Farage and the rise of fascism in Europe means we must place anti-racism
central to our union and workplaces. Racism is designed to scapegoat minorities and
divert attention from where the problems in our society originate. No immigrant is
illegal, and universities should stop policing immigration through draconian
monitoring and reporting on students and staff. I have been a supporter of the Sheku
Bayoh campaign since the start and stand up for students facing racism Blind
student facing deportation says university reneged on support | University of Dundee – The Guardian

USS and pensions

I was a USS negotiator during the 2018-19 strike. Five years of strike action shows
we can win. I am currently leading the campaign in the USS Advisory Cttee to
ensure cohabiting relationships are recognised for automatic survivor pensions. As
an NEC member I will continue to focus attention on threats to the Scottish TPS and
USS. I support our union’s policy on decarbonising and decolonising our pension
schemes.

Equality

Equality continues to be under attack. I am committed to ensuring equality remains
central to UCU Scotland. I will always support members standing up for trans-rights,
facing threats of internal complaints or employment tribunals.
I am a strong ally of my transrights and all LGBT+ siblings. I don’t believe we are
stuck as human beings by our DNA and hold strongly to the analysis of the social
model arising out of the disability movement, that it is society that creates structures
for disadvantage and oppression not our biology.

Palestine and Academic Boycott

I welcome the ceasefire in Gaza, hope it holds but fear for the lives of Palestinians
and others in the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria. Israel is an apartheid state and
universities in Scotland are legally complicit in genocide in Gaza, via their
investments and engagement with Israeli Universities. The IHRA definition facilitates
the clamp down on student protest and pro-Palestinian voices. It hinders rather than
supports the campaign against antisemitism due to its false conflation of antizionism
with antisemitism. UCU Scotland should continue its work on identifying with and
solidarity with Higher Education in Palestine. We can all play our part by individually
refusing to the Academic Boycott of Israeli Universities.

Trade union service

• Chair of USS Advisory Committee: past USS negotiator on USS JNC.
• UCU Scotland Honorary Secretary NEC member: previously UCU Scotland
• President & UK-wide elected member for 6 years.
• Member of Dundee UCU Committee for over 20 years & past president
• Delegate to UCU Congress, STUC and TUC
• Member of UCU Left and Stand Up To Racism
• Senior Lecturer in Economics, Dundee University