UCU Left - Keele UCU - Demonstration Report 03/04/2008

The UCU Left is a national organisation of University and College Union activists. It is committed to ensuring that the new union has a democratic structure through which members can determine policy, and elected officers and professional officials can be held accountable. It seeks to defend educational equality, and to oppose the consequences of neo-liberal marketisation. It is opposed to all forms of racism, sexism, oppression and imperialism.

Solidarity with Keele – Stop Educational Vandalism

Update - Latest News on the Dispute - details here

Keele UCU - Demonstration Report - 3rd April 2008

Demo Day - Hundreds support Keele UCU

Keele UCU - Rally

We will fight until we win!

On 3rd April, hundreds turned up to support the staff from the School of Economics and Management Studies (SEMS) at Keele University. The delegations came from across the country and the trade union movement, including union banners from Unison, CWU, PCS and Amicus; while delegations came from as far a field as Cambridgeshire, London and Brighton.

The day started with a noisy lobby of council members as they arrived to discuss the proposed plans to abolish SEMS and set up a Business School in its place. This was followed by a march around the campus and finished off with a large rally in the Students’ Union hall – standing room only! As one UCU member from Manchester commented “this brings me back to my student days in the 60s and 70s with on-site marches and packed meetings”.

Of the 67 staff in SEMS 38 are threatened with redundancy. The issue at Keel is not just about the redundancies but also the basis on which the decisions have been taken. During the rally two strong themes came out – first, the under-hand and “out of process” manner in which the decisions had been formulated and pursued; and second, that the decisions are ideologically driven based on ideas of “marketisation” of the sector and turning HE into the training arm of UK Plc. The Keele Student Union speaker explained how a private consultancy firm had been secretly brought-in and formulated their plan behind closed doors over a four month period. Neither the campus trade unions nor the Students Union had at any stage been consulted over the plans.

SEMS includes the world-renowned Centre for Industrial Relations which has educated generations of trade unionists. The rally speakers (including representatives from the PCS, Unison West Midlands Region, the TUC Midlands Region and national UCU officials) referred to the positive and important impact the Centre has had on working people’s lives; how it was a distinctive resource for the university and how the attack is part of an ill-informed and vindictive management plan. A common note made by many of the speakers was that Keele is a test case, that university employers across the country will be looking at and if the management at Keele are successful then other institutions will face similar plans. In between each speaker the chair read out emails and messages of support the local branch had received from unions across the globe including Australia, Zimbabwe and the US. Each speaker finished by re-affirming their commitment to the Keele struggle irrespective of the outcome of the Council meeting.