UNISON’s Treasurer and Course Administrator, Christian Manna, is standing for election to the new Academic Board.  It is important to have UNISON representation on the board; the executive committee unanimously voted to support Chris and we hope that all members vote for him as their first preference candidate.

The election is for “TWO members of the Professional Service Department staff, elected by and from the Professional Service Department staff” by single transferable vote, to serve until 31 August 2013.

Voting will take place from today, Wednesday 22 September to Wednesday 6 October 2010.  All eligible members of staff on commencement of the voting process will receive an email from the University with details of how to vote.  If you do not receive this you should contact the secretary of the board, Amanda Lane, or any member of the branch executive.

Please remember to cast your vote

Academic Board elections 2010

Members should receive in the post a consultative ballot paper – return it to: UNISON office, 31 Jewry Street, City Campus, London EC3N 2EY (marked ‘private and confidential’), before THURSDAY 24 SEPTEMBER.

The final pay offer from the employers’ organisation is currently just 0.4%. UNISON nationally has called on us to consult with members. Our Branch Executive Committee unanimously voted to reject this insulting offer, and we call on you all to reject it too. Why?

We deserve much more than that – at the least in line with inflation. In 2010 inflation has hovered around 5%: this offer is effectively a pay cut. And VAT at 20% will increase the cost of living even more.

Last year we voted to accept 0.5% ‘through gritted teeth’, and on the condition that we’d get a better offer this year. At our national Higher Education Service Group conference in February, delegates overwhelmingly voted to prioritise winning a better pay offer this year.

At our Annual General Meeting in March we unanimously voted to hold out for a better offer. In June, our consultative ballot of members showed 66% are willing to take strike action over pay. If we reject this offer we may well need to threaten and take industrial action to win a better offer. Our branch is prepared for that.

We realise that people feel vulnerable and that there are those who will argue that we should accept a low pay offer to keep jobs. We reject this argument as false. Look at what happened last year: we were told to accept a lower pay offer to save jobs. We got both a low pay rise and job cuts.

There are also those that argue this is the best offer we are likely to get. Again, this is wrong – if we threaten determined action with our sister unions then the employers would quickly find some extra cash to try to avert strike action.

If we accept 0.4% now, we’ll be accepting a pay freeze from now on. The government want the public sector pay freeze to run for four years; that could amount to a 20% cut in earnings – we’ll look passive and weak.
The recent revelations uncovered by UNISON over pay and bonuses for senior management at London Met shows there is cash washing around – even at our crisis ridden university (management even budgeted for a 1% pay increase this year).  And in 2008-2009 Vice Chancellors nationally awarded themselves a whopping 10% pay rise.

Why should it be us, the poorest paid workers in universities who must shoulder the burden of education cuts? Our branch executive committee is unanimous and determined that we must send a clear message to the employers’ – if the money is there for bonuses for management, then the money is there to cover our increased living costs.

We urge you to REJECT this offer, and encourage your colleagues to do likewise.