UNISON Group of Labour MPs

The following list of MPS below have NOT (yet) signed the EDM 575, despite being part of the UNISON Group of Labour MPS:

UNISON Group of Labour MPs at Westminster

Judy Mallaber, MP for Amber Valley, and Kelvin Hopkins, MP for Luton North, are the co-chairs of the Parliamentary group.

Stephen Hepburn MP Jarrow

Andy Burnham MP Leigh

Stephen Byers MP North Tyneside

Diana Johnson MP Hull North

Lyn Brown MP West Ham

Kelvin Hopkins MP Luton North

Des Browne MP Kilmarnock and Loudoun

Patrick Hall MP Bedford

Katy Clark MP North Ayrshire and Arran

David Heyes MP Ashton under Lyne

Mary Creagh MP Wakefield

Brian Donohoe MP Cunningham South

Adam Ingram MP East Kilbride

Sharon Hodgson MP Gateshead East and Washington West

Hazel Blears MP Salford

Linda Gilroy MP Plymouth Sutton

David Blunkett MP Sheffield Brightside

Charlotte Atkins MP Staffordshire Moorlands

Ben Chapman MP Wirral South

Angela Eagle MP Wallasey

Richard Burden MP Birmingham Northfield

Helen Jones MP Warrington North

Eric Joyce MP Falkirk

Jane Kennedy MP Liverpool Wavertree

Sadiq Khan MP Tooting

Andrew MacKinlay MP Thurrock

Fiona Mactaggart MP Slough

Judy Mallaber MP Amber Valley

Michael Meacher MP Oldham West and Royton

Gilly Merron MP Lincoln

Anne Moffat MP East Lothian

Laura Moffatt MP Crawley

Dan Norris MP Wansdyke

Albert Owen MP Ynys Môn

Greg Pope MP Hyndburn

Dawn Primarolo MP Bristol South

Andrew Reed MP Loughborough

Terry Rooney MP Bradford North

Martin Salter MP Reading West

Jonathan Shaw MP Chatham and Aylesford

Gerry Sutcliffe MP Bradford South

Paddy Tipping MP Sherwood

Paul Truswell MP Pudsey

Keith Vaz MP Leicester East

Alan Whitehead MP Southampton Test

We will delete each name from this list when they have signed our motion for debate in Parliament. Read EDM 575 and see who has signed up here. Please update us when they do sign up. And, if you're in UNISON, perhaps you'll want to write to those above who haven't yet, to ask them why not. See here for a model letter to UNISON Labour MPs. The following MPs have signed our EDM, 575 so far (1st April - will be updated): Corbyn, Jeremy Cryer, Ann Spink, Bob Jones, Lynne McDonnell, John Simpson, Alan Cohen, Harry Dismore, Andrew Wareing, Robert N Campbell, Ronnie Caton, Martin Thornberry, Emily Drew, David Gerrard, Neil Palmer, Nick Flynn, Paul Galloway, George Strang, Gavin Vis, Rudi Kaufman, Gerald Dobson, Frank Abbott, Diane Austin, John Featherstone, Lynne Hoey, Kate Dhanda, Parmjit Hamilton, Fabian Clapham, Michael Wright, David Willott, Jenny Gibson, Ian Goldsworthy, Julia Borrow, David S Wood, Mike Walley, Joan Foster, Michael Jabez Singh, Marsha Anderson, David Baker, Norman Taylor, David McDonnell, Alasdair Cruddas, Jon

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Jeremy Corbyn, MP confirmed to speak at UNISON members meeting tomorrow

Sorry for late notice if you haven't already seen this:

North Campus UNISON members meeting:

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:

• Jeremy Corbyn, MP (Lab)
• JON RICHARDS, UNISON, SENIOR NATIONAL OFFICER
• Harry Lister, UNISON Regional Officer

Come along and find out what is happening

IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY A MEMBER PLEASE COME ALONG AND FIND OUT MORE ABOUT US

Thursday 5th March
1-2pm TMG-58
(Tower Building, Holloway Rd)
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A fresh start for London Met (leaflet to students)

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Writing to the papers and commenting on websites

We had a lot of press coverage to begin with. Our story is important, but it has recently disappeared from the pages of the press. One way to get us back into the news is by getting our many supporters to write letters to papers and to comment on websites that mention our story.

And to comment on blogs, including emailing supportive bloggers, such as this supporter. There are more and more blogs that carry our news, some of them devoted to the Crisis at London Met or parts of it. Link on their comments section to our blog here, if they haven't already found us.

Some tips on writing letters to newspapers:

• Keep your letter short (approx 200 wds max)
• Stick to the point. Keep to just one or two points.
  
• Reference the article you are responding to.
  
• Write it straight away, while it's fresh in your mind. You'll meet the deadline for publishing letters and be the first into their inbox.
• Include your name and address, tell them what you do and don't want published eg your full address, real name, etc.
  
