From the UCU union today... please read and forward to relevant people.
Some background for those not in the know: For the past few years, LMU
has claimed that it has had more students than it really has. Either
management were not clever enough to notice, turned a blind eye, or
deliberately fiddled their books. Either way, the government noticed
this, and demanded that they pay back the millions of extra pounds given
to them over the past few years. Now management are taking it out on the
workers for their own dishonesty/ineptitude, threatening to make
hundreds redundant and cuts across the board.
Please respect the greylist, and encourage others to do the same, until
this dispute is settled.
Thanks
--
Dear colleague,
As you will know, I seldom email you directly and only do so when I feel
that a situation is extremely important to our union. As such, it is
with regret that I write to you today to formally notify you of the
greylisting of London Metropolitan University (LMU). Those of you who
have been in the union since its inception or were in one of the
predecessor unions, AUT or NATFHE, will be aware that this is the most
serious sanction available to us and this will be the first time in
UCU’s history when greylisting has been formally implemented rather then
threatened (such as at Keele University and Nottingham Trent University).
As of today, 1 September, UCU will be asking colleagues across the
country, other trade unions, labour movement organisations and the
international academic community to support our members at the
university in any way possible, including:
* non-attendance, speaking at or organising academic or other
conferences at LMU
* not applying for any advertised jobs at LMU
* not giving lectures at LMU
* not accepting positions as visiting professors or researchers at LMU
* not writing for any academic journal which is edited at or
produced by LMU
* not taking up new contracts as external examiners for taught courses
If you are able to support in this way, please email: [log in to unmask]
Please could I also ask that you, as a matter of urgency, write to the
vice-chancellor at LMU, Alfred Morris ([log in to unmask] ) to:
* express your concern
* state that that you will not take part in any collaboration with
LMU for the duration of greylisting
* call on the university to honour UCU’s redundancy avoidance procedure
* request that the findings of the independent enquiry currently
being conducted by Deloitte Touche are made public and are acted upon
* call for an urgent internal review of LM management following the
reports of both HEFCE and Deloitte Touche
Please copy any correspondence to: [log in to unmask]
All UCU members are also asked to consider the following questions and
respond as soon as possible to [log in to unmask] in order that we
support our colleagues and students at London Metropolitan as
effectively as possible.
* Are you involved in collaborative research activity with LMU?
* Are you aware of any collaboration between LMU and other HE/FE
institutions, including international?
* Are you planning to attend any conferences and/or are you booked
as an external speaker/guest lecture?
* Are you aware of any high profile speakers or events being
planned at LMU?
* Are you aware or involved in any other collaborative
relationships - such as with business?
* Have you been approached to be an external examiner at LMU?
Background to the dispute:
As I am sure you will by now be aware, toward the end of last year, LMU
was hit by a £15 million reduction in recurring grant and repayment
demands totalling more than £36 million by HEFCE following submissions
of incorrect student completion records. The university responded by
stating that they intended to cut 550 posts. Despite our best efforts to
over the last 9 months to attempt to persuade the university to enter
into formal negotiations to reach a resolution, and a vigorous,
nationally and regionally supported branch campaign, including
industrial action, the university is forging ahead with the planned
compulsory redundancies – the first 50 FTEs of which are imminent.
The situation at London Metropolitan University is unprecedented. The
vice-chancellor, Brian Roper resigned in March and a special report into
HEFCE’s role in the crisis at LMU was published last month (available
here: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2009/lmu/statement.asp). After
months of public pressure from the academic community, UCU and our
sister unions, Deloitte Touche have been commissioned to undertake an
independent inquiry into the situation at London Met and UCU will be
contributing to this inquiry.
UCU’s position:
We believe that this reinforces the dire need for a fresh start for
London Metropolitan. The staff and the students deserve a new leadership
and new, open and productive industrial relations. Yet, in spite of our
calls for a suspension of their proposals until after the independent
reports have been made public, the management appears dogmatically
committed to press on with its plans to make 550 redundancies of which
many, we fear, will be compulsory.
I believe that we cannot stand back and allow this university to be
destroyed. We cannot stand by and allow hundreds of staff and students
pay the price for a catastrophic failure of management and governance.
As a national union, we must be able to say that it is unacceptable for
staff to pay for mismanagement with their jobs and students to suffer
huge detriment to their education and we must establish the principle
that universities must be accountable for their actions.
UCU remains committed to a negotiated solution and we hope that
management will back away from a course which we believe will threaten
the long-term future of the university.
Many thanks,
Sally Hunt,
UCU General Secretary
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