Sussex staff set terms for first round of industrial strike action

The University and College Union (UCU) at the University of Sussex announced last week following an Emergency General Meeting that they will go on strike this Thursday 18 March, and again in the summer term. It was also decided that there will be a lobby of the university senate meeting on Wednesday 17.

The decision on 3 March to go on strike came after an overwhelming 76 percent of votes favoured industrial action in response to the proposed 115 redundancies. Eighty-two percent of UCU members voted for action short of a strike. The ballot had an impressive 80.9 percent turn-out of total UCU Sussex members, breaking the union’s previous national record. Management seeks a budget reduction of £3m for 2009/10 and a further £5m in 2010/11.

The meeting, opened by the University of Sussex Student Union President Tom Wills, passed a motion that stated there will also be “strike action or action short of a strike in the summer term.” The date for this will be announced in a following meeting.

A spokesperson for the Sussex UCU said: “The strength of feeling at yet another packed EGM was palpable. Despite the ever valid concerns that any industrial action we take must be both effective and sustainable the feeling in the room that management has left us with little option was clear. Now is the time to be heard. It is clear that during this entire process, management has done nothing but increase the feeling of alienation and anger at the management proposals.”

He added that since the ballot “there has been some movement from management. “We think the Senate Working Group may now see all of the alternative proposals and if that is confirmed then it is clearly good news. However, management has refused the involvement of ACAS [Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service] as requested by UCU.

“We had an excellent discussion on when and how to take industrial action. There were also a number of questions around support for members who may incur financial difficulties as a result of any strike action.”

Some of the conditions for strike action were also discussed at the meeting, which stated UCU members have 28 days in which to take action; that they must take action to keep the possibility of further action and extension to the 28 days a live option; and they must give at least seven days notice of any action.

The UCU Sussex branch president, Paul Cecil, said: “Industrial action is an absolute last resort, but the university’s unwillingness to enter into meaningful negotiations has forced our hand. The bottom line is that serious job losses will impact massively on the quality of education and services we can offer here at Sussex, which will result in a far worse experience for students.”

The senate meeting this Wednesday to examine the proposal of job losses was originally to be held on Friday 5 March but in light of the ballot of the UCU members voting for strike action, the meeting was postponed. UCU Sussex aims to negotiate a settlement on the compulsory redundancies at the university, which is supported by the USSU.

USSU President Tom Wills said: “We are right behind Sussex staff. We understand that strike action may be the key to winning this battle and we will do everything we can to support it. We will hold university management responsible for disruption to our education resulting from the strike – but moreover we will hold management responsible for the devastation that will be wrought on our education if they succeed in pushing through their cuts proposals.”

The meeting also focused on the student protest against the cuts held on 3 March outside Sussex House, as well as the reaction by university management. The protest involved around 50 students occupying the  building, with two subsequent arrests and six suspensions.

The motion on the student occupation, which was passed unanimously, stated: “Sussex UCU wishes to express its deep concern at the disproportionate response of management to the occupation of Sussex House.

“Occupations are a form of protest, with a long tradition, undertaken by students in many institutions both in this country and internationally. We believe that dialogue and patience should always be the initial response of the institution unless there is an immediate and realistic threat of physical harm. The union fully supports and defends the right of lawful protest.

It described the six suspensions as “a disproportionate response, serving to inflict significant harm to the education of the students concerned and restricting their civil liberties.”

The members also urged Vice-Chancellor Michael Farthing to lift the suspensions “immediately” so that the students could continue with their studies, and suggested that the suspensions were in breach of their human rights.

In a letter to the General Secretary of the UCU Sally Hunt on 26 February, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Paul Layzell wrote: “Nothing has changed as a result of your ballot. The University was already engaged in consultation with the three trades unions and had received constructive comments from each of them: the consultation process is the way in which the University’s Proposal for Change may be influenced – not a ballot for, or indeed any taking of industrial action.”

Sussex UCU votes for strike action

Last Wednesday 3 March, the University and College Union (UCU) at Sussex voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in their fight to save jobs and services at the university.

Turnout totalled a record 80.9 per cent, the highest the union has ever received in a ballot.

