1st November 2021

Dear Vice-Chancellor,

Thank you for your letter that I received on 29 October 2021, in response to my earlier letter to you (dated 25 October 2021). On the one hand, I am disappointed that you will allow your comments on the Professional Pensions Web site (8 October 2021) to stand. On the other hand, I am heartened by your apparent acknowledgement that Brunel UCU members can safely:

(1) Vote during the current pensions and pay ballot,

(2) Vote for industrial action (and action short of strike), and

(3) Engage in industrial action (and action short of strike) without fear of retaliation from members of Brunel senior management.

Accordingly, I shall communicate your acknowledgement to Brunel UCU members as a whole.

Thank you

Yours Sincerely

STANLEY O. GAINES, JR. (BRUNEL UCU BRANCH CHAIR)

28 October 2021

Dear Dr Gaines,

I write further to UCU’s open letter dated 25th October 2021 regarding my statement to
Professional Pensions concerning the USS pensions dispute.

While I appreciate that UCU may not agree with my statement, as a university leader and a spokesperson for UUK, it remains my view that changes to the scheme are unfortunately necessary if we are to avoid unaffordable contribution increases for both employees and employers. Without reforms to the scheme, the USS Trustee has confirmed it will impose contribution rises from April 2022, rising to 18.8% for members and 38.2% for employers by 2023, to address the scheme deficit.

I am sure we can all agree on the importance of a good pension provision and I am concerned that we will see an even greater number of staff leave or not join USS because the contribution rates are unaffordable.

My statement, while not specific to Brunel, recognises the impact of further pension contribution rises for universities at a time of already great financial challenge and university leaders are indeed concerned about the impact of such increases on the financial sustainability of their institution. My comments are not meant in any way to cause alarm or voter suppression but instead reflect the uncomfortable reality that some employers will face if we are unable to shore up USS by making changes that guarantee good benefits without significant additional costs.

Yours sincerely,
Professor Julia Buckingham
Vice-Chancellor and President

Mike Otsuka Presentation UCU on USS Pensions

25^th October 2021

Dear Vice-Chancellor,

Within the Brunel UCU Branch, we are concerned about a recent statement that you made directly to the Professional Pensions Web site, concerning prospective industrial action over the USS pensions dispute.  Here are your own words from 8 October 2021:

The spectre of higher contributions is causing a great deal of worry for university leaders.  Staff have worked immensely hard through the extremely challenging conditions forced on us by the Covid-19 pandemic, and it would be an utter travesty if further pension contributions hikes led to more staff not joining the scheme because of the cost, a further exodus of current staff members from the scheme because they cannot afford to pay in more, and mass redundancies as employers have to cut back elsewhere to pay higher pension costs.  With so much financial uncertainty currently engulfing universities, and the significant financial pressures last year brought due to loss of commercial income and additional spending to make campuses Covid-secure and move teaching and support online, now is the time to shore up USS by making changes that guarantee good pension benefits without significant additional costs.

These comments could be construed as attempts toward intimidation and voter suppression – both of which constitute bullying.  UCU members at Brunel apparently face the prospective loss of their jobs if they cast ballots (let alone vote for industrial action), based on your comments.

I respectfully ask that you retract your potentially intimidating 8 October 2021 comments from the Professional Pensions Web site.  In particular, I ask that you act accordingly within the next week (i.e., by 1 November 2021) and immediately inform me once you have acted upon this request.

Thank you

Yours Sincerely

STANLEY O. GAINES, JR. (BRUNEL UCU BRANCH CHAIR)

ON THE BRUNEL VC/UUK PRESIDENT’S COMMENTS

IN PROFESSIONAL PENSIONS (8 OCTOBER 2021)

STANLEY O. GAINES, JR. (BRUNEL UCU BRANCH CHAIR)

13 OCTOBER 2021

Across the UK, pensions officers for UCU Branches learned about an online article (originally posted on the Professional Pensions Web site, 8 October 2021) that featured comments by the Brunel University London Vice Chancellor (and President of Universities UK) concerning the USS pension scheme. The Brunel VC/UUK President’s comments are extraordinary in explicitly tying (1) USS’s (and UCU)’s prospective failure to implement UUK’s flawed proposal for changing pension contributions with (2) Brunel University London’s (and, presumably, all UUK-affiliated employers’) prospective mass redundancies in the near future. Here are the Brunel VC/UUK President’s own words on the future of USS pensions (and the future of higher education employees’ jobs, whether those employees are USS members or not):

The spectre of higher contributions is causing a great deal of worry for university leaders. Staff have worked immensely hard through the extremely challenging conditions forced on us by the Covid-19 pandemic, and it would be an utter travesty if further pension contributions hikes led to more staff not joining the scheme because of the cost, a further exodus of current staff members from the scheme because they cannot afford to pay in more, and mass redundancies as employers have to cut back elsewhere to pay higher pension costs. With so much financial uncertainty currently engulfing universities, and the significant financial pressures last year brought due to loss of commercial income and additional spending to make campuses Covid-secure and move teaching and support online, now is the time to shore up USS by making changes that guarantee good pension benefits without significant additional costs.

