Union News and witch hunt at London Metropolitan

On Friday I went to the excellent Unions21 conference (which I will post on soon). There I met Pete Murray from the website Union-News, which I haven't really come across before.

Pete showed me via his smart phone his post on the victimisation of suspended UNISON NEC member Max Watson,  Jawad Botmeh and Professor Steve Jeffries by their employer, London Metropolitan University.

Max sits behind me at UNISON NEC meetings and while we don't always see "eye to eye" on some issues, this attack on him and his colleagues by the University seems pretty stupid, over the top and malicious. UNISON NEC and the Presidential team have sent strong messages of support.

Tomorrow lunchtime the UNISON London Metropolitan branch is holding its Annual General Meeting at the Resource Centre in Islington, which is also the location of my UNISON branch office. I hope to see Max there and offer my support.

London UNISON Regional Council: 31 October 2012

The meeting was not quorate but we heard our speakers. The first guest speaker was Nick Raynsford MP, Greenwich and Woolwich who spoke about proposed cuts and mergers to South London Healthcare.

The Tories are playing politics with local NHS services regardless of clinical merit. 

Head of UNISON local government Heather Wakefield spoke next on pay. We are opposing the 1% public sector pay limit, regional pay and attacks on facility time. We need to restore pay. Aim to have a Living Wage for everyone who works in public services. Outside London this is £7.20 per hour. Currently the lowest pay band in Local Government is £6.30 per hour. Which is barely over the minimum wage. Need to encourage our members to take up any benefits that they are entitled to claim.

There will in real terms have been a 15% pay cut in local authority pay by April 2013 due to the rising prices and the pay freeze. Heather went through the campaigning issues on pay, terms & conditions.

220,000 workers in Local Government and 50,000 in the National Health Service have so far lost their jobs. Members in work are obviously worried about their jobs. 

Then Roisin Wood from "Kick it Out" which use to be an anti racist but is now a "pro-equality" in all aspects of football campaigning group. There is only 7 of them and they are campaigners are not the regulator, the football players union nor the employer. The recent controversy involving the wearing of tee-shirts by some players has been "challenging" but not of their making. They hope this has now been sorted out!

Our Parliamentary report was from Jeremy Corbyn MP. Who spoke about changes to housing benefit forcing the social cleansing of poor people out of Islington and inner London. He had a 6 hour surgery last Friday mostly made up of private tenants who are being forced out of their homes. His belief that there will have to be caps and controls of private sector housing rents.  He reported on the the "media assassination" of London Metropolitan University over foreign students which has damaged the entire UK reputation for further education. 

Further Strike Action in London Met

UNISON and UCU trade union members of London Metropolitan University are on strike today and tomorrow (Thursday 15th and Friday 16th October).

Check out their weblog at Save London Met for full details. Management have already made 350 job losses and now want another 100-200 redundancies. See previous report of last July’s Bastille Day action.

London Met University Strike

Today I went to the picket line in Whitechapel to support UNISON members of London Metropolitan University and their UCU lecturer colleagues who are on strike today over the threat of hundreds of compulsory redundancies.

The sad sorry tale of utter financial incompetency and impropriety (or even worse) by some senior managers in the past has resulted in the funding council HEFCE trying to reclaim millions of pounds of grants. The arguments actually put forward by the University to justify sacking people and “outsource” services to save money seem pretty desperate and frankly daft.

It makes you wonder (despair?) about the governance arrangements for the University. Who is responsible for the mess? Why was this allowed to happen? What is being done to make sure this will never, ever, happen again? (Or at another university or college)?

As far as I can see there is still open warfare between London Mets management and the Funding Council. How is this going to help things now and in the future? They are both responsible for this chaos and should deal with the problem without sacking loads of staff or getting rid of students.

There is a wider question about the Boards of governors, trustees, commissioners or whatever, of our traditional British public institutions. Do the so-called “great and the good” of our society who tend to populate these boards have the necessary skills, life experiences and even gumption to challenge the day to day management and give proper strategic guidance and oversight?

On the present day evidence - I think not.

It is a pity that some minor management stooges have tried to wreak the day by trying to score sectarian points and attacking the union. But I suppose that like rubbish management this is something we just have to deal with.

(Picture of UNISON branch secretory Alan Pike, a super picket and UNISON regional organiser, Harry Lister, behind a banner asking the Minister, David Lammy, for the enquiry he promised into London Met finances)