NEW STRIKE DATE SET FOR LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY (UNISON press release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8 JULY 2009

NEW STRIKE DATE SET FOR LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

More than 300 UNISON members at London Metropolitan University will finally take to the streets next Tuesday (14 July) in a day of strike action over job cuts.

University management had put a stop to the strike on 2 July, as they denied receiving legal notification of the action.

But the UK’s largest public sector union will push ahead with protest plans after a strike ballot - held after negotiations to avoid compulsory redundancies broke down - showed that 71.5 per cent of members wanted industrial action.

The university is set to make 330 posts redundant by July 2010 and has approved just 113 applications for voluntary redundancy, leaving 226 posts facing the axe.


A further 200 vacant posts are to be lost over the same period, taking it to a total of 500 jobs, or 25 per cent of the staff.

The move follows the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE) announcement that there would be a £15 million funding cut.

The university had inaccurately reported the number of students taking courses and the HEFCE is demanding £36.5 million worth of overfunding back.

Jon Richards, UNISON’s Head of Higher Education, said:

“London Metropolitan University put a stop to our plans to strike, but we refuse to step down and ignore their deplorable actions.

“The fact we had to cancel action on 2 July to be certain workers would not be victimised has further fuelled our fight.

“We have tried to work with management to avoid redundancies since the university went into financial crisis, but have been left with no choice.

“Even though hundreds of workers are set to lose their jobs the university failed to implement a proper voluntary redundancy scheme.

“We are working hard to protect staff and students and believe that the funding council and the Government should be doing the same.”

UNISON has 328 members at London Met who work as clerical and admin staff, as technicians, library staff and in the facilities department.

The union is working with UCU and NUS in the campaign to challenge the cuts.

Ends

For more information please contact the UNISON Press Office on 0207 551 1255.