United strike action at London Met Uni on 2nd July

Photo (c) Guy Smallman

• UNISON members vote 71% in favour of strike action
  
• UCU members to take further strike action in coordination with UNISON
  
• 2nd July set for combined union day of action
  
• Pickets all morning set to close down London Met Uni for a day
  
• Rally at Lunchtime (with this space for details)

We are still all reeling from the recent announcements from management that our governors are refusing to listen to staff views and that in consequence they are giving permission for management to impose compulsory redundancies. However, our anger needs to be targeted. The redundancies are not a fait accompli and we have every reason to continue to fight. As we discussed in branch meetings and via email communication, there are still several weapons in our arsenal. The news in the Times Higher Education that HEFCE may be more implicated in the fiasco than we realised, offers yet another reason to maintain our principled position against rushed and ill-planned job losses.

One of the main strengths of our campaign to save jobs and defend education at London Met is that we have been united from the start. When UCU took strike action in May UNISON stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them and provided the maximum amount of solidarity we legally could pending our own industrial action ballot. And when students occupied their department bulding over course closures, both UCU and UNISON supported their legitimate protest.

It is with satisfaction that we are able to report that UNISON members have now overwhelmingly (over 71%) voted for industrial action and have announced to members that they will be taking strike action on Thursday July 2nd.

As a result of that decision, and in line with UCU’s ballot mandate, and the position unanimously passed at recent UCU members meetings, UCU notified management that their members will join UNISON colleagues. They we will also be taking strike action on Thursday 2nd July (see UCU press release). UNISON and UCU have chosen this date to avoid hitting student assessment in order to enable our students to join us. Please urge your students to support our strike, to join us in collecting signatures outside the main doors of most buildings and to participate in our rally at lunchtime on Thursday (details here).

Please also bear in mind that to be effective, we need to make as much noise as possible. We need members outside each entrance all morning and at the rally at lunchtime.

Please pass this on to your union contacts, to your friends and family and urge them to join us and show solidarity with our strike. Our fight is your fight.

Contacts us via UCU or UNISON, and come to our pickets and rally on Thursday to show your support.
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Hefce considered ‘nuclear option’ over London Met (THES)

26 June 2009, By Melanie Newman

Dissolution was considered by funding chiefs as a ‘last resort’. Melanie Newman reports

Funding chiefs considered plans to take the “nuclear option” and dissolve London Metropolitan University during the ongoing crisis engulfing the institution.

Times Higher Education has obtained copies of ministerial correspondence that show that the Higher Education Funding Council for England considered closure, albeit as the last resort.

Read the rest of the article, with comments, here. Whoever is to blame for this mess - whether HEFCE, management of LMU, or a combination of both - it shouldn't be us staff and students who have to pay the price. If you do comment on this piece, remember our guide to writing to the media & commenting on websites here.
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Further strike action at London Met (UCU press release)

UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE UNION (UCU)
PRESS RELEASE

Thursday 25 June 2009, for immediate release

London Metropolitan University will be brought to a standstill on Thursday July 2 as members of the University and College Union (UCU) and Unison take a day’s strike action as part of their ongoing fight to save hundreds of jobs. Classes will be cancelled for the second time in two months following earlier industrial action by UCU in May.

The unions have accused the university of trying to sneak through redundancy plans that could see staff rejected for voluntary redundancy sacked on vastly inferior terms. UCU today repeated its call for London Met to come clean about why it was announcing 226 compulsory redundancies when people had been rejected for the voluntary redundancy scheme.


In total the university has announced 330 redundancies by July 2010. It has approved just 113 applications for voluntary redundancy (equivalent to 104 posts), leaving 226 posts facing the axe. The union said it knows more than 113 people applied for voluntary redundancy and is demanding to know why staff happy to leave had been rejected, leaving others to face the sack.

