University College London

UCU: Stop the staff cull - Extraordinary General Meeting Thursday

Dear UCLUCU Member,

This is a reminder that there will be an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of members which will be held this Thursday, 11 March 2010, between 1-2pm in the AV Hill Lecture Theatre to discuss the current dispute with UCL.

There is a poster with a map to print off to display on your departmental noticeboard.

We are asking members to debate and support a motion (attached at APPENDIX 1) which includes *balloting for industrial action* in a wider campaign against the rising number of redundancies announced across College. The motion summarises the current position, calls on all members to vote YES in the industrial action ballot, and to encourage colleagues to do likewise.

The meeting will additionally provide an opportunity for members to debate and vote for three motions to the UCU Annual Congress. This is an important process that involves union members in the formulation of policy to guide the UCU's work over the next year.

Three motions received by UCL UCU Executive Committee are itemised below at APPENDIX 2. We are entitled to 1 motion to Congress and 2 motions to the HE sector conference.

Please print off the motions to bring to the EGM.

You are asked to make every effort to attend and vote at this important meeting.

UCL UCU Executive Committee

APPENDIX 1 - STOPPING THE CUTS @ UCL

UCL UCU notes

1. UCL's current cuts proposals.
   These include
   1. an unprecedented proposal to make 20 academic redundancies and 10 support staff redundancies in the Faculty of Life Sciences, which management assert is due to a need to save £1.5M in 2009-10 and £0.9M next academic year in FLS alone;
   2. the proposal to restructure administrative posts in 6 language departments of Arts and Humanities, which currently mean 6 out of 9 staff are at risk of redundancy or downgrading, with the stated intention to create a centrally-run Division of "Modern Languages" where Heads of Department will have no effective power over budgets;
   3. proposals for cuts in the Registry placing 16 staff at risk of redundancy and cutting services to students and outreach activities;
   4. further cuts in the History of Medicine (6 staff) and in Museums and Collections (1) and others likely to be forthcoming;
   5. cuts in numbers of undergraduates (by 1,272 from 2009-10 to 2012-13), and postgraduate taught students (by 1,057 over the same period).
2. That UCL's financial position is sound and that these cuts are not necessary.
3. That UCU's campaign has been successful in a number of cases, including preventing ten compulsory redundancies in Information Services Division.
4. In addition to a wider demand to stop the cuts, UCU's specific call on UCL to rule out compulsory redundancies and consult to avoid redundancy on a college-wide basis, and that UCL has refused to accede to this demand.
5. The active support of our sister trade unions Unite and Unison, and the students union, UCLU for our joint demand to stop the cuts.
6. The success of a similar campaign by the University of Leeds UCU which has enabled the union to bring management back to the table for meaningful negotiations, and the ballots at the Universities of Sussex, Westminster and King's.

UCL UCU believes

1. That these are highly political, structural cuts, which have clear objectives -
   1. to put UCL academic staff on notice that their post is dependent on research income generation or contribution to teaching and management,
   2. to centralise power within UCL around Vice Provosts, Deans and other senior managers, and to take power away from departments and academics, and
   3. to reduce the support offered to students particularly undergraduates.
2. That the cuts are triggered by a national government threat and therefore require a national political response to explode the myth that their cuts are not damaging to UK science and academia.

UCL UCU resolves

1. To immediately begin a process of balloting members for industrial action including strike action and action short of a strike to stop the cuts and force UCL to negotiate to avoid redundancies;
2. To call on all members to vote Yes in the ballot;
3. To organise a campaign, jointly with national UCU officers, to win the ballot and to encourage all members to participate in that campaign.

APPENDIX 2: PROPOSED MOTIONS FOR DEBATE AT UCU CONGRESS

A. Defending Public Services, Education and Jobs

UCU utterly condemns cuts in public services, education funding and job losses.

UCU resolves

1. To continue the work of building a public sector alliance to defend public services and jobs. Anti-cuts campaigns should unite staff, service users, students, parents and local communities.
2. To unite with other public sector trade unions to defend jobs and oppose cuts in provision.
3. To affiliate to the Right to Work Campaign, and encourages branches to do likewise.
4. To develop a national campaign for investment in education as part of a defence of public services in the recession, and to call national demonstration(s) to further this aim.

B. Opposing LGBT oppression

UCU notes:

1. Increasing homophobic attacks, including the murder of Ian Baynham in Trafalgar Square;
2. Jan Moir's homophobic attack after Stephen Gately's death and the failure of the Press Complaints Commission to judge the article homophobic despite 25,000 complaints;
3. Fascist Nick Griffin able to state he found the idea of men kissing "creepy" on BBC's Question Time;
4. That a minority of homophobic bigots draw comfort from people like Griffin and Moir;

UCU welcomes the large determined vigils and demonstrations supported by LGBT and straight people in response to these attacks.

UCU resolves to:

1. Encourage all members, LGBT and straight, to support such vigils and demonstrations and promote LGBT History Month;
2. Encourage all members to support London and local Prides, and demand that Pride should aim to recapture the Gay Liberation Front spirit rather than the apolitical, commercial notion of last year's London Pride.

C. HE Funding and Tuition Fees

UCU notes the increasing debts that graduates in England and Wales face due to rapidly rising tuition fees. We note that many tens of thousands of applicants were without places in 2009/10 and this figure will be much higher in 2010/11;

UCU calls for the reversal of short-sighted cuts and for increased funding in HE in the current financial crisis and recession;

UCU demands equal opportunities for part-time students, the removal of ELQ regulations and the cap on student numbers, all of which deny opportunities for many who most need them and make a mockery of the claim to provide lifelong education;

UCU demands (in the short term) that the stunningly inefficient Student Loans Company be taken out of private hands and renationalised and subsequently replaced by the provision of a progressive maintenance grant and bursary system.