I would like to support Ben in his request.
I attended the recent UCU annual congress at Bournemouth as a visitor, and heard the full description of the ways in which the management of London Metropolitan have been trying to take advantage of the merger of the two former universities to wriggle out of their recognition of UCU as the trade union representing the university's academic staff. The story drew gasps of incredulity from the relatively hardened Congress delegates.
This is rank bad bully-boy management, and the university leadership should be encouraged by all means to rethink their posture.
Jonathan Rosenhead
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From: Operational Research community on behalf of Ben Atkinson
Sent: Thu 05/07/2007 18:54
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: OR and Union Busting
I apologise for the fact that this message is not directly about OR.
It is about a certain style of management.
It is about the way in which the senior management team at one particular UK
university is treating its academic staff, threatening to make compulsory
redundancies while simultaneously denying staff the right to representation
by their union.
On second thoughts, perhaps this message is actually about OR. Good OR is
about offering managers good advice in the matter of making important
decisions. I would like to suggest that this management team is in need of
such advice.
If you agree, would you please sign the on-line petition to the governors of
London Metropolitan University, which states:
"We, the undersigned, wish to protest at the refusal of London Met
management to consult UCU, the recognised trade union, over any issue but
most particularly over threatened redundancies. We urge you to insist that
the Vice Chancellor acknowledges that UCU is the recognised union
representing academic staff at London Met, and that he enters into
meaningful discussions with UCU officers as a matter of urgency on
threatened redundancies and other outstanding issues."
The petition can be found at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/lmufight/petition.html
Thank you
Ben Atkinson
Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/secretariat/legal/disclaimer.htm
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