The union said the unprecedented turnout was indicative of the strength of feeling among UCU members over the savage funding cuts and damaging job losses proposed.

Over three-quarters of staff who voted supported strike action, and more than 82 per cent agreed to action short of a strike.

Sussex UCU said it still hoped the dispute could be “resolved without any disruption.”

Paul Cecil, president of Sussex UCU, said: “UCU members have today delivered a clear mandate for industrial action at the University of Sussex. We thank our members for participating in such large numbers and reiterate our belief that a negotiated settlement is still possible if the university steps back from implementing its job-cut plans, votes to delay the decision, and considers our alternatives.”

University of Sussex Students’ Union (USSU) president, Tom Wills, offered a statement of support, declaring, “We are right behind Sussex staff and the principled stand they are taking in defence of their jobs and our education.”

“We will hold the university management responsible for the devastation that will be wrought on our education if they succeed in pushing through with their cuts proposals.

“Strike action by staff is the key to winning this battle and we will do everything we can to support it.”

A Sussex spokesman said the proposals were being consulted on and that no decisions would be made until the university’s council meets on 12 March.

He added: “We have been notified of the result of the ballot by UCU members. We have already made clear and repeat our position that ballots for industrial action are not the way in which the process will be influenced.”

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, conceded that industrial action is always a last resort but insisted that the proposed job losses will “impact massively across the University of Sussex and result in a far worse experience for students.”

Union blows cash on coach for seven students

The University of Sussex Students’ Union (USSU) recently lost an estimated £465 hiring a coach to transport students to the National Convention Against Fees and Cuts, the Badger has learned.

The USSU hired a 50-person coach to transport students to the event at University College London (UCL) on the 6 February. However, only seven people booked and paid for a place.

The cost of the coach is currently unknown as the USSU finance office has no record of the invoice. A Brighton coach hire company estimated the cost of the journey at £500.

The seven students on the coach were charged £5 for the return journey, meaning that the USSU lost around £465 overall.

The funding for the trip was granted by the Operations Committee, which approves all funding for campaigns and conferences. Of the six people sitting on the committee, four voted in favour and one abstained.

The minutes from the operations committee, 14 December 2009, record: “Tom Wills [USSU President] also asked that Ops [Operations Committee] approve him to book a coach to take students to the Convention, on the basis students would be charged for the transport in order to make the booking cost neutral for the Union. This proposal was approved with 4 votes in favour, and one abstention.”

Tom Wills also asked the committee for £100 towards the project, “to go towards the cost of publicity and organisation for the event.” This was also passed.

Patrick Rolfe, who is part of the Stop the Cuts campaign at the University of Sussex, reported to the Badger that he had a ‘verbal agreement’ with Tom Wills that he would pay for the remaining cost of the coach not covered by students’ tickets.

Rolfe added: “I took over organising it. It became my responsibility, so I’ll take the financial bullet. I’m sure that I’ll be able to recoup the costs.” Patrick is organising a fundraising event with bands and artists in order to raise the money. Rolfe was not asked to do this by anyone, and no formal agreement has been made.

On this subject the USSU has commented: “The student who organised the coach has agreed that the shortfall resulting from the poor turnout will be met by his campaign group which is independent of the Students’ Union. There will therefore be no cost to the Students’ Union.”

If the funds cannot be repaid then the financial loss to the union budget would be significant. The money to pay for the coach came from the Campaigns and Conferences budget, which is around £2000 for the entire year. Exact budgets are not available because the university has still not confirmed the USSU’s block grant for this year, which is likely to receive a 5 percent cut.

The students who did attend the UCL event appear to have found it to be a positive and useful experience.

One student commented: “It was a really great opportunity to link up with people from other university campaigns and coordinate national action, since these issues affect us all.”

USSU push for National Student Survey boycott

The University of Sussex Students’ Union (USSU) has urged all final year undergraduates to boycott the National Student Survey (NSS) in protest of the proposed cuts to jobs, courses and services at the university.
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Boycott referendum rerun is rescheduled

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University of Sussex successful in national Student Satisfaction Survey

The University of Sussex has made a significant leap in the most recent Times Higher Education’s Student Experience poll, published earlier this month.

