As many of you will be aware of there is an ongoing postal strike, this was a rapidly evolving situation students were called on for support on the 20th of October. Obviously the decision to support the postal workers is political one and should be taken by guild council. Since the next guild council in November was far to late, I tried to get a emergency motion put in for guild council tomorrow on October 29th .
The reason the guild is affiliated to the Communication Workers Union via large umbrella union groups, is because students are the workers and employees of the future. One of the roles that the NUS and unions like the guild plays is to support wider union campaigns so as to make sure that students entering employment enter into workplaces with fair pay, good working hours and safe conditions.
The independent chairs told me to submit an Emergency support motion to so students could weigh up the pros and cons and decide if this was a cause they wanted to support. The Independent chairs then consulted the sabbatical officer team asking them if this motion met the requirements for an emergency motion.
The executive in this consultation informed the independent chairs that this motion did not qualify under 14.2.3
“No motion is an emergency motion if the present work of the Guild would not be severely impaired by the failure of the forthcoming Meeting of Guild Council to discuss the issue.”
In doing so they delegate the guilds union work as secondary and unimportant, a ironic position for a union to take.
There is nothing I can do, I have been informed I cannot appeal this decision anywhere, not in guild council not to the chairs and not to the exec.
All I can do is write this letter to the exec and I would encourage you to do likewise. All the exec have been appealed to for support and none of them have come forward including some in the executive who claim to be unionists, a claim they should probably drop …
Dear exec
I’m sending you this to register my strongest objections to your decision.
Obviously the guild works to protect the conditions of workers, as students are workers in waiting. Thanks to your decision this work cannot take place. Guild policy in my mind is quite clear and the guilds ethical policy states that these issues are “key duties of any Guild officer of member of staff.”
In ruling this issue out under 14.2.3 I believe that you have relegated this in my view and (as stated in guild policy) important guild activity to a secondary non vital activity.
In my view you did not have the right to designate this policy area non vital when guild council has stated otherwise via not only the ethical policy but numerous motions.
sincerely
here are their emails
president@guild.bham.ac.uk;vpdr@guild.bham.ac.uk; vpea@guild.bham.ac.uk;vphc@guild.bham.ac.uk; vps@guild.bham.ac.uk;vpw@guild.bham.ac.uk; vpsad@guild.bham.ac.uk; e.bauer@guild.bham.ac.uk
Posts
WHAT this outrageous, since when did ethical motions becoming something that could not be the subject of an emergency motion.
ReplyDeleteI would write to exec Edd but if I sent them an e-mail I wouldn’t be Anonymous anymore and we both know how the guild reacts to criticism.
I shall be emailing them all!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat an irrelevant motion, it's lucky the execs have more sense than you..
ReplyDeleteIn what sense do you think it is irrelevant? would you care to clarify.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to meet up chat about why I think its important for the guild to continue to make sure the workplace students enter is a good one.
Might I inquire as to why this should have been considered an emergency motion?
ReplyDeleteThe work of the CWU and their strike does not impact students in a direct manner, and even indirectly the situation as it affects the student body of the University of Birmingham is in fact minor. The worst that happens on a large scale is that certain students who have ordered books online will not receive them as quickly as they otherwise would have.
The point of Guild Council is to represent the concerns and interests of the Student body of the University, not to make meaningless political comments about the activities of other unions. What exactly would a discussion or a motion of support for the striking postal workers have achieved?
Other than the basically worthless self congratulatory feelings that those who submit the motions would get as the political clique that is Guild council passes their suggestion, there would be little effect on the running of the university, the running of the guild or indeed the lives of individual students as discussions or motions of support for the CWU would have no impact on the dispute with the Management of Royal Mail.
Such ideas and motions are indicative of the problems of Guild Council where the majority of students ( including those active within the guild through the medium of societies) are not having their concerns represented due to the effective hi-jacking of the chamber by such ridiculous motions which serve no interests other than a select political minority.
Stating that we should be concerned with the situation as students are the workers of the future also strikes me as somewhat hypocritical considering you are a member of People and Planet who have an active campaign against one of the leading employers of University of Birmingham Physics and Engineering graduates ( BAE Systems). Why exactly is the potential work environment within Royal Mail ( an environment very few Graduates would be entering I would guess) more important than the KNOWN working relations between the University and BAE? And if the response you're going to give involves the moral and ethical issues of the arms trade that BAE is involved in can you please demonstrate statistics and the source of the statistics that show that in your campaign against BAE you are in fact representing the majority of the student body?
I find it highly amusing that the ethical officer while campaigning to support the workers in one union (the CWU) is actively part of a group and attempting to pass motions in Guild Council which will have a detrimental effect on workers in other unions (such as BAE Systems Union).
ReplyDeleteSurely the EEO can not expect the rest of the student body to take his hypocritical policies seriously? Or hopefully this will all turn out to be some kind of satirical masterpiece he is running and he will reveal at the end of the year that he is not simply pandering to the "looney left", as one Guild Counciller put it, which he has closely associated himself with. If this is the case then his blog and motions make perfect sense as they are attempting to be humourous.
If not I am deeply concerned as there is no way that helping one group of workers get better pay/conditions at the same time as trying to make another group loose their jobs is ethical.
"the worst that happens on a large scale is that certain students who have ordered books online will not receive them as quickly as they otherwise would have"
ReplyDeleteMany Masters students were waiting last week for confirmation letters and appeal letters for their degree - stuff that uni generally doesn't and won't email out to you. Especially considering that you only have 7 days from the date of the letter to appeal, this was more than a minor inconvenience and impacted a lot of postgrads. Just one example of how significantly a postal strike can effect the student body, I'm sure there are many more.
Sally,
ReplyDeletewhilst I can appreciate that Masters students are affected more by the postal strike than Undergrads, and I admit I was not aware of this, my poiint still remains.
If the motion that had been put forward was supporting Masters students and moving to have the guild make waves in terms of getting in contact with the uni to allow for special dispensation because of the postal strike then I can support what you're saying. From what I understand of the motion that was put forward though, this was not the case.
The EEO does not make reference to this in the blog, nor has anyone I've spoken to on the subject of what occurred at the Guild Council ( I was sadly unable to attend due to other commitments)mentioned that this was even brought up at the council by the EEO or anyone supporting the inclusion of the motion to the agenda.
In fact Ed Bauer states in the blog that:
'The independent chairs told me to submit an Emergency support motion to so students could weigh up the pros and cons and decide if this was a cause they wanted to support.'
So he states that the motion was specifically designed to be a discussion of whether or not the Guild should support the strike. THAT IS A WORTHLESS MOTION as it does nothing to help students at the university and just makes a political statement which achieves nothing.
If the motion had been supporting helping postgrads or undergrads who were affected by the strike then I would be supporting the motion whole heartedly, and I accept that my initial comment of saying the impact is limited might be inaccurate, but it does not change the fact that the whole motion was devoted to a statement of political support which would not have helped the strikers, or students in anyway.
Nice to see a bit of debate well done for your effort. You've written enough here, for a post of your own, If you create your own blog I'll be sure to link you in.
ReplyDeleteI'm about to go out, However I will respond in full as soon as get the chance.
Hi Steven, my point was specifically about the quoted comment, which trivialised the impacts of the strike on students, so that you could state that the strike was not a concern for the student body as it had little direct or indirect impact, and therefore it was not a concern for our Guild, who represent the student body. I'm glad you can appreciate that your original comment was inaccurate, and that the strike is a significant concern for the student body. In regards to support being offered to students being affected by current and future postal strikes, sounds like a great idea. In terms of the motion itself, I 100% support it, for the reasons Edd has outlined.
ReplyDelete