Resisting UCU recruitment

[BurgerChops]

I'm an old-timer but have NC just in case.

For reasons discussed at length on this board I am not a member of UCU.

The branch secretary is in my department and on a recruitment drive. He's emailed me personally before about joining UCU but I've ignored these emails. He's bent my ear in-person a couple of times too. I was non-committal in these conversation because it was out-of-the-blue and I wasn't ready/willing for a long/deep conversation about it.

In the new academic year, me and this colleague are working together on a project (administration, thankfully he's not in my research or teaching area). The issue of me joining UCU will come up pretty quickly and pretty regularly I'd imagine. I'm not a confrontational person so I'm after some ammunition to stave him off which won't also get me into bother for being a TERF.

I should say that this colleague is a woke-bro pronoun person with a little fan club of smug he/her/theys that I'm keen not to provoke.

Which reasons are they that you don't want to join? Can you not just explain those, if he asks?

Does this count as harassment / bullying?

Isn’t he mis-using electronic data he holds on you through work by using it to recruit?

The main/major reason I don't want to join is UCU's stance on gender criticality, particularly their treatment of female academics who express gender critical views. Telling him this outs me as a TERF which I don't ready to do quite so explicitly.

I'm not sure. Maybe I misused the term 'recruit'.

So far, its been a few emails and a couple of conversations focused on whether I'd considered joining UCU, whether I'm aware of UCU's current campaigns etc.

So recruitment but not really active badgering or cold-calling type of thing.

He’s
still using an e-mail
address he only has access to because you are both employed by the same institution though??

I’m pretty sure it’s a data protection breach. Might come in useful if you need to get him off your back

How did he know you weren't a member? Did it come up in conversation or did he check membership records to see which staff aren't members?

Next time tell him straight that you don't want to join. Don't give a reason - you don't need to justify your decision (remember the old Mumsnet matra: "No" is a complete sentence). Tell him (and then put it in writing) that if he continues to pursue the matter you will raise it with HR as harassment.

Just say no one more time, and tell him not to ask you again.

Great point.

If he is doing direct emails, to non-members, he would be taking the database he can access as BS of UCU and running it against the database of employees.
The OP never gave the employer permission for this use of her data.

This creates a new database of non-UCU emoloyee's which is effectively held outside the control of the employer. But for which they would still be responsible for. As this would be a political/trade union list, it is a special catagory so the employer has a higher duty of care.

Independant of that, UCU (via the BS) have a collected a database of non-UCU members without the data subjects permission.

Op how would you saying, not to the membership invite and that you don't discuss sex, politics or relegions at work, go down?

My non-membership didn't come up in conversation. I'm guessing he checked the branch member against a list of people in our department, and found me missing from the UCU list.
Does this still count as a breach of data protection?

do not go down the data breach route. It will go nowhere and you’ll paint a target on you (like you’re trying to avoid re: terf).

just say you aren’t interested and do not want to discuss it. If he persists, repeat. If he still persists, tell him you find his inability to respect your boundaries harassing and to immediately stop.

It might not be a data protection breach as he already knew you as an individual and didn't access your details from university systems.

Did he email you at your university email address or your personal email address? I think there's something about unions not being allowed to use employers' resources outside of a particular remit. So emailing members from/to work email accounts is OK but not emailing non-members on their work accounts.

I would stick to a simple, I'm not interested, do not ask me again or I will raise it with HR.

I think if it was someone from outside of my Department, I would feel more secure raising the issue of data protection. But because he's a department colleague, I'm guessing he just noticed I was missing from his UCU members list so the data issue feels more tenuous.

Just tell him that you're not interested and you'd like his to stop asking you about it.

I think you just need to assertive here.

“Bert, I’ve already said No thanks, repeatedly. If you persist, it could be construed as workplace harassment. I’m sure neither of us want this to end up with a report to HR, do we. Now let’s get on with this project.”