The union also demanded to know who was at risk, when any cuts would be made, what plans were in place to ensure the delivery of future teaching and for the university to be far more transparent with its plans. The announcement of 226 compulsory redundancies in the next 13 months was described as ‘another slap in the face’ for staff at the beleaguered institution.

There has been no guarantee from the university that individuals rejected from the voluntary scheme will keep their jobs and many may find themselves sacked with a vastly inferior redundancy settlement. The union said today that LMU’s senior management needed to assure staff they would not be victims of a ‘cynical ploy to circumnavigate good employment practice’.

The union has already called for an independent inquiry into the current mess at the institution and today voiced concerns that there is no evidence of a strategy for the delivery of teaching in the next academic year, despite a potentially vastly reduced workforce.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “The situation at London Met is bad enough as it is and industrial action was the last thing we wanted to see. However, the institution’s failing management has left us with no other option. It is absolutely outrageous that staff at the institution who entered the voluntary redundancy scheme in good faith may find their application rejected and then be sacked anyway.

“This looks like little more than a cynical ploy to circumnavigate good employment practice and we will not stand for it. We need a guarantee now that no staff will suffer this fate and a further guarantee that the university will commit to proper consultation before any further rounds of redundancies. UCU and Unison members at LMU have the full support of the national union in their action and can rest assured that we will be fighting the dangerous redundancy plans all the way.”

The university has been hit by funding cuts and repayment demands totalling millions of pounds following inaccurate reporting of the number of students completing courses. Its funding was cut by £15million a year and a further £36.5million has to be repaid for previous years' over-funding. The university’s response to the crisis was to announce plans to axe at least 550 posts, which equates to 800 staff actually at risk (one quarter of the workforce).


contacts:

Alex Rossiter t: 020 7756 2598; m: 07977 562 686; e: arossiter@ucu.org.uk


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London Met was 'reassured' about non-completion threat (THES)

25 June 2009, By Melanie Newman

Hefce's rules would not be applied 'literally', says a university briefing. Melanie Newman reports

Funding chiefs reassured London Metropolitan University that rules on student dropouts would not be strictly applied before ordering it to repay tens of millions of pounds for breaching them, according to an internal university report obtained by Times Higher Education.

The university is facing clawbacks of up to £36.5 million and is planning to cut 550 jobs after drastically under-reporting the number of non-completing students.

Read the rest of the article, with comments, here. Whoever is to blame for this mess - whether HEFCE, management of LMU, or a combination of both - it shouldn't be us staff and students who have to pay the price. If you do comment on this piece, remember our guide to writing to the media & commenting on websites here.
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MET LECTURERS AND STUDENTS PROTEST (WRP)

Staff and students at London Metropolitan University will protest from 4.00pm on Monday in their ongoing fight to save over 550 jobs.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) will lobby London Met’s board of governors as they meet for crunch talks at the university’s Moorgate building.

Following inaccurate reporting of the number of students completing courses, the university’s funding was cut by £15 million a year and a further £36.5 million has to be repaid for previous years’ alleged over-funding.

The university’s response to the crisis was to announce plans to axe at least 550 jobs, which equates to 800 staff actually at risk (one quarter of the workforce).

The UCU yesterday repeated its calls for a full independent public inquiry into the financial mess at London’s biggest university.

Despite serious accusations from MPs of collusion between London Metropolitan University (LMU) and the funding body (HEFCE), the government last month reversed its decision to hold an independent inquiry.

On Thursday May 7th UCU members went on strike after the university said it was pushing ahead with a voluntary redundancy scheme that the union argued had no strategy behind it.

Students at the institution have also staged an occupation in support of their lecturers.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: ‘It’s time the management faced up to their errors and stopped punishing the staff for their mistakes. The government must not shirk its responsibility either. We need a fully independent public inquiry.’
http://www.wrp.org.uk/news/4319

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Uni lecturers plan protest over cuts in posts (East London Advertiser)

12 June 2009, By Mike Brooke

LECTURERS at London Met University protest on Monday (June 15) in their ongoing fight to save hundreds of university posts.

