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UCL UNISON Joint Young Persons’ Officer Annual Report 2002/03

BY DAN OZAROW (outgoing officer)

Overview:

At the start of my year in office I made it clear that as ‘joint-Young Persons’ Officer’ I wanted to use my position above all, to concentrate on establishing a much closer link between UCL UNISON and the student union (UCL Union) exploiting this new relationship to further both our causes and also to promote the concept of trade unionism to UCL students. In the meantime, my colleague, Natalie Beaumont would focus more on young members of staff and issues that relate to them. I feel this has worked very well because it has allowed us to target our individual expertise in the areas we know best and to work with the people and organisations we are closest to, so as to get the best results for the branch and Young Members as a whole.

London Weighting:

I feel this has been an incredible success. Although the campaign is ongoing and not yet won, many long-term victories have been achieved that perhaps are not so obvious at first. For a start, the extensive publicity that the branch has produced has made UCL students far more aware of the existence of trade unions as well as their effectiveness and the power of the collective action of working people. I am convinced that students will now have a much more positive view about joining a trade union once in work. The campaign has also informed students about the plight of college support staff and has increased awareness about it. The issue of low pay and in this case, London Weighting, is of particular concern to Young Members as they tend to earn lower salaries and thus LW makes up a larger proportion of their income. I have heard anecdotal evidence that more young people are joining the branch and I am sure that this is in part, due to the excellent work we have done on this particular campaign and the industrial action which has raised our profile.

Working with UCL Union:

Back in the autumn I passed a motion at the student union council securing their support for our London Weighting campaign and the subsequent strikes resulting from it. I have also put constant pressure on UCL Union to formalise its relationship with UNISON and I am delighted that the Joint-Union committee has been formed this year, which will hopefully constitute the basis for continued joint campaigning between the branch and student union in the future.

Recruitment:

It has been very difficult to obtain specific data about how many young people have joined the branch this year. Several promised to at the September and January Freshers’ Fayre stalls that I and the Recruitment Officer (Wendy Biggin) organised. This would support the national trend which shows an increase in the number of young people joining trade unions according to the TUC last year.

Articles and Publicity:

During my term of office I have had an article published by London Student (Europe’s largest student newspaper) about the London Weighting Strike back in September and also an article in Pi Magazine (UCL Union’s official mag) explaining the benefits of joining a trade union to the students. I also provided support material for student union coverage of the London Weighting campaign and produced two separate leaflets directed towards young people, one of which explained why they should join UNISON (with Wendy) and the other about why students should support UNISON’s industrial action. Furthermore I have translated strike material and UNISON recruitment publicity into Spanish to help encourage UCL staff for whom their first language is Spanish, to get involved in our activities.

Stop the War:

As I write, the UK stands on the verge of war. I have been very impressed by the level of anti-war activity within the branch and how well we have articulated to our members that an invasion of Iraq would not only be immoral, destructive and a flagrant breach of international law, but also the gross hypocrisy of our Government in spending billions of pounds on killing innocent Iraqi people when public service employees are so desperately underpaid. It is fantastic to see fire-fighters, teachers, doctors, tube staff etc as well as university staff having the courage to resort to take on the Government and demand fair pay and no privatisation while opposing the war at the same time. As for my personal involvement in Stop the War, I was elected chief steward of the hundreds strong UCL staff and student contingent which marched to Hyde Park on February 15th for the largest demonstration in British history. I have also regularly attended meetings of the UCL Stop the War Coalition as a branch delegate and been actively involved in the group.

The Future:

Although I hope to be re-elected, I will be leaving UCL in the summer to search for a job. I take with me fond memories of the comrades and colleagues I have worked with on the branch committee. You have been an inspiration to me and you are an amazing bunch of people. Please keep fighting. As lucrative as a career as a New Labour politician would be, I would rather chew off my own arm. Instead I hope to use the experience I have gained as Education & Welfare officer of the student union to work with refugees and help facilitate their arrival and settling on these shores. The excellent time I have spent in UCL UNISON has persuaded me to continue working in the trade union movement and to commit myself to defending workers’ rights and internationalism for the rest of my life.

In Support and Solidarity

Dan Ozarow, March 2003