My friend Agnes Flues, who has died suddenly aged 42, was a courageous and principled trade unionist. She was branch president of the University and College Union (UCU) at Nottingham University from 2020 to the summer of 2023, when she relinquished the position following her election to the union’s national executive committee.
During her time as branch president, Agnes led local strike action to challenge (successfully) harmful changes to the pension scheme. She was the public face of the branch – speaking at rallies, talking to the media and working with students and the community to win support for the campaign.
Agnes first became active in the UCU during the first wave of pension strikes in 2018. The dispute had a transformative impact on her and she quickly became involved in the union: helping to organise picket lines, becoming UCU departmental representative in the school of law and joining the branch committee. She won the respect and support of union members, and she was a popular choice for branch president when the position became vacant.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, to Annaliese and Stefan Flues, Agnes moved to Italy with her mother when she was five. As a student she completed a BA in international relations and human rights, and a MA in political institutions of human rights and peace at the Università degli Studi di Padova.
It was her pursuit of a European master’s degree in human rights and democratisation at what was then the European Inter-University Centre in Lido, Venice, that first brought her to UK. She arrived at the University of Nottingham in 2008 on her semester abroad before beginning work at the school of law’s Human Rights Law centre later in the same year.
Initially starting as a student intern, Agnes went on to the serve as the centre’s coordinator for a decade, managing the production of research, publications and events focused on the protection of human rights globally.
Additionally, Agnes represented union members in countless meetings with university management during the Covid pandemic and also played a leading part in developing and presenting the branch’s alternative financial strategy. This provided a forensic critique of how national and local financial strategies were progressively dismantling any concept of the public university.
Alongside roles in UCU at Nottingham and on the union’s national executive committee, Agnes was UCU East Midlands regional secretary and vice-chair of Nottinghamshire Trades Council.
It was also in Nottingham that she met her partner, Manuel Peña, when they moved into the same shared house in 2009. They became a couple in 2012, sharing keen interests in music, films, travel and Liverpool FC. Most recently Agnes played a key role supporting the school of law’s research and knowledge exchange activity.
Agnes is survived by Manuel and her parents.
