Union Council votes to boycott water company

The Union Council meeting on Monday 16 January resulted in a contentious boycott of the University’s water supplier, Eden Springs Ltd, being adopted by the Students’ Union (SU), in addition to seeing several components of the Democracy Review debated and implemented.

The proposal to introduce several transformative changes to the Sabbatical Officer roles in time for the 2012 Officer Elections passed. There has not been a substantial reform of the Sabbatical Officers for five years. Key changes included the alteration of the title of Welfare Officer to Welfare and Campaigns Officer, and more controversially, introducing a new Postgraduate Officer. There was also a merger of the Democracy and Union Development Offices into a single Democracy and Development Officer.

Democracy Officer Chris Luck supported the amalgamation of the roles, stating that “it was a common sense move. It’s an acknowledgement that those roles independently don’t fill up a person’s workload and attract similar people.” The scrapping of the two separate roles was also done to enable the introduction of the Postgraduate Officer.

Luck said that the new office was necessary: “Postgraduates comprise forty per cent of the student population, and we’re not good at representing them, particularly as Sabbatical roles are traditionally filled by undergraduates with no experience of postgraduate experience.”

President of the Students’ Union Leo Boe said that a “redistribution of the roles was necessary in order to balance responsibilities more evenly, particularly as the Education Officer had too heavy a workload in comparison to other positions.”

Part-Time Officer roles also came under scrutiny, with the number of Part-Time Officer roles being reduced from 30 to just eight. Moreover, changes were introduced to the selection of the remaining positions. Luck said that “electing people on a constituency basis works better than elections by cross-campus ballots”.

The closest vote of the night was on the proposed boycott of Eden Springs. The motion passed with 25 votes for, and 21 against. The policy calls for the University to terminate its contract with Eden Springs UK Ltd, the company who currently supply the University with water for its water coolers. The boycott was based on the company’s supposedly disputable ethics; Eden Springs Ltd is an Israeli company which extracts water from the Salukia Spring in the Golan Heights, which are Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

Jasper Pearce, a third-year Councillor, voted in favour of the motion. He said that he felt it “was important that no student should be deterred from drinking the water around campus as a result of their politics”, adding that “it makes much more sense to stock a brand that is less controversial.”

Kit Long, also a third-year Councillor, was critical of the boycott, stating that “the Eden Springs boycott illustrates the ideological zeal of many Councillors” and that rather than focusing “on the pressing issues for the student body, some Councillors are intent on carving out a foreign policy for our Union”.

Boe also voted against the proposal, and argued that “the meeting didn’t give Councillors the opportunity to understand the full complexity of the political situation. It was naive to assume… that it would impact upon the Israeli economy as much as they seemed to think it would.”

He also said: “Eden Springs in the UK is a company in its own right and it’s very tenuous to think that by Warwick ending its contract with Eden Springs UK, which is sourced in the UK and employs British people, it will impact negatively upon the parent company, and that the Golan Heights will go back to Syria.

“It’s not enough of a justification to implement a boycott. Also, no one considered… that the company have won a number of awards for its environmental consciousness.”

The policy mandates the Union to lobby the University to cancel the contract with Eden Springs UK. The University is part of a consortium which works together to get cheap water. There are concerns over the extent of autonomy that Warwick has over this contract, or even whether it might have to leave the consortium altogether. Boe said that it could make the water more expensive “as it won’t be bought collectively.” This raises concerns about where the extra money would come from, and how it may negatively impact upon students.

Eden Springs UK were unavilable for comment at the time of going to print. A response will be made available online as soon as possible.

Proxy voting also came under discussion. A proposal passed which will ensure that proxy votes will be submitted by the person who is giving their vote, rather than the person who is holding it.

The Living Wage Campaign proposal was soundly defeated. While the Union is working towards introducing the living wage, it is not in the position to implement it this year. Presently, Union staff earn £5.93 an hour, in addition to holiday pay, which is not incorporated into the hourly wage.

The argument centred around whether or not holiday pay is distinct from the hourly wage. The proposal called for the Living Wage with holiday pay as separate. The Living Wage is set at £7.20 an hour, something which the SU is striving towards. If holiday pay is seen as separate, the hourly wage would actually be a total of £7.74.

Such a rise was considered “impossible to implement” by Luck. He said it would force the Union to dismiss staff members or to cut back on student services. Luck said that he was “happy that the amendment was defeated on the basis that £7.74 an hour would mean a significant risk to the Union.”

Third-year student Ben Jones expressed disappointment at the Council decision, but said that “it won’t stop the students of this Union campaigning for a fair and just income for its hard working staff, in accordance with the policy that has been on the Union’s books for ages.”

_Note: The paper edition of this story reads: “Third-year councillor Ben Jones”. Correction: Ben Jones is not a Union Councillor._