Sally Colette Hunt (born 1964) is a British trade union leader, the General Secretary of the Association of University Teachers until its merger into the new University and College Union (UCU), of which Hunt was the General Secretary until 2019.

Biography

Born in 1964 in Germany, where her father was teaching in a British forces school, Hunt was educated at a comprehensive school in

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...

, Wiltshire. She studied international relations at the University of Sussex from 1983 until 1987, serving as vice-president of the students' union. After leaving university, she worked as a nightclub bouncer, a bookshop assistant, and for two building society staff associations before joining the Association of University Teachers. Hunt was the last General Secretary of the Association of University Teachers (AUT), having held that post since 2002. On 1 June 2006, the AUT merged with the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) to form the UCU. As head of the AUT, she and Paul Mackney (Head of NATFHE), led industrial action, over three years until 2006, in support of a pay rise for higher education staff exceeding 20%. The actions disrupted university exams and provision of marks across the UK. In the end, members voted heavily in favour of accepting a rise of 13.1% phased over the three years, with the final year's figure subject to further increase in line with inflation. The final year's figure was to be "2.5% or RPI, whichever is greater". In the end, the RPI was at its peak and was 5%, resulting in that being the level of the final year's pay rise. Hunt also oversaw what appear to have been the biggest strikes in UK higher education history, the

2018 UK higher education strike Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short s ...

. Hunt was elected as the first General Secretary of UCU on 9 March 2007, narrowly beating main challenger Roger Kline (ex-NATFHE, and UCU Head of Equalities) by some 1346 votes after the second preference votes of third candidate Peter Jones were allocated after Jones was eliminated in an inconclusive first round. The election turnout was 13.9% out of an electorate of just over 116,000 UCU Members. She was re-elected on 2 March 2012, defeating her only opponent, Mark Campbell (ex-NATFHE, the chair of the UCU Co-ordinating Committee at London Metropolitan University and a member of the National Executive Council of UCU since 2008) by a 73% to 27% margin (or 6835 votes); Campbell was supported by the UCU Left. The turnout was 12.5% out of an electorate of 117,918. Hunt is the UCU representative to the TUC and a member of the

TUC General Council The General Council of the Trades Union Congress is an elected body which is responsible for carrying out the policies agreed at the annual British Trade Union Congresses (TUC). Organisation The council has 56 members, all of whom must be proposed ...

. Her first union job was as a senior research officer with the union later known as

ACCORD Accord may refer to: Businesses and products * Honda Accord, a car manufactured by the Honda Motor Company * Accord (cigarette), a brand of Rothmans, Benson & Hedges * Accord (company), a former public services provider in south England * Accord H ...

. Hunt was once more re-elected on 2 March 2017: 13.7% of members turned out, casting 13,724 votes, with 8,138 for Hunt and 5,586 for her contender Jo McNeill. She is married, has a daughter, and lives in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

. On 25 February 2019, UCU announced that Hunt had resigned from the post of General Secretary on health grounds after having been awarded a £400,000 'post employment payment' pay-off. She was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...

for services to industrial relations.

Notes

References

*Hunt, Sally "the AUT general secretary sets out her expectations for the coming academic year" ''AUTlook'': the magazine of the AUT; 29 Sept. 2005, p. 1

External links

Scrutineers' reportElection blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Sally Alumni of the University of Sussex British trade union leaders Living people Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress Women trade unionists People from Chippenham Presidents of the Trades Union Congress Officers of the Order of the British Empire 1964 births

Biography

See also

Notes

References

External links