Union Democracy under attack!

Over the past few months Union Council, the democratically elected body of the UEA Students Union, has found itself fighting an uphill battle. This is particularly the case over the issue of the Union Restructure, which is being pushed through by the Trustees and the Union’s Senior Management. The plan, which would see a significant number of Union Staff made redundant, is at odds with both the spirit and the wording of several policies passed by the Unions democratic body in recent weeks, which called for a halt to this process until all other alternatives to reduce the deficit have been explored, and proper consultation has taken place.

As the process has not been halted, Councillors have signed a petition calling for an emergency meeting of Union Council, which will discuss a motion of No-Confidence in the Union’s External Trustees. Unfortunately, despite its best efforts, it looks like Council will struggle to get this issue fairly debated. Not only have several torpedo amendments been received from Student Officers – despite them having an obvious conflict of interest on this matter due to their role as Trustees – they have also been pursuing underhand tactics to manipulate the membership of the Union Council. To be a representative on Council, you must first be elected by peers from your School of Study, or members of your Club or Society. This is explicitly stated in the Unions Bye-Laws.

However, at least one of the Union Officers has decided that the best manner to ensure a ‘democratic’ debate and vote on the issue is by directly contacting non-councillors, and misleading them about the nature of the debate that is to be held in an attempt to recruit them to Council. One message to a non-member of Council read as follows:

“Hey [xxx]! I don’t know if you know but there’s an emergency council on Thursday. It’s a pretty important one as it proposes to no-con us all… So! It’d be wicked if you could come, or find someone else suitable if you can’t”.

This is fundamentally wrong. The proposal has been falsely presented by the Officer in this message, and as non-members are not entitled to vote at Union Council, the purpose of them going would be rather limited. That is unless they were made a Course Representative and at least four new Course Reps were registered earlier this week… Coincidence perhaps, but as there appear to have been no elections for these new Representatives, it seems that democratic process is once again playing second fiddle to political motives.

What are the Union’s priorities?

Whatever the outcome of the emergency Council meeting, one thing is clear, the Union’s democratic institution is under attack, and this latest incident is just another in a long line of quotable examples where democracy has been sidelined or compromised in the name of a political policy agenda being imposed upon the students. Those who seek to uphold the rules that govern the Union are in a significant minority, one which will only get smaller the longer these tactics proceed. It has been frequently said this year that our Council no longer represents the students – incidents like this demonstrate that the constitutional task appointed to it is falling victim to groups which seek to actively prevent these constitutional tasks from being carried out.