Report on UCU Londonmet All-Members’ Meeting 27/06/07
At least 120 members attended this lively meeting. The meeting heard reports from Amanda Sackur (Chair UCU London Met Co-ordinating Committee) and Barry Jones (UCU Assistant General Secretary – London Region) concerning management’s refusal to accept our existing recognition agreement. and to consult with UCU. The latest development is that Governors approved plans for up to 60 redundancies (almost certainly compulsory) in three departments with more on the horizon. The meeting heard also that workloads will almost certainly increase around the University as a result. They informed the meeting of the resolutions in our support carried unanimously by the UCU Congress and by UCU’s Higher Education Committee and of the pressure on our management being exerted “informally” both by senior academics in the University and by senior figures in the Trades Union Congress. Barry assured us that the UCU Head Offices will work tirelessly in our support. The meeting also received full support from London Met Unison on behalf of non-academic staff.
Several points were raised in the reports and in discussion. Key ones included the fact that management’s secrecy means that we have no idea of the thinking behind the redundancies. Several speakers pointed out that there seems no justification for such drastic moves, especially when similar jobs are being advertised publicly. The meeting passed a motion calling for management to open the books to public scrutiny.
Although the meeting continued for the full two hours allotted, many issues remain in need of further debate and more meetings will be called as soon as any more information is available. However, a “multi-track” approach was agreed, involving:
- Pursuing all possible legal routes to challenge management’s current attempts to avoid genuine consultation over possible redundancies
- Moving as fast as possible to a ballot on industrial action (The committee stated categorically that although the ballot should be as wide as possible in scope to allow for all eventualities, any particular form of action will be thoroughly discussed with members before a final decision is taken)
- Demonstrations to attract publicity and reveal our anger at the outrageous behaviour of our maverick management.
- Public “political” campaigning to bring the behaviour of London Met’s management to the widest possible audience and to apply pressure.
- An international boycott of London Met (which is already agreed by the union nationally).
Please also circulate details of the online petition to everyone you know, asking them to sign and send it on. This petition is attracting a lot of support (1100 at the last count); members watched the number of signatures rising during the meeting. It can be found at: www.petitiononline.com/lmufight
It was agreed that this crisis will determine what it is like to work at London Met in the future. If we do not fight this with every possible weapon at our disposal, we will find ourselves missing many of our colleagues, vulnerable to ever-increasing workloads, to being picked off whenever the move to Stratford requires it and without a union to defend us. As a result it is vital that we all engage fully in a fight that, once again, has been forced upon us by a management which appears unable to understand the nature of a University.
Please contact us if you can do anything at all, however little, to help.
Best wishes,
Amanda Sackur
Chair, Co-ordinating Committee,
London Metropolitan UCU