When unions merge: The making of the UCU

Abstract

The article examines the 2006 merger of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) to form the University and College Union (UCU). It focuses on the impact of the merger on the strategy and tactics adopted during the most significant pay dispute higher education has so far witnessed. In particular, it details internal relations within the dominant union in the dispute, the AUT, and suggests that these limited the effectiveness of mobilisation and go some way to explaining the outcome of the dispute.