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WE ARE #ManMet

Manchester Metropolitan University’s senior managers have withdrawn permission for the UCU branch meeting tomorrow Thursday 27^th April with UCU’s General Secretary originally booked for the Business School in All Saints.  

Instead we will be holding the meeting between 1 and 2pm in Academy 3, University of Manchester Student Union, Oxford Road, Manchester.

We know that many students and staff at MMU, whether they are trades unionists or not will abhor this last-minute underhand ban.

Our platform of speakers comprises the UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt, our branch Chair, our Secretary and a Crewe-based Convenor.   No other speakers have been invited.  Only UCU members were invited to attend.  The meeting was approved by HR in the usual way.   Only a few weeks ago, Sally Hunt addressed a meeting on the Crewe site.  There were no riots.  Not a single manager raised an objection.

We are academics.  Our business is open debate.

So why the sudden reversal?

Management say that the decision was based on the fact that other UCU branches proposed to attend to show their support and to hear the General Secretary of our union speaking in Manchester.  That is true.  We did invite other UCU members from the North West.  The other deciding factor was that a Labour Party branch in Cheshire posted inaccurate information about our event on their Facebook page, claiming amongst other things to have been invited to speak.  This is not true.

MMU UCU branch stands for freedom of expression.  We stand for the right to dissent. We stand for the right to organise as a trade union.  We don’t expect to be excluded from the University site because of fake news.

Here is the link to UCU’s press release on the ban:

https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/8752/Shock-as-Manchester-Metropolitan-University-bans-union-meeting

​ Julie Wilkinson
MMU UCU Branch Secretary

https://www.facebook.com/rob.crowther.79/videos/1407879342604812/

Here is a leaflet and a longer briefing from our fellow trades-unionists in the RMT explaining why passenger safety concerns are key to the strike action they are taking against Merseyrail today.

MerseyrailStrikePublicleafletApril17 MerseyrailGuardsBriefingMar178PDRAFTv3

UCU calls on the Vice Chancellor and the Governors to avoid any and all compulsory redundancies as a result of the withdrawal over the next two years from MMU Cheshire.

In a consultative e-ballot of branch members, close on ninety per cent of those who voted agreed to call for industrial action should any UCU member be threatened with compulsory redundancy. Over half of all branch members used their votes in a decisive show of support for colleagues threatened with losing their jobs this summer at Crewe.

The branch is committed to continue talks to try persuade the University to invest in the staff for the sake of our students, and the future of MMU. We are asking for clear and decisive action from management to avoid compulsory redundancies. Our campaign continues.

Check out our ‘Crewe Voices’ series posted here and on Facebook at:  https://www.facebook.com/MMUUCU/

370 jobs are at risk at Manchester Metropolitan University. MMU UCU spoke to academics and support staff. Names are invented; their words are true.
Dr Couzens Senior Lecturer MMU:
“When you start a job in a university you don’t think you might need to worry about redundancy. Jobs in higher education are usually fairly steady. I didn’t think I would be out of the job but higher education has changed… Higher education isn’t the best paid sector to be in if you’re highly qualified but the pension, job security and working conditions made up for that fact. I’m not sure I would have pursued a career in higher education if I knew what the future held. It feels like the best and the brightest are being chucked on the scrapheap… What is frustrating is that this isn’t a university that is struggling financially. MMU is in a very healthy financial state and has huge cash reserves…”

UCU MMU Members are now voting in a CONSULTATIVE BALLOT to stand up for any colleague threatened with compulsory redundancy in the event of the University withdrawing from its Crewe campus. Over 370 jobs are at risk.

The branch urges all our colleagues to join their respective unions. And to UCU members we say – please vote – and encourage your colleagues to vote.

LOBBY – FRIDAY 10th FEBRUARY 08.45

This Friday 10th February the Vice Chancellor and the Board of the University will meet behind closed doors to make their final decision about the future of MMU Cheshire. UCU will be lobbying that meeting

UCU’s General Secretary Sally Hunt will be speaking at our lobby, along with members of the branch negotiating team from Crewe and Manchester

We will be gathering at 8.45am on the corner of All Saints Park, at the junction of Lower Ormond and Cavendish Streets.

This is a call to rally before work to protest at the proposed ending of more than a hundred years of higher education provision in Crewe and East Cheshire and the threat to hundreds of academic and support jobs.

Students, other trades unionists – anyone who wants to speak up for the future of our public Universities – please support us!
For further information or to send messages of support contact UCU branch Secretary Julie Wilkinson on ucummuwilko@gmail.com