Unions rebuff Ucea’s one-off 0.25 per cent offer

Please see the full article in the Times Higher.

UCU National Campaigns News

ACTION: All branches – April 10 demonstration for public services

UCU is supporting a joint trade union demonstration on 10 April in central London as part of a campaign to defend the Welfare state and public services. We are asking all branches to support the demonstration. Download a flyer for the march here: http://www.10410demo.co.uk/forms/flyer.pdf. Make sure you and your colleagues are there. You can find out more about the march, including full details on how to get there, here: http://www.10410demo.co.uk/

ACTION: HE branches:

The first ever joint union claim for higher education has been submitted to Ucea. The first meeting is on Monday (29 March). The claim includes:

· calls for catch-up pay for the real terms cut last year and a keep-up element for next year, with a need to recognise the lowest paid.

· demands for national negotiations over a approach to job security.

· ways to address equality, particularly for hourly-paid lecturers, and close the gender pay gap.

*What you can do*:

1. approach your management to ask that they tell Ucea to negotiate meaningfully on the entirety of the claim, particularly job security - we want them to agree to a national approach to a national problem.

2. submit the claim jointly with the other unions to demonstrate our united front to your management and let us know the response at: 5unions@defendhighereducation.org.uk

3. distribute widely the joint union materials that will be with you shortly from the UCU campaigns team.

The full claim can be read at: http://www.ucu.org.uk/he2010

UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE UNION (UCU) PRESS RELEASE

date: Wednesday 24 March 2010 for immediate release

Strike and rally off at University of Kent as threat of compulsory job losses removed

The University and College Union (UCU) today confirmed that it had cancelled a ballot for industrial action at the University of Kent after talks between the union and the institution resulted in the threat of compulsory job losses being removed. A planned protest organised by students in Canterbury for today has also been shelved.

Staff in the school of biosciences were at risk from compulsory redundancy, but now an agreement has been thrashed out that commits both the university and UCU to a redundancy avoidance agreement.

UCU Kent branch president, John Fitzpatrick, said: "Industrial action is always the last resort and the talks have delivered a great result for everyone at Kent University. The support from UCU members and students right across the university was magnificent and crucial to the successful outcome."

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “We are delighted that the dispute at Kent has been resolved. This is the second dispute in as many weeks to have been resolved by talks, rather than industrial action. With ballots taking place at UCL and Westminster at the moment and strike action happening at King’s College on Tuesday, we reiterate our message that we want to resolve disputes around the negotiating table, not from the picket line. Universities refusing to talk to us could learn a lot from the likes of Kent and Leeds.”

The union and university have issued the following joint statement:

“The university and UCU have had further constructive discussions in relation to the future of the school of biosciences and have agreed upon an acceptable resolution of the matters in issue between them. This successful conclusion to the discussions indicates a renewed spirit of constructive partnership between management and UCU, and both parties are committed to entering into a redundancy avoidance agreement for the future. As a result, the threat of compulsory redundancies has now been lifted from UCU members in biosciences, and UCU has therefore cancelled the planned ballot of its members on taking industrial action which was to commence on Friday 26 March 2010."

ends

contacts:

Dan Ashley
t: 020 7756 2600;
m: 07789 518 992;
e: dashley@ucu.org.uk

Alex Rossiter
t: 020 7756 2598;
m: 07977 562 686;
e: arossiter@ucu.org.uk