Academics vote in favour of new university and college union

In December 2005 it was announced that a ballot of the members of the further and higher education unions NATFHE and AUT had resulted in the approval of the planned merger between the two organisations to create the University and College Union.

In the autumn of 2005, ballots of the memberships of NATFHE - The University & College Lecturers’ Union and the Association of University Teachers (AUT) were held to seek endorsement of proposals for the amalgamation of the two unions to form a new organisation, the University and College Union (UCU). In December 2005, it was announced that the merger had been supported by 95.7% of NATFHE members and 79.2% of AUT members who voted.

The new union will represent further and higher education lecturers, researchers and many academic-related staff such as librarians, administrators and computing professionals across the UK. The UCU will have a combined membership of some 116,000 members which, according to NATFHE and the AUT, will make it the world’s largest union for post-school academic and academic-related staff. The AUT currently has 48,000 members, mainly in the older, pre-1992 universities in the UK. NATFHE has 68,000 lecturers in new universities, further education colleges and adult education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (43,000 in further education, 19,000 in higher education and 6,000 student, post-graduate, retired and unemployed members). Lecturers in Scotland’s newer universities and further education colleges will continue to be represented by the Educational Institute of Scotland.

In a joint statement Paul Mackney, NATFHE’s general secretary and Sally Hunt, the AUT’s general secretary said: 'We are delighted our members have voted overwhelmingly for the creation of the University and College Union. The new union will be a potent force for change in further and higher education. No longer will universities and colleges be able to divide our members over their pay and conditions.' They added: 'Our priorities now will be to improve our members’ salaries, end the scandal of pay discrimination on the grounds of gender and ethnicity and defend the core values of education such as academic freedom'.

The existing unions’ leaders believe that 'a bigger, stronger union will be able to do more for our 116,000 members across the sectors we represent. We are determined that the best of both AUT’s and NATFHE's traditions are combined to create a vibrant professional union which will be a major player in education both [in the UK] and across the globe.'

The two unions will amalgamate on 1 June 2006, and then enter a transitional year until 'full operational unity' is achieved in June 2007. The existing general secretaries of the two unions will remain in post for the transitional year. Elections will then be held for the post of general secretary of the new union with effect from 1 June 2007.

The AUT’s council and NATFHE’s conference decided in 2004 to explore ways of achieving maximum unity between the two unions, leading to talks on plans for the creation of a single university and college union (UK0409104N). Both unions’ leaderships agreed to endorse the proposed rules and objectives for the new union that emerged from the discussions, with final approval being given by the AUT council and NATFHE’s annual conference during April and May 2005. UK employment law requires that a proposed amalgamation between unions must be on the basis of an instrument setting out the proposed terms of the merger which must be approved by the Certification Officer before being subject to a fully postal, independently scrutinised ballot of the members of each amalgamating organisation.

This information is made available through the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO), as a service to users of the EIROnline database. EIRO is a project of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. However, this information has been neither edited nor approved by the Foundation, which means that it is not responsible for its content and accuracy. This is the responsibility of the EIRO national centre that originated/provided the information. For details see the "About this record" information in this record.