• Mark you letter clearly 'for publication' in the subject header.
  
• Call up the paper if they haven't published it, ask them (politely) why not.

Some tips on commenting on websites and blogs:

Much the same applies, except you're automatically publishing yourself. But remember:

• Don't rant.
• Keep to the facts.
• Don't make it personal, don't let people wind you up and get into abuse.
• Link to this site for reference. The more people coming to this site the more people likely to take action to support our case.
• Consider using a webname - London Met staff might want to avoid using their real names for fear of victimisation at work. It won't be the first time it's happened, so it's advisable to think of an original name and stick to it.
  
• Don't get bogged down in circular arguments. You've made your point, now move on to getting that letter to Gordon Brown finished...
  

Some more letter writing tips coming soon (suggestions welcome). There are two great letters you can use on our website as examples. One here, and another here. More to follow.

Become a fully active media watch campaigner:

If you've started leaving comments on blogs and written letters to your MP, the Government, the editor of all the papers and everyone else you can think of, keep an eye out for more stories online. To become a media watch campaigner, you need to know every time there is an article about us online so you can leave a comment or write to the paper. Follow these steps:

1. Do a Google search for "London Metropolitan University" in the 'news' part of google, like this
2. At the bottom of the page, click on Create an email alert for London Metropolitan University
3. Fill in your email and select your preference (eg everyday, every week).
4. Click on 'Create Alert'.

You will now get reglular updates on news articles online about London Met sent to your email. If it's about the cuts, then click on it read it and leave a quick comment or write to the paper.

Send any links to good articles or letters to us so we can post them up. We may have missed them. Or put a link to those stories in to the comments section of this blog, below.

Finally, get your friends, students or staff, workmates and family members to do the same. Pass this on to them by clicking on the envelope symbol below to email this post... spread the word. We need to win the war of words, so get writing.
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Model Letter to MP (from student)

House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Dear

I am a student at the London Metropolitan University. I am very worried by reports in the press.

The Guardian Newspaper reports that “A senior union official has described the financial crisis at London's largest university, where major mistakes in recording student drop-out rates have led to an overpayment of £56m in government funding, as "unprecedented in higher education". Up to 500 staff jobs at London Metropolitan University are now said to be at risk after its management proposed large-scale redundancies to balance the books.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/03/brian-roper

We have been told nothing by our university and in this vacuum rumours are rife. The latest news is that up to 800 members of staff may lose their jobs. We the students and our tutors have done nothing wrong. Yet we are presented with the suggestion that this, the largest university in London, may fall as a result of a dispute between the university’s management and Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce).

This is wrong. Firstly we need to know the real truth of the situation and secondly we insist on the need for this matter to be resolved in such a way that it does not impact on students, tutors or their courses.

How is it possible that Hefce accepted these returns in the past without checking? Why were these errors (if there were any) not picked up by the University’s financial departments, their auditors or by Hefce themselves? Why is the government not rescuing the university if it has the means to pay billions of pounds to bail out private banks?

If errors have been made then the guilty parties should be punished, not the blameless students or our tutors.

I wish to protest at my own situation and that of “2,300 (full-time equivalent) staff and 34,000 students” (figures from the Guardian.) I seek reassurance that the position of my university and its staff is secure.
Yours faithfully
Signed .........................................
Address .........................................
.........................................
.........................................
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Model Letter to (Minister for Higher Ed) David Lammy

Rt Hon David Lammy
Minister of State for Higher Education
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA


Dear Mr Lammy,

London Metropolitan University is the largest university in London and I study there. It has 35,000 students and the equivalent of 2,300 full time staff. Press reports on the BBC, in the Evening Standard, Guardian, Independent, Times Educational Section and the local press are really frightening.

They tell us that the university will have to pay back £50 million (Independent on Sunday) and that 700 members of staff could lose their jobs (Times Higher Education). Clearly this would be the end of our university. What will become of my course, my tutors, my university and me?
I have planned my life around my study and I am deeply anxious that the University will not be there if these cuts go ahead.

Whoever made mistakes in funding it wasn’t me or my tutors. Surely if mistakes were made then those who made the mistakes should pay – not me or my fellow students.

In any case surely the funding authority has some responsibility? They accepted these figures for three years and now want to claw back the money.

At a time when universities are being encouraged to widen their educational base it seems utterly crazy to scrap the careers of 35,000 students and 2,300 full time staff in central London. If your government has billions of pounds to spend on banks and pay-offs to rich bankers, why can it not rescue the university?

The press is aware of the problems and we will not go quietly.

Please confirm that my university will be allowed to continue and prosper with or without its current management.

Yours faithfully,

Signed .........................................
Address .........................................
.........................................
.........................................
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Model Letter to MP (from staff)

House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA



Dear

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.

As well as fearing for my own future, I am 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 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,
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