Campaigns and Briefings | London Met UNISON

As a trade union, we were founded on the principles of solidarity and working collectively for a fairer, better society. London Metropolitan University UNISON branch is currently involved in a number of campaigns. Here you can find out more about them and how you can get involved.

Stop the Witchhunt: Defend Max Watson and Jawad Botmeh
Campaign in support of the Chair and elected Staff Governor who have been unfairly suspended by the University

Taking Stress Seriously
Campaigning against stress — and the causes of stress — at work

Stay ‘Proud to be London Met’ — No to Shark Services!
Our campaign against shared services at London Metropolitan University

Save The Women’s Library: A Vindication of the Rights of The Women’s Library
If a new home was not found, the University proposed to cut to a skeleton service

Some of the ongoing and previous campaigns we have been involved with are:

Save London Metropolitan University
Joint union campaign against cuts and outsourcing at London Met
Protect our Pensions
Changes to public sector pensions mean higher education staff will be expected to pay more and work longer for a lot less
Don’t write off Learning Development
Threatened closure of all LDU projects and redundancies on statutory minimum terms
Save Hornsey Road Nursery
Campaign against the closure of last remaining nursery at London Met
Bicycle Action Group
Joint union campaign to support cyclists at London Met
Living Wage Campaign
Calling for every worker to earn enough to provide their family with the essentials of life
A Million Voices for Public Services
Send a message to the politicians: no to public service cuts
Defend Higher Education (national pay claims)
5 unions 1 demand: protecting jobs in higher education
United for Education
Stop the cuts: join the coalition to defend education
Islington Hands Off Our Public Services Coalition
Islington strikes back … against the cuts

We have always sought to join together with those who share our aims and support a wide range of other campaigns, such as:

We have also worked with London Citizens (TELCO) on the London Living Wage and Islington and City Credit Union to establish a payroll deduction facility; an important benefit for all staff employed by the University. See our Links section for more.

A branch assessment takes place annually, arising from a decision of the 2007 National Delegate Conference that emphasised the importance of ensuring we have and maintain strong and effective branch structures. The aims of the assessment are to identify the Branch’s development priorities, prioritise a few key actions and plan how to achieve them. The national union also set overarching objectives each year:

Political fund

UNISON maintains two distinct sections of the political fund: the (former NALGO) general political fund and the (NUPE/ COHSE) affiliated political fund. Members decide which levy to pay on joining.

UNISON uses the GPF to fund campaigning at branch, regional and national levels of the union as well as for research and lobbying in Parliament and Europe. It is independent of support for any political party but, in the run-up to general or local elections, it has been used for effective advertising campaigns to ensure that issues of importance to UNISON are high on the agenda.

UNISON uses the APF (or Labour Link) to fund our lobbying for quality public services at all levels within the Labour Party. This includes sponsoring members of parliament, such as Jeremy Corbyn (Islington N), and enables members to participate in ballots. Our Constitution also makes provision for a political officer, elected by the affiliated members of the branch.

Industrial action

Industrial action in the United Kingdom is more circumscribed by legislation than in any other country in the western world. A raft of restrictions have been enacted which make it easy to fall foul of the law and employers are often only too willing to take UNISON to court where areas of the law are open to interpretation.

UNISON members are reluctant to take industrial action. It is always the last resort, bringing with it, to some degree, loss of earnings and job instability. Yet, the number of disputes affecting UNISON members has been rising over the last few years; about 60 ballots on industrial action are now taking place every year with half of them leading to action of some kind. The overwhelming majority of ballots are at branch level, with some involving only a handful of members. The most frequent cause is an attempt by employers to worsen terms and conditions of employment. At the same time there have been major strikes, at both national and regional level.

UNISON is committed to collective bargaining, and negotiates disputes procedures in part to protect the union and our members from employers taking pre-emptive action and imposing changes. Industrial action becomes a legitimate strategy when negotiations have broken down and where any agreed disputes procedure has been exhausted — although there are circumstances when industrial action may be authorised earlier. Our main objective is to get the best possible deal for our members and that, especially when things look difficult, the branch, the region and the national union work together.