Though Cowards Flinch

All quiet on the Canterbury front

It appears that the University of Kent’s UCU branch has won a decisive reversal of the university’s decision to get rid of staff members in the Biosciences department. It was originally alleged that the university management “could find no role” for these staff, despite the excellent rating students gave the department.

Now, the following statement has been released:

“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 26th March 2010.”

This seems like a comprehensive win for the UCU, which was strongly backed by a student-led campaign that had planned a march on the Canterbury campus in the run up to the strike. Management have been forced into a climbdown, made evident by the tenor of the rhetoric the Vice Chancellor used to announce the redundancies, which asserted that the decision was already taken and that local and national UCU had been “informed”.

Please note, tomorrow’s staff/student march has been called off by the Students’ Union.

I think it was a mistake to call off the march, myself. Having been helping out the local Socialist Students group on and off campus, the momentum was clearly building in a way that was not anticipated by the fairly weak and ambiguous wording of the Kent Uni SU motion to oppose the cuts. A demonstration of unity and a celebration of success wouldn’t have been out of place. But my happiness for the lecturers whose jobs have been saved makes up for a minor quibble.

Socialist Students and other interested groups on campus, and amongst the people of Canterbury, will be watching the situation carefully, in case management attempt either to move against a different department or to re-announce the cuts whenever students are preoccupied with exams or summer holidays. In the meantime, there’s plenty of work still to be done on other campaigns, such as Youth Fight for Jobs and supporting PCS and other local unions.

(Advance note: If readers concerned with this situation would check the comments section for some inaccuracies in my article, that I’ve edited, and some potential inaccuracies that I haven’t, I’d be grateful).

A short piece of real-world news. The University and Colleges Union branch at Kent University held an emergency members meeting at 1pm today in Keynes College to discuss the possibility of balloting for strike action.

This comes amidst news that twelve staff at the University Bio-Sciences department face compulsory redundancy, officially on grounds of competence. This is in a department of no more than two dozen and will gut immediate provision for the discipline.

Naturally UCU rejects the allegations of incompetence and several members present at the meeting offered similar examples from other departments where performance management reviews were given preposterously low gradings. One staff member pointed out that he had published fifty papers in the last ten academic years and brought in £1 million investment, but was given 0% at a research review.

The anger in the voices of staff sitting in the common room, awaiting the meeting, was clearly evident.

Apart from UCU staff there were many sympathizers present, including a faculty rep post-grad from Bio Sciences, who backed the UCU, several sabbatical officers and two SWP members. Kent Socialist Party members who are university staff also attended.

Outside Keynes College, UKC students and activists of the Socialist Students held a stall and petition against cuts in higher education, and in support of the UCU, raising the possibility of joint action between the students and staff if the compulsory redundancies are pressed ahead with.

A ballot will be held on whether or not to strike unless the redundancy process is suspended immediately, and a deputation proceeded from the meeting to see university authorities. Feeling in the room was clearly that a “Yes” vote would be the result; proposal to ballot was moved unanimously and no one spoke against the motion.

Sussex University recently faced a 29-hour student occupation in support of UCU’s efforts to resist cuts. The campaign there is on-going, but the statement released reminds us that these cuts are a result of the continued attempt to turn universities into a profitable business and that both top-up fees and cuts in university budgets are ways of lumbering the cost of education on to workers, whilst others reap the benefits.

UCU are likely to propose a series of one or two-day rolling strikes, so the time to organize for coinciding occupations is now, and students have everything to play for – their future included.