The results, taken from nationwide surveys in 2009, shows Sussex has climbed to 26th place out of 104 universities, up from 52nd in 2008. The University of Brighton also improved from last year, now at 85th in the rankings after moving up 4 places.
Read more

Full-time Officer positions challenging but rewarding

Nominations opened for the following six full-time elected officer positions on Monday 11 January:

• President
• Finance/Operations Officer
• Communications Officer
• Welfare Officer
• Activities Officer
• Education Officer

Following the elections, the new full-time elected officers take up their new positions shortly after the end of the summer term. There is a two-week hando­ver period, during which the current officers train the officer-elects and take them through what is expected of them. Training is also provided by the Union, the University and the National Union of Students (NUS) to ensure that the new team are fully prepared to take on their new positions.

The officers occupy a unique position between student and ‘real world’ status. They are viewed as students by the Uni­versity and the NUS, however, as they are not technically enrolled on a course here at Sussex the government treat them as they would any other citizen.

Library cards remain active, and they continue to receive student discounts, but they are not Council Tax exempt unless they are intermitting during their degree course to take on the role.

Full-time elected officers are salaried for the year and entitled to twenty days’ holiday much like other full-time jobs. Hours are flexible. While they tend to operate a 9-5.30 shift for meetings and office duties, the hours they work depend very much on the needs of the moment and work can continue late into the night and even into weekends when needed.

One of the most important roles for all the officers is sitting on Executive Liaison Groups (ELGs), where the Union meets with senior management six times a term to discuss important issues and strategies relating to education or the environment for example. The six full-time officers meet in advance to agree on a united Union position to take. The aim of the ELGs is for the University and the Union to work together on important decisions, however, when the Union feels that some­thing needs to be said then they can take a strong stand on issues on which they do not agree.

Whereas many other Unions across the country have sold off advice centres, commercial services and other periph­eral facilities to the university or external companies to get by, USSU prides itself on remaining actively involved with all aspects of the student experience. In fact, other student unions such as the University of East Anglia and Essex have started looking to the Sussex model to regain student interest and to replicate our examples of campaigning and student engagement on social and political issues. Also, despite the current financial dif­ficulties at the university, the Union is currently looking at ways that it can expand the services it offers to students.

Just down the road, for instance, Bright­on University Students’ Union has sold off their advice centre, which is now being run by the university. This infringes on the neutrality of Union-run services and the feeling of student ownership. How can students feel comfortable making com­plaints about the university if the student support system is run by the university itself?

Union Council to put Constitution to the test

If you’ve been following the debate which followed last term’s referendum to ban Israeli produce from USSU stores, then very little of what follows will be news to you. If not, I’ll include a quick summary. Last term’s referendum was voted in by around 10% of the student body, with just over half those votes in favour of a boycott on Israeli goods. Following this, and in response to proposed bans on bottled water and tuna (which were discussed and indicitavely approved by the AGM), a group was set up on Facebook with the satirical title, “Ban EVERYTHING on Sussex campus”. The purpose of this group was to poke fun at the Union’s increasingly pervasive “ban culture” and later to organise a counter-movement in the name of consumer choice. In the two months or so since then, the group’s message boards have been dominated by arguments centred on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, with anti-boycott members being labelled as Zionists and racists and being forced to go on the defensive to defend their own characters. In the midst of all this, the group’s original message has been lost.

Despite the controversy, the “Ban EVERYTHING…” group, or “BanSoc”, as they are known to their core members, have managed to put together a petition for another referendum to overturn the boycott of Israeli goods. There are a number of reasons given for this – the poor publicity of the original referendum and allegations of intimidating behaviour by campaigners to name but two – but the operative point is that the Constitution states that when a petition with over 150 signatures has been submitted to the Union, “polling should normally be between 3 and 5 weeks (excluding vacations) of the request being considered”. The proponents of the referendum have already been told that it will not be held until week 9 this term, over twice the maximum time allowed by the Constitution. The reasoning was to take pressure off the sabbatical elections, which is fair enough, and this was accepted by the proposers of the referendum.

