¹û¶³Ó°Ôº

Dave was a member of IT support before it became known as "ISD" (a label he despised), a forthright member of academic related staff and a committed member of ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº AUT* committee (serving as Vice President and Treasurer) for over ten years. He served on the national Academic Related Committee and other union bodies.

Anyone who was around during the period of the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº-Imperial Merger fight, or the years that followed to the Pay Framework in 2004-5 when he and I were both local negotiators, would recognise that Dave and I were not always in agreement! We had sharp discussions about local negotiations, and how we positioned ourselves with Management. But Dave always put his loyalty to the union branch first throughout that time. 

Perhaps the best way of summing Dave up was that he was a caring and loyal trade unionist through and through, in a period where HR moved from the old Personnel department towards a much more aggressive Human Resources department. This was a period where generosity of spirit by union reps (which Dave had in spades) was pounced on as a sign of weakness by HR. 

News of Dave's passing occurs on the last day of our fantastic Round 2 eight-day USS strike. Dave was a USS Trustee for UCU when he died. It falls to us to pick up the baton he left, and stand firm to the ideas he espoused - in particular the right for all staff, academic and academic-related, to retire at a chosen point with dignity.

It is not Dave's fault that we face a much more militantly neo-liberal anti-union, anti-defined benefit employer and USS Ltd management. But we do, and so we need Daves of our generation - members who will step up and defend the pension scheme that Dave was a Trustee of - in the interest of all the members of that scheme.

The best way to honour his passing is to keep up the fight. 

Cheers Dave!

Sean

Sean Wallis
¹û¶³Ó°Ôº UCU branch president
UCU NEC member

4th December 2019

*AUT merged with NATFHE to form UCU in 2006