Some university bosses ‘had 8% rise’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25577066

UNISON response: http://www.unison.org.uk/news/unison-condemns-outrageous-pay-rises-for-vice-chancellors

Venue: Kent Centre for Law, Gender & Sexuality Common Room, Eliot College (directions below)

When: 15:00 – 16:00 on Wednesday 11 December 2013

In the last 2 months university students and staff have protested against a range of university management policies including, for example, the closure of University of London student union, privatization of key university staff positions at the University of Sussex, and at the failure of employers to negotiate over the real terms pay cut for university staff of 13% since 2009.

In response a court injunction banning students from protesting on ULU campus for 6 months was obtained by the university against its own students, with other measures including arrests and bail conditions deployed to subdue student protest. 4 University of Sussex students have been suspended for protesting in favour of workers’ rights. And of course there have been 2 one day strikes by university staff.

11th December is a national day of action by student activists and this teach-in will include speakers such as:
• Jordan Amirkhani (School of English)
• Mairead Enright (Kent Law School)
• Emily Grabham (Kent Law School)
• Ben Hickman (School of English)
• Naomi Jones (Kent Law School student)
• Kat Peddie (School of English)
• Sinead Ring (Kent Law School)
• Simon Smith (School of English)
• University of Kent Student Union
• Sophie Vigneron (UCU and Kent Law School)

Directions: Go over the bridge, heading for Eliot College Porters Lodge. There are stairs down to the Eliot garden on your left (and a sign to the AHRC Centre for Law, Gender & Sexuality). Go down these stairs and the Centre is accessed through an external door on your right. The event will be signposted.

As members will no doubt be aware a second day of strike action was held on Tuesday 3rd December 2013, jointly with UCU and Unite. We were also very grateful for support (and tea!) from a considerable number of members of Kent Union during the picketing and subsequent teach-in that day. Kent Union’s supportive position was made clear back in October: http://www.kentunion.co.uk/news/article/6001/Statement-on-University-Strike-Action/

Similar shows of solidarity have been evident on a number of other campuses around the UK and in some cases students have mounted occupations of University buildings in pursuit of their agenda (which overlaps significantly with that of the trade unions). http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/06/university-of-strife-john-harris

This resulted, in some instances, in aggressive and draconian responses from University managements. 100 police broke up peaceful demonstrations at the University of London, for example, and private security firms have been dragooned into confrontative and heavy-handed action against students there and elsewhere.

UCU have issued a statement which we are sure our members would agree with. As they point out, the actions being taken by students are in protest at the marketization of higher education: students are treated as customers (and tuition fee debtors) and in parallel with this university managements are determined to drive down costs to gain a competitive edge. Outsourcing core university functions and significant real terms cuts in staff pay are two of the direct effects of this.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/law/news/articles/ucu_protest.html

Click on this image (above) to see more information (PDF)

The Branch Annual General Meeting (AGM) takes place on Tuesday 14 January 2014. The venue is Rutherford Lecture Theatre 1 and the time is 10:30-11:30. Refreshments from 10:15.

All UNISON members can attend and have this counted as working time – but clear it with your line manager first. If you are on leave please consider coming along anyway – we need a good turnout.

Lighthouse Financial Advice will be in attendance with leaflets, publicity etc and plan to hold a surgery (at the UNISON office) later in January. You will be able to make an appointment with them (30 minutes free advice) on the 14th should you wish to. We also expect that one or more of our regional officers, and a number of our retired members, will be attending.

If you cannot attend the AGM please send in apologies by email to unison@kent.ac.uk, ring 3203 and leave a voicemail message, or send a message using the campus internal mail to our office – the address details are in the right-hand column of this web page.

As has been notified to members there will be a further day of industrial action on Tuesday 3 December 2013.

We don’t know how many members took part in the strike action on 31st October but it seemed to be a quieter than usual day on campus and the Branch Committee thanks all those who did. Our very grateful thanks to those who stood on the picket lines in the cold. Perhaps we could have more on the 3rd?

Only by standing together can we hope to make an impact. It is not onerous or scary and a show of solidarity is very empowering. About the only negative comment any of us heard was the opinion of a passer-by who said “You lot get paid too much already” (or words to that effect). We’re not sure who she had mistaken us for.

You will not be “sent to Coventry” or subjected to any less favourable treatment if you don’t take part, nor is there any obligation to join a picket line. If you disagree with the strike action you don’t have to leave UNISON – we know that not every member could possibly agree with every action…! A small number of people did elect to leave us last month but as more people joined us (in greater numbers than usual) there was actually a net increase in membership.

Remember you do not have to let the employer know in advance of your intention to go on strike but you do need to complete a form to return to HR and you will lose the equivalent of a day’s pay. (1/260th of annual gross pay for those of us not paid by the hour. If you were paid £13000 p.a. for example this would be £50 though once tax etc are taken off the real reduction should be somewhat less.)

Don’t forget to refer to this blog for updates and do read the Strike FAQs and other postings.

As before we shall assemble in the union room at 07:30 and be ready to picket from 08:00. Last time we were only maintaining this presence until 10:00 and then went to a joint trade unions meeting in Darwin. It’s not clear at the moment if the same will be arranged for 3rd December but those who join the pickets will be kept informed. If you arrive after 08:00 please just join one of the picket lines. These will be in the vicinity of the roundabout near Eliot college, at the main Giles Lane Car Park and the Giles Lane/Darwin Road junction.

Here is the official announcement of the second day of industrial action to take place on 3 December 2013: http://www.unison.org.uk/news/university-staff-announce-3-december-for-second-date-of-strike-action.

The venue for our AGM on 14 January will be Rutherford Lecture Theatre.

A second day of industrial action has been announced for 3 December which is a Tuesday.

The branch committee met today and have scheduled a date for the next branch AGM. Fuller details will be publicised in due course but if you can mark this in your diaries now please we’d be really grateful.

Date: Tuesday 14 January 2013
Time: 10:00
Venue: to be advised

Light refreshments will be available.

Securing a strong turn-out is really important. We need as many members to come along as possible so that we can avoid the situation that happened last January. (Not enough people turned up to constitute a valid meeting under our branch rules and the meeting had to be re-arranged for later in the year.) Even if you are not able to attend all of the meeting please come along, register yourself, stay as long as you can, and then by all means leave early if your time is very pressured.

Two more quick things:

A very big thank you to everyone who took an active part in last Thursday’s strike action (by staying away from work altogether and/or joining one of the picket lines). Our retired members did us proud by standing out for quite some time in some really unpleasant weather and we’re especially thankful to them.

While it’s slightly old news we felt it would be worth highlighting some research carried out by UCU towards the end of last summer. Kent is in the top 5 English universities in terms of the use of “zero-hours” contracts. The word “top” is no compliment in this context; though naturally these working arrangements can and do suit a lot of people who need to be able to be flexible and balance their working hours with their home life and other commitments. This includes plenty of students who work on campus. Even so this is something that the branch feels the University should be trying more actively to avoid and we are aware of people who have been on these contracts for several years….

This issue was raised at the recent Joint Staff Negotiating and Consultation Committee (JSNCC) and you can read a bit more about the topic here: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/ucu-homes-in-on-widespread-use-of-zero-hours-deals/2007035.article .

UNISON members may want to consider taking advantage of an offer from the Open University which is available for the last time to start in March 2014. Deadline for registrations is 9 January 2014.

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