Victimisation at London Metropolitan University

A letter from the UCU Chair and Secretary at London Metropolitan University Times Higher Education letter - please add your name before Monday 9am deadline We sadly have to report to colleagues that we (David Hardman and Mark Campbell) have been unsuccessful in our appeals against redundancy from our positions at London Metropolitan University. As you may know, we are the two UCU negotiators for UCU at London Met, being the branch secretary and chair, respectively. David is also the Secretary of UCU London Region and Mark is the Chair of the UCU London Region HE Committee. Management served us notice of redundancy in May, following a process that failed to meet the most basic requirements of transparency. At our appeal hearings the Dean of our faculty did not submit any written information. There is literally no audit trail for the decision making process involved in our redundancies. The letters confirming our redundancies do not attempt to address many of the key points we raised in our arguments. We firmly believe that our removal is because of our activities as trade unionists. If the management are allowed to get away with this, it will act as a deterrent to other members coming forward as union representatives. With London Met poised to potentially be the first university in the UK to be privatised, it would be very convenient for management to have us out of the way and not making waves. This should be a matter of great concern for the rest of the sector. There will be a protest rally outside London Met on Holloway Road this comingWednesday 13th July at 1pm. If you are unable to get to this, we are going to arrange a poster for people to use for selfie photographs, which you can then email to us at uculondonmet@mail.com We also invite colleagues to email messages of protest to the Vice-Chancellor, John Raftery, at j.raftery@londonmet.ac.uk and will shortly be issuing information about a Thunderclap (Twitter) campaign: Reinstate UCU’s Mark & David. In addition, to protest against both victimisation of union reps and the recently-announced loss of a further 400 jobs at London Met, there will be a national demonstration - Education For All - in Islington on Saturday 23rd July, gathering at the Tower Building on Holloway Road and walking to Highbury Fields for a rally. Gather at 11.30 to head off at 12. Please let friends and colleagues know. Finally, the text below is for an open letter to the Times Higher Education. The deadline for submissions is 9am on Monday 11th July. Please contact us at uculondonmet@mail.com asap with your name, institution & position, and email address if you would be willing to be included as a signatory. Regards, David Hardman and Mark Campbell

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