Students occupy London Met to stop job cuts

In a story familiar to all public sector workers, London Metropolitan University are threatening massive redundancies as a result of budget cuts. The university is saying it wanted to get rid of over 550 roles, which would threaten the jobs of 800 staff (a quarter of the workforce).This is a problem which university staff are facing across the country, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has said that 100 institutions are planning collective redundancies. For those who don’t lose their jobs work intensification is another major issue. The student-staff ratio for UK universities was 9/1 thirty years ago, today it is 18/1 (higher than France, Germany and the United States).

London Met students and staff are determined to fight back. As of 17:00 on Monday 11 May 2009, a large group of students began occupation of part of the Commercial Road building to protest at management’s plans for imminent and unprecedented staff redundancies. This follows last week’s industrial action at London Met. On Thursday 7 May UCU members went on strike after the university said it was pushing ahead with a voluntary redundancy scheme that that the union argued had no strategy behind it.

UCU members across the UK are currently being balloted for industrial action over planned job cuts at around 100 universities. The union said that the employers’ organisation’s refusal to act as the crisis over jobs deteriorated had forced it to ballot for industrial action. That ballot result is expected on Friday 22 May.Please visit the occupation and show your solidarity. It seems that the university will try to evict them. It is vitally important that we mobilise the maximum possible solidarity.
There will be a demonstration tonight (Tuesday 12 May), outside the building at 5.30pm - arrive from 5pmSee here for location details: www.londonmet.ac.uk/about/commercial-road.cfmFor more information see savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com

DEFEND ADULT EDUCATION AT LAMBETH COLLEGE!

MARCH THROUGH BRIXTON TUESDAY 28 APRIL March starts at Brixton College 12.30pm and from Lambeth Town Hall 12.45pm

PUT STUDENTS FIRST!
REDUCE TEACHERS’ WORKLOAD
REINSTATE COURSE MANAGERS
Organised by Lambeth College UCU (teachers’ union)

WHY WE ARE STRIKING

Teachers are buckling at the knees trying to keep this College on its feet. On top of teaching 23 hours a week, we have to attend more and more meetings, complete excessive amounts of admin and paperwork, mark students’ work, carry out interviews, oversee exams, etc, etc. Teachers are working a lot of unpaid overtime hours, working through their breaks, and taking work home with them. For about 2 years we have been telling Lambeth College Management that we are suffering stress and illness due to overwork. However Management have ignored us and continued to pile on the workload even more. We are saying that we want our teaching hours reduced to 21 hours a week because we no longer have enough time to prepare lessons properly, and this is not fair on our students.

Management are also implementing a more hierarchical system of Management, cutting some existing manager posts (although this will cost more) - this means that teachers will have less support and be under even more pressure.

Since 2006, each year we have faced £millions in cuts to provision, and lived with repeated threats to the security of our jobs. Yet again this year we are expecting more massive cuts, so we know that things will only get worse.

Now we feel we have no choice but to take action. We have balloted our members and agreed to take 2 hours strike action (which means we will lose pay) to highlight the effect that workload and restructuring is having on our ability to provide a decent education to our students.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR DEMONSTRATION