You’d think that would be the end of it, but no. A motion is being raised at an emergency meeting of the Union Council this Friday the 15th to block the referendum entirely until next year. In effect, Council will be voting on whether or not to ignore the Constitution. The outcome of this vote could well have powerful ramifications for the future of democracy at Sussex. It has already been accepted that the Constitution requires some major alterations where the Union’s democratic processes are concerned, but if Council are capable of ignoring the Constitution when it suits them, then what’s the point in even having one? Of course, time will tell what the Council decides to do, but the fact the question is being called at all is a significant cause for concern.

At a time when the Union’s democratic practices are already being called into question, with accusations of poor publicity and unfair bias against students in the sciences, the Union can ill-afford another blow to its credibility. At a time when the Union is under attack by brutal funding cuts from the University management, we can ill afford to be anything but united. Vote whichever way you will in referenda (and please do vote – nothing speaks unity like landslide decisions), but the Constitution must be allowed to stand, and when under attack it must be defended. The last thing we need is for the University to accuse us of being unconstitutional, because that would truly be a disaster for USSU.

Stop the Cuts – Protest Video (3/12/09)

A video showing the protest on the 3rd December 2009 against over 100 proposed job cuts at the University of Sussex.

Hundreds of angry students storm Bramber House

On Thursday 3rd December, hundreds of outraged students stormed Bramber House for the second time this term. The demonstration highlighted the way in which senior managers at the University of Sussex have fundamentally underestimated student and staff anger regarding the proposed cuts to the University’s educational and support services.

By 10 am, almost 500 students and staff had gathered outside the doors of Bramber House, where an emergency meeting of Senate was taking place. Senate is the highest academic decision making body at the University, featuring members of academic staff. The meeting was chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, Michael Farthing, the man responsible for the drastic cuts proposals.

Protesting students and staff carried banners and pickets in an act of resistance against the cuts and in solidarity with those who have been affected. Students shouted slogans such as: “You Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back”, and “No Ifs, No Buts, No Education Cuts.”

While gathered outside Bramber House, many students spoke out against the proposed cuts, including University of Sussex Students’ Union (USSU) officers, and students from the schools of English, Informatics, Life Sciences, and Engineering. Paul Cecil, President of the Sussex University College Union (UCU), and an international MA student, Tabitha Rohrer, also spoke.

Rohrer spoke of “an administration of senior managers on bloated salaries, who have increasingly cut students, staff, and the Union out of the decision making process in order to facilitate their short-sighted and ineffective strategies.

“This mismanagement is unacceptable, and speaking as someone who has paid ten thousand pounds to be here, I am outraged that people such as Michael Farthing have essentially lied to me about what kind of an institution I was coming to”, she said.

In high spirits, students decided to storm Bramber House in an attempt to make their voices heard, while chanting, “Michael Farthing, Shame on You” and, “There’s only one redundancy we want to see, Michael Farthing, Sussex VC”.

Eventually students managed to get into the corridor outside the room in which the Senate meeting was taking place. They remained there until the University called the police to quell the protest at around 11 am. Upon arrival of the police, the protesters left peacefully.

Owen Richards, the Academic Registrar, told The Badger of his experience of the demonstration from within the meeting room, “It went beyond free speech and making your point, it was pretty scary being in that room. The internal stud walls were literally bowing inwards with people using objects to smash up the walls and doors. It was terrible.”

It is unclear which objects Richards was referring to. Two reporters from The Badger who witnessed the protest confirmed that no objects were used. There was no damage to Bramber House following the demonstration.

The meeting of Senate was called on the premise that it would give student and staff representatives the chance to discuss management’s proposals for the 115 redundancies across the University. In the meeting, an academic member of the Senate directly asked the Vice-Chancellor to allow a vote to measure Senate support of the proposals. Farthing refused.

Tom Wills, President of USSU, who also attended the meeting, said: “It is a disgrace that the Vice-Chancellor refused to allow a vote in the meeting to measure Senate’s support for the redundancy proposals. This shows that senior management are well aware that their proposals have no support among staff or students, but are intent on pushing them through regardless.”

Wills added, “Today’s fantastic demonstration can only be the start of a determined campaign. Over the next three months we need to use every tactic at our disposal to put pressure on University management. We need consultation on our terms, not on theirs. We need to show management that they ignore the voices of students and staff at their peril.

“They know we have the power to stop these cuts – let’s use it.”

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