Dear colleague
You should have received your ballot paper from UCU National in relation to the proposal to move to one branch at UEL. If you have not please contact the Administrator for our Region at UCU National, Caroline Vondy on 0207 7562634. I would like to urge you to return your ballot paper and to vote YES for this proposal. As Branch Secretary at Docklands I have been acutely aware of the fact that Stratford members are not receiving regularly updates either from UCU national or from officers at Stratford. In a year that has been one of the most difficult at UEL and for the sector in general no communication about these issues has been sent to members and no Branch let alone Branch committee meetings held. At the time of the ballot for industrial action Officers at Stratford appeared to not even have a complete list of all members on their distribution list and Docklands Branch officers had to help with their membership list to stop all members at UEL from being excluded from the vote. These are quite serious issues that this proposal seeks to ensure are resolved.
I am very keen to see a democratic union at UEL with representatives from each school tackling some of the issues that we face at UEL. If the vote is YES then we will achieve this and I urge you to think about standing as a representative for your school for the committee. We need new Officers prepared to help defend staff at UEL and to work with but also hold to account management at UEL. Please think about how you can contribute to YOUR union at UEL because we are going to need more members to get involved in the coming year.
Please send in your ballot paper as soon as possible and please vote YES.
Regards
Jacqui