They are lobbying from 4pm the London Metropolitan University's board of governors who meet for 'crunch' talks at the Moorgate campus building.

The university has been hit by Government funding cuts and repayment demands of millions following inaccurate reporting of student numbers completing courses. Its budget has been cut by £15 million a year and a further £36m has to be repaid for previous years.

INQUIRY CALL

The university responded with plans to axe 550 jobs, equaling 800 staff at risk, a-quarter of the workforce.

Members of the University & College Union today (Friday) repeated its calls for an independent public inquiry in to the financial mess at London's biggest university, which has 54,000 students enrolled.

Union general secretary Sally Hunt said: "It's time the university's management faced up to their errors and stopped punishing staff for their mistakes.

"The Government must not shirk its responsibility either-we need a public inquiry."

Lecturers went on strike on May 7. Students also staged an occupation at the Whitechapel campus supporting the lecturers.


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London Met protests over jobs cull (UCU)

12 June 2009

Staff and students at London Metropolitan University will protest from 4pm on Monday 15 June in their ongoing fight to save over 550 jobs.

Members of the UCU will lobby London Met's board of governors as they meet for crunch talks at the university's Moorgate building (see directions below).

Read the rest here.
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UNISON ballot for strike action

The second issue of 'Save London Met Uni' newsletter, with details of the UNISON ballot for strike action, is now available. (See here for a link to the PDF version -- email if you want to distribute paper copies.)

Photo (c) Guy Smallman

See your local union reps for printed copies of these to distribute,. The ballots are in the post, to UNISON members sent out today. UNISON members should have them by the weekend. Vote straight away.

For UNISON Members
The ballot opens on 10th June, deadline for voting is 24th June. Vote as soon as you get your ballot paper. If you’re a member of London Met UNISON branch and no ballot arrives by 15th June, call Diana Da Silva right away: 020 7535 6609 before 22nd June, midday, or email D.DaSilva@unison.co.uk with the following details: your name, address, membership number, reason for ballot (eg 'not received' or 'spoilt paper').

FOR ALL STAFF
Pass this email on to your workmates and colleagues to encourage them to join one of the recognised trades unions: London Met Uni UNISON & UCU Branches are run democratically by their members and elected committees. It is not too late to join and take part in UNISON’s vote to go on strike to protest against the cuts at London Met. Go here to join (or re-join if your membership has lapsed): http://www.unison.org.uk/join/ call 0845 355 0845 to ask for a UNISON application form, or ask your nearest local union rep for a membership form.

FOR ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF:
Come to the joint campaign meeting for students and staff

* Monday 15th June
* 12.30-2.00pm
* (Moorgate Building, MGG-07)

Our campaign has been united from the start. UNISON members have stood shoulder to shoulder with lecturers in UCU and showed them solidarity when they went out on strike. UCU have pledged to support any UNISON action as well (more photos here). Students at John Cass occupied parts of Commercial Road in May to save their staff and courses. This will be a great chance to meet at the end of term to discuss the way forward for our campaign. Come with ideas, your work mates, fellow students, and your enthusiasm to win.

LOBBY BOARD OF GOVERNORS
The Governors meet on the 15th June at Moorgate building (though look out for last minute changes again to try to avoid us). We will also be there to lobby them hard. Join us in a public display of solidarity with those being forced out this year, being made unemployed in the middle of a recession:

• When? 4pm
• Where? Moorgate Building, (Moorgate Tube)
• What? Lobby of London Met Board of Governors
• Why? To Save jobs at London Met!

It is the Board who will be deciding on our demands about compulsory redundancies, on the alternative proposals against outsourcing, and on the compensation scheme that we get if there are any compulsory redundancies…. It is vital we show them loud and clear we are watching them and expect them to decide in our favour.

Details of building here: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/about/moorgate.cfm
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