I note that this is the same Brunel VC/UUK President who failed to support the 7-point plan than the national UCU headquarters had proposed for the UK government to invest in UK universities (released on 2 April 2020 — shortly after the first COVID-triggered lockdowns were imposed within the UK and around the world). Imagine what combined pressure UUK and UCU could have brought to bear upon the UK government to provide adequate COVID-era funding for higher education institutions, just as the global pandemic had begun to upend lives and livelihoods in a manner that had not been witnessed since another pandemic ravaged humanity a century ago. One must wonder why the Brunel VC/UUK President waited for so long to publicly acknowledge the scale of the financial difficulties that UCU had anticipated so soon after the lockdowns began, and why the USS pension scheme (rather than UUK’s own inadequate, piecemeal request to the UK government on 9 April 2020) has emerged as the Brunel VC/UUK President’s scapegoat for raising the spectre of widespread job losses at Brunel and across the UK.

Not only should Brunel UCU members be concerned; but UCU at all levels (Branches, Regional Offices, and National Headquarters) should be outraged. Let us regard the Brunel VC/UUK President’s comments as fighting words; and let us cast our ballots for industrial action against UUK employers, in Uxbridge and beyond.

This branch notes the urgent need for action on the climate emergency, both in response to existing negative impacts such as extreme weather, fires, droughts, floods, and loss of habitat and species; and to avoid catastrophic and irreversible damage caused by global heating.

We note that big business, the military, and the rich are responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions, while workers and the world’s poor are disproportionately at risk. A just transition to a decarbonised economy, one that protects the lives, livelihoods, and rights of workers and the poor, is the only way the movement against climate chaos will secure the mass support it needs to win, and to avoid a rich minority protecting themselves at the expense of the planet and the vast majority.

We note that the UN ‘COP’ climate change conferences have become a focus for campaigners, that COP26 will be taking place in Glasgow from 1-12 November 2021, and that many organisations are already making plans.

We resolve to:

Organise to make COP26 in Glasgow, 9-19 November 2021, a focus of campaigning for effective action on the climate emergency.

Work with local trade unions and environmental organisations to arrange discussions locally and within workplaces about practically how we can prepare for COP26.

Call on Brunel University to declare a climate emergency and to involve unions in planning, implementing, and monitoring to rapidly reduce carbon emissions to zero.

Call on Brunel University to recognise UCU environmental reps, give them work time for their activities, and act vigorously to reduce the reliance on fossil energy of Brunel University and its staff.

Create climate action groups at workplace level and within union structures.

Look for opportunities for unions, communities, and the climate movement to work together, for example for improved housing and public transport.

Call on the UCU to carry out a major exercise to understand the potential positive and negative impacts of the climate crisis and responses to it on employment.

Call on the UCU and universities to work rapidly toward removing all pressure on academics and managers to take flights, unless with battery-powered aircraft.

Discuss what climate-related demands to include in collective bargaining, including ones which could be the basis of a lawful ‘trade dispute’ under current legislation and to call on the UCU to develop guidance on this.

Campaign for a legal right to strike and to repeal all legislation that makes it harder to strike over climate and decarbonisation issues.

Ensure that the UCU is visible as a relevant and useful organisation within the climate movement.

Demand colossal public investment in the jobs required to address the climate emergency, including in renewable energy, housing, and public transport.

Demand support for people coping with or fleeing the consequences of climate breakdown, whether internally within Britain or from abroad.

Send this motion to our local trades union council, to Hillingdon Council, and to the UCU.

This Branch Notes

1. According to numerous reports from UN bodies, as well as Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, and the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, Israeli policies constitute crimes of apartheid.
2. According to the International Court of Justice, Israel’s Apartheid Wall (a.k.a. “separation barrier”) contravenes international law.
3. Palestinians living in Israel continue to suffer third-class citizenship, with extreme discrimination in the fields of healthcare, education, and land ownership. Ethnic cleansing continues, most recently in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
4. Against this backdrop, on 18 May Palestinian trade unions organised a general strike, and called on trade unions elsewhere for support

This Branch Believes that:

1. Unions have a responsibility to heed the calls of oppressed peoples, and should support the Palestinian people’s struggle against oppression. Palestinian lives matter.
2. Much as an international movement that included calls to boycott, sanction and divest from South Africa contributed to the toppling of its apartheid regime, so today, the BDS campaign offers an effective way to raise awareness, mobilise solidarity, and pressure organisations to change their practices toward Israel.

This Branch Resolves:

1. to support the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), issued by Palestinian academics as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.