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Dear All, I am sure most of you know about this disgraceful attack on our colleagues at Keele. There is a petition to be signed - follow the link below - and more details of how we can give solidarity will be posted soon. Phil ________________________________ From: Union Ideas Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 18 December 2007 00:37 To: Philip Taylor Subject: Union Ideas Network Newsletter - December 2007 Union Ideas Network Newsletter - December 2007 URGENT: Industrial Relations at Keele One of the last remaining Industrial Relations departments in the UK is facing the axe. In December 2007, senior management at Keele University announced proposal to close all industrial relations / human resource management programmes as part of a 'restructuring' of the School of Management and Economic Studies resulting in 38 out of 67 staff being sacked, including 10 from the 12 in the Industrial Relations group. The plan was presented to the University Council on 6th December 2007 by Janet Finch, Keele's Vice-Chancellor and 'leaked' to staff on 7th December. The 'plan' was formulated in complete secrecy and involved just a handful of senior management including two temporary managers, Dr John Green (Chief Co-ordinating Officer) and Claire Appleby (Human Resources Manager) - both from Imperial College, London. All this has been done behind the backs of staff and unions. Normal consultation and decision-making processes have been bypassed: Senate and Faculties had no knowledge of senior management plans and have been given no opportunity to debate the proposals. The livelihood of the Vice Chancellor, Janet Finch, is ensured, however, after she taken a 31.7% pay rise last year to bring her annual salary to £212,000. At an Emergency General Meeting on 17th December, the University and College Union (UCU) at Keele voted to fight the 'proposals' and instigate an immediate ballot for industrial action. Staff at Keele need your support. Details of how you can help will be posted on the UIN website shortly but in the meantime, please sign the solidarity guestbook at: http://uin.org.uk/content/view/262/66/ Union Ideas Network - Future Issues.... Over the next 12 months the UIN will be hosting articles and features around the following themes. Month Theme January '08 Union Reps February '08 Public Services March '08 China April '08 Health and Safety May '08 Unions and the Environment June '08 Vulnerable Workers September '08 Ten Years of Organising October '08 Employment Law November '08 Critical Labour Studies If you want to contribute, please email us at [log in to unmask] UK Trade Unions, Lifelong Learning and the UK Skills 'Crisis' Union participation in learning and skills is historically specific, conditioned by changes in the UK political economy, unions relations with industry and government, and practical considerations including providing members and activists with what they want. The agenda remains economistic: privileging the workplace and exposing employer's lack of commitment to staff development; recently creating headroom for an instrumental industrial (depoliticised) union learning agenda. Union activity in learning is creating new functional specialists from 'hard to reach' groups, but there is less evidence that it is spearheading improved collective bargaining arrangments or attracting new members. (Tom Farnhill) Read More... <http://http:/uin.org.uk/content/view/258/64/> New TUC Course: Organising and the use of Strategic Corporate Research 11th to 14th February 2008 and 12th to 16th May 2008 Read More <http://www.tuc.org.uk/organisation/tuc-13826-f0.cfm> The Union Ideas Network is pleased to announce that leading trade union solicitors Browells has made a generous donation to the UIN to keep it running through 2007/2008.