UCU, the University & College Union @ The Manchester College

Lobby the local Labour Party - Friday 11 September

The Manchester College have:

Attacked education provision for the most vulnerable in society by

• Closing a creche, damanging access for single mothers and others
• Closing basic ESOL courses, limiting access for refugees
• Closing sign language courses, hurting disability access

Failed to follow legal procedures required for redundancies by

• Refusing to discuss ways to avoid redundancy
• Failing to outline proper reasons for the redundancies
• Failing to agree or even discuss redundancy selection criteria
• Failing to use objective selection criteria
• Failing to make any real efforts towards redeployment
• Refusing those to be made redundant attendance at their own appeal

Invented a redundancy within Maths purely in order to victimise our Branch Secretary

• No courses to close or hours to be cut from courses
• No proper justification given for redundancy
• Shortage of maths teachers now evident at college
• Management legally found to have victimised trade unionists before

Continuing to attack UCU and staff

• Refusing to meet with the union
• Refusing legally required facility time for reps i.e. time used to help members
• Aiming to introduce new contracts for all teachers

With further cuts in public funding ahead, and already over a million unemployed young people in the UK, we say:

• No education cuts and job losses when society needs education more than ever.
• Educational provision for the most vulnerable should be especially protected.
• Trade unions should be allowed to operate freely and independently.
• Our Branch Secretary, and the others made redundant, should be reinstated.

Lobby the local Labour Party - Friday 11th September

Management at the college are connected to the Labour Part (who also run the City Council). We like to hope that we can get support and help if we let them know what is really happening at the college. Please come along.

6.30pm at The Palace Hotel on Ducie Street near Piccadilly train station
or meet after work at 6.30 in the Bull's Head opp lower entrance to Picc. Station

London Met – the first institution to suffer ignominy of greylisting

On Tuesday London Metropolitan University (LMU) became the first institution to be greylisted in UCU’s history. A huge thank you for all the amazing response we've had so far. We have been inundated with messages of support and been copied in on hundreds of emails to vice-chancellor, Alfred Morris. We will be responding to all the individual queries as soon as possible and everyone can expect a response by Wednesday of next week.

What you can do:

· Send a message of support to the branch via jstephens@ucu.org.uk

· 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

For more details on the LMU situation go here http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3680 and here http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=407959&c=2