Northumberland College lecturer made union president

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Posted by The Journal on Mar 16, 10 09:15 AM in News

A lecturer from the North East has been elected to the top role of her trade union.

Kathy Taylor, who works at Northumberland College, has been made the new president of the University and College Union (UCU).

She beat candidates from Lancashire and London in an election that will see her serve as vice-president for two years before becoming national president in 2012. She has been a lecturer at the college in Ashington since 1986 and was until recently head of the business, administration and trade union studies department.

She has been active in the union for many years and was branch secretary at Northumberland College for 10 years, leading two successful campaigns against compulsory redundancies. Ms Taylor, who lives at Stakeford in Northumberland, said: "I am delighted to have been elected president of UCU.

"I hope to use my presidency to defend colleges and universities against savage funding cuts which are being compounded by the rampant privatisation of the adult education sector.

"I want to defend staff against the endless attacks on their conditions of service and threats to their jobs, often by inadequate employers who seem more interested in generating profits than supporting staff to deliver quality education and training for the people they are meant to serve."

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