UNISON Labour MPs signed EDM 575

London Met UNISON Branch recently wrote to all UNISON MPs in Parliament asking them to sign our EDM 575, (text to follow). It is clearly having an effect, as several more have recently signed...

See the latest list of MPs here. If you're in UNISON and you've already written to your MP/ David Lammy, then why not write to those MPs on the list who haven't yet signed. The following letter (click below for 'full post') was sent from Allan Pike, London Met UNISON Branch Secretary, on Friday 13th March:


NAME OF MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA


Dear NAME MP,

RE: Crisis at London Metropolitan University, EDM 575

I am writing to you from London Metropolitan University (LMU) UNISON branch. I gather from our union’s website that you are part of the UNISON sponsored group of MPs, so I assume our dispute here will be of interest to you.

UNISON Group of Labour MPs at Westminster


If you are already familiar with the crisis at LMU, then perhaps you’re not aware of the EDM 575 tabled by Jeremy Corbyn, which we urge you to sign today. I would also ask that you write to the Governors of London Metropolitan University (via the Chair of Governors, Peter Anwyl: Executive Director, International Students’ House, 1 Park Crescent, London W1B 1SH) as a matter of urgency calling on them to ensure that management work with staff and the trades unions to avoid cutting jobs. If you’re not already familiar with our situation, please read on.

I am writing to you to raise my very major concerns about the situation facing London Metropolitan University at the moment. As a direct result of poor financial decisions made by the management, London Metropolitan University, one of London’s newest universities specialising in education for a diverse population (thus significantly involved in the government’s policy of widening participation), is now threatened with significant staff redundancies. .

HEFCE has reduced London Metropolitan’s teaching grant by £18m / year and is clawing back £38m in over-payments as a result of inaccurate returns on student completion rates. London Metropolitan’s management are now insisting on 550 job losses (mostly in the form of redundancies) across the university within 15 months,. If this is in proportion to the number of part-timers who work at the university, 8-900 people (25% of all staff) would lose their livelihoods. This figure has risen inexplicably in the past six weeks and may rise further.

So far, they have failed to consult meaningfully with staff or unions about the crisis or the future of the university. There appears to have been no attempt to look for alternative ways of dealing with the crisis.

Our branch is greatly concerned that these job cuts throw the future viability of the university into doubt. Reductions in staffing will erode London Metropolitan University’s ability to offer high quality education to Londoners and will inflict damage on the prospects of the students who pursue their studies, often at great cost. This is nonsensical: in a recession, the government should be investing more, not less, in education. If billions of pounds are available to bail out private banks and their rich shareholders, then there is certainly funding available for education. We call on the government to step in to save the university so that staff and students do not pay for the incompetence of others through job cuts and course closures.

I would once again ask that you write to the Governors of London Metropolitan University (via the Chair of Governors, Peter Anwyl: Executive Director, International Students’ House, 1 Park Crescent, London W1B 1SH) as a matter of urgency calling on them to ensure that management work with staff and the trades unions to avoid cutting jobs. I would also ask you to support the EDM, no. 575, tabled by Jeremy Corbyn on 26.01.09 and to raise these concerns with ministers with a view to securing funding for London Metropolitan’s future.


Yours sincerely,


YOUR NAME
London Met University Branch