Support London Met workers

This is the latest information I have received about the campaign against redundancies at London Metropolitan University;

As you know, London Met UCU and London Met Unison have been conducting a major campaign to oppose our management's insistence on the loss of 550 FTE posts - which may eventually result in up to 700 job losses (1/4 of our entire workforce). Both unions won overwhelming endorsement for industrial action in industrial action ballots, and UCU took an initial day's strike action in May, followed by joint strike action with Unison in July. UCU also initiated ‘greylisting’ against the university on September 1st and this is already having a major impact (please see http://www.lmuucu.devisland.net/lmuucu-greylist-010909.html for further details)

However, despite forcing management to slowdown their redundancy plans and to postpone attempts to outsource vital services such as IT, they still appear hell bent on mass compulsory redundancies. They are also now planning on closing the last remaining on-campus student nursery – this will in itself specifically, and negatively, impact on the lives of very many women returners to education.

Both unions have therefore voted to escalate our industrial action campaign and this will commence with a joint UCU/Unison university-wide two day strike on Thursday and Friday (October 15th/16th) of this week.

JOINT UCU/UNISON STRIKE – THURSDAY/FRIDAY 15TH/16TH OCTOBER

Our picket lines will commence at 8am at each of our main campus buildings in Holloway Road, Moorgate, Aldgate East, and Whitechapel (see http://savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com/2009/10/support-our-strike-join-pickets-thurs.html for details). We are also planning on holding a mass rally during the strike (details to follow – please check our website for the latest information).

Please make every effort to join us in the morning on our picket lines and to send delegations (and banners) from your branches to our rally in the afternoon. Further updates will be posted on our blog: http://savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com and website http://www.lmuucu.devisland.net. You can also email your messages of support to: unisonlondonmet@googlemail.com and lmuucu@devisland.net

On the picket line

I was pleased to be able to spend some time with the pickets at London Metropolitan University this morning.

I spent an hour outside Central House and in that time just a couple of strikebreakers went in, two postal deliveries were turned away - and a number of passers by asked for directions!

The joint official strike action by Unison and UCU members is a very necessary response to the massive job cuts threatened because of past mismanagement and the continuing refusal of the Higher Education Funding Council to prevent staff and students paying for errors for which they are not responsible.

Branch duties will keep me away from the lunchtime rally - noon outside Central House.However it looks likely that there will need to be further action to protect jobs and services at London Met - check out the joint union Blog for regular updates.

Support London Met strikers

I have received this message on behalf of workers at London Metropolitan University;

Dear fellow trade unionists,

This is to both update you on the situation at London Metropolitan University and to thank you for the many messages of support and help offered to our campaign over the last few months.

As you know, London Met UCU and London Met Unison have been conducting a major campaign to oppose our management's insistence on the loss of 550 FTE posts - which may result in up to 800 job losses (1/4 of our entire workforce). Both unions have won overwhelming endorsement for industrial action in recent ballots, and UCU took an initial day's strike action in May. However, as the threat of job cuts (including compulsory redundancies currently scheduled for the end of July) has so far not been lifted, we have decided we now need to escalate our action.

To that end we shall initially be taking a joint UCU/Unison university-wide one day strike next Tuesday (July 14th).

JOINT UCU/UNISON STRIKE – TUESDAY 14TH JULY (BASTILLE DAY)

Our picket lines will commence at 8am at each of our main campus buildings in Holloway Road, Moorgate, Aldgate East, and Whitechapel (see the blog for details).

In addition we will be holding a mass rally from 12-1pm outside our Central House Building (just opposite Aldgate East tube on the District line), before sending a delegation to the Dept of Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), in Victoria (opposite St James Park tube) to hand-in a 3,500+ petition, demanding a full public inquiry and a halt to the job cuts at London Met, to Peter Mandleson.

Please make every effort to join us in the morning on our picket lines and to send delegations (and banners) from your branches to our rally in the afternoon. Further updates will be posted on our blog: http://savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com.

We believe that the situation at London Met, though very specific on the one-hand re the serious financial mismanagement of our institution, is also far too generic re the response of university/college management generally to attack staff, students, and the very education ideals we believe in, to pay for either their own, or Government induced, financial crisis, or to use the threat of financial crisis to remould the shape of education institutions to the dictates of what can best be described as the failed neo-liberal market model of education. We are only the tip of the iceberg, as the threat to jobs at 100+ institutions across both FE and HE indicates. This is therefore not simply our fight, but one of the first salvos in a much bigger fight for the sort of education system that all of us - students, staff, community, deserve.

Please join us.

In Solidarity.

Mark...

Mark Campbell
UCU Co-ordinating Committee - London Metropolitan University
UCU National Executive