You could say it’s against your religion. That should shut down the conversation pdq.

There are lots of other genuine reasons you could give while keeping quiet about the terfy stuff if you wanted to. I left for the reasons you cite but also the fact that UCU's "fight" for those on short term contracts is very badly articulated and essentially asks faculty staff to act against their best interests on this issue, while also asking short-term contract staff to strike alongside people who are often their line managers and who really want to keep "their" post docs & TAs in their place. Its disingenuous - it would be more effective to support a legal case for discrimination against those on multiple short term contracts who are blocked from promotion activities only made available to faculty staff. I also know someone who left because they object to standing on middle class picket lines that block cleaners, technicians, admin staff etc from doing their much less well paid jobs.

Ha, that would be hilarious to say its against my religion

I just need to woman-up and say "No, I'm not interested, thank you" and then not follow up with reasons. Last time he asked me why I wasn't interested when I responded in this way.

I wasn't prepared for that question and ended up rambling - because in my head I was going "Because I'm a massive TERF" but I didn't want to actually say that.

I just need to woman-up and say "No, I'm not interested, thank you"

For God's sake, you don't need to say "thank you"! If his attempts to engage you in discussion are unsolicited and unwanted then you don't owe him a conversation and you certainly don't need to thank him for not continuing the conversation.

"No, I'm not interested" will suffice. (Practice saying it out loud, if it that would help.) If he asks why, say you don't want to discuss it. And then stop speaking.

Talk to him about UCU’s anti-Semitic tendencies, then, or the SWP UCU activist who assaulted women (a big expose a couple of years ago - I’ll see if I can find the reference when I get home).

Or mention that some recent UCU policies were about to be implemented which contravened the Equalities Act.

It’s a dilemma, isn’t it. If UCU zealots are never told about why some women are leaving, or not joining, they will not change their ways. It’s possible to do the ‘I’m not a terf but ...’ routine and mention the most outrageous recent events.

When I was still a member, our reps frequently messed up on data protection. No need to threaten but can anyone be cross with you if you don’t want to join an organisation if it misuses sensitive information in this way? If you are unsatisfied and decide to leave, will this be held against you?

This bloke is trying to badger you and emotionally blackmail you into joining. Your discomfort (which he has probably noticed) is unimportant to him, all he cares about is looking good among his comrades for increasing membership. You owe him nothing.

I have a similar colleague. Any complaint or grumble about work is met with being told to join UCU. I just say nothing.

Thanks folx 😏

You're right that I don't owe an apology, thanks for pointing that out.

There's a whole catalogue of reasons why I left and why I won't rejoin. The main reason is UCU stance on women. As PP said, on one hand I'd like to be clear about this so they know they're losing women for this reason. On the other hand I'm not ready to out myself as a TERF- in part because this colleague is a staunch he/him type (twitter feed full of it) who has a lot of "fans" in our department. I want an easy life

National UCU is atrociously poorly run. The 'four fights' dispute is a bulging, over-complex mess: to achieve results there needs to be one clear demand. Not all universities are members of the USS. Disaggregated ballots have meant that some universities are carrying this fight on behalf of others, their staff taking enormous hits in their pay packets, when parts of the 'four fights' don't even apply to them. The marking boycott was a disorganised farce, which only came into effect when most of the semesterised universities had already returned their results. The HE sector is significantly bigger than simply the Russell Group universities, which the General Secretary doesn't seem to have grasped.

All this is quite aside from the hounding of particular gender critical academics - sometimes out of their posts - for which UCU affords them precisely no protection.

There are plenty of reasons for disaffection with this Union. IMO, the General Secretary is unfit for post. My local branch, however, happens to be bang on the pulse and really fantastic: were it not for this fact I would also seriously consider revoking my membership (and I'm very pro-union).

Bottom line is you owe no one an explanation. This is one of those scenarios in which that old MN adage 'no is a complete sentence' would be more than appropriate: no one takes kindly to brow beating.