Passing a Student Union Motion
Your student union buys hoodies for union officers and societies, and may also be responsible for ordering and selling university and college merchandise. The student union executive are bound by student union policy, so you can pass a motion committing the union to use suppliers who can guarantee that workers’ rights have been respected at every stage of production.
You can also use the motion to make the Student Union commit to research the production conditions for general university merchandise, and campaign for this to be sweatshop-free.
Different unions work in slightly different ways but there are usually a permanent representative Union Council and/or a Union General Meeting (UGM) where Union policy is set. Find out details from your SU. There are usually four stages to go through:
1) Get the motion onto the UGM/Union Council agenda.
Find out when the next UGM/Union Council is and the deadline for getting a motion onto the meeting agenda. When you submit the motion you’ll usually need the names of two people, one to propose and one to second the motion. These people will need to be prepared to speak on the motion at the UGM/ Union Council.
2) Write the motion.
Sabbaticals may help you with this.
Motions are usually structured in three sections:
1.“This Union notes”: the facts that underpin the motion.
2.“This Union believes”: the principles that mean the Union should act on them.
3.“This Union resolves”: what you want the union to do.
3) Attend the UGM/Union Council.
Get as many supporters as you can along to the meeting: publicise it, and maybe hold an event like a debate beforehand to get people interested. Hand out leaflets to people as they go into the meeting so that they know what the campaign is about.
Be prepared to answer questions during the debate. The discussion will probably take the form someone proposing the motion (speaking in favour), then a balanced debate of alternating discussions in favour and against.
The motion can be amended, so if there is one sticking point you can delete it or vote on it separately and keep the rest (of course this means it can end up watered down - or occasionally improved!).
4) After the UGM/Union Council
Meet up with the Sabbatical officers to work out how they’re going to follow through on what was voted on.
