Dear Members,
We are writing to you regarding UCU action to defend jobs at risk of redundancy at Solent University. The University has put 18.5% of its staff at risk of redundancy, with plans to make 109 staff redundant (9.2%) with dismissal letters planned to be sent just before Christmas. Solent UCU regards these cuts as an existential threat to the future of the University and is fighting to defend jobs and defend education. UCU has entered a trade dispute with Solent University regarding the proposed redundancies.
Please check for your unique ballot email: University and College Union – Vote now: mass redundancies at Solent University – sent out on Thursday, 26 November 2020.
Solent UCU encourages all UCU members at Solent University to use their vote.
This ballot closes at midday on 2 December 2020. We will notify members of the result as soon as possible after the ballot has closed.
In Solidarity,
Solent UCU
This is message to Solent UCU members from Marian Mayer (Co-chair of Bournemouth UCU and Chair of the Southern Region Committee) on behalf members from branches across the HE sector and beyond.We stand in solidarity with you. Vicky Blake, UCU President is in contact with the HE officers of our union and Dr Jo Grady our General Secretary about the savage attack on Solent’s workers and will stand in solidarity with you.
Already activists are talking about raising a strike fund for Solent . Vote for action, we will be with you all the way.
Thanks Marian – much appreciated by all Solent UCU members. In Solidarity, Mark
Southampton Trades Union Council stands in solidarity with you against redundancies. We support any actions you may decide on, and will help in any way we can to promote your cause. We would be very please if you could speak at our next zoom meeting on 10th December. An injury to one is an injury to all – Solidarity!
All good wishes to all of you in your fight for the future of your University, and in the action that you plan to take.
Alan Bevington
Leicester
Good luck in your resistance. All members of Glasgow University UCU wish you well and watch the news hoping to see that you win.
Best wishes
Scott Meikle
I wish to express my complete, heartfelt solidarity with your struggle and wish you the best of luck. It is awful when a university wishes to make its people redundant. The university should consider cuts in all other areas before making such a drastic step that shakes the university foundation, undermines human relations and corrupts the atmosphere.
Best wishes
Professor Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Dear VC,
Please stop your project of compulsory redundancy of your staff. Those staff have been working hard for the University and much of Solent’s success thanks to them. Why should they now pay for the problem caused by other factors? The Solent University needs to seek government support or other solutions for its financial deficit instead of sending staffs home!
Yours sincerely,
Hormoz Ebrahimnejad
University of Southampton
To all at Solent UCU,
Wishing you all the best in your fight against the proposed redundancies and job cuts,
Best wishes,
Mike Jeffries, Northumbria University
Dear Colleagues,
Just a brief solidarity message, as one who has been/is on the brink at Heriot-Watt after repeat appearances on picket lines over recent years. Hang in there.
FWIW, my personal feeling is that two factors – besides our branch’s strong GTVO performance, and excellent negotiating team – have made a massive difference here.
Firstly, we have done a lot of work on letter-writing to MPs (and MSPs), and they have in turn lobbied our VC strongly. I am certain that this put the institution on notice that they were being closely watched.
Secondly, we made sure that students were informed, in factual terms, of the reasons for the dispute, using the ‘our working conditions are your learning conditions’ argument, and put contact information in front of them so that they and their families could also write to the VC et al. This kind of evidence of ‘consumer’ concern seems to have a powerful effect on managers who want to think of themselves in terms of their ‘position in the market’.
That’s just a personal viewpoint from a long-term UCU activist up here. I hope you can borrow from these and other approaches, and resist powerfully.
In solidarity,
Graham
Solidarity from UCL UCU – let us know what we can do to help!
I hope you win!
Jonathan University of York
Best of luck in fighting against this disgraceful decision at this time of vulnerability and when higher and further education need more staff not less. keep fighting.
J Kehoe
ALS
London
Good luck to all at Solent in their fight against these savage and unjustified cuts.
Best wishes
Anne Hill
Solidarity from Southampton UCU Branch Executive! This is a terrible blow to the University, to our city and to the region. You have our heartfelt support in this struggle.
Dear colleagues, this did not happen suddenly and will not stop by itself. We really need to work for a better model of Higher Education funding, publicly funded, and a new model of society. Your fight is linked to everyone else’s.
Abe
I stand in solidarity with faculty at Solent University.
Stanley Ilango Thangaraj