Dr Dion Georgiou, a senior lecturer at the University of Chichester, calls on academics to “stand in solidarity with cleaners and security staff, and fight precarious employment.”

Writing in the Guardian, Dr Georgiou who has been organising seminars and events at Senate House for more than a decade, said outsourcing has to end and he is proud to back the University of London boycott.

In his article he also points out that universities routinely invest huge amounts in real estate while neglecting to invest in their staff. And commenting on the difficulties the outsourced workers at the University of London have been facing since their campaign began in 2017, he said “… they face an intransigent university management with skewed priorities, whose response has all too frequently blended short-termism with heavy-handedness.

“Refusing to negotiate directly with the workers’ chosen union representatives, it has instead expended heavily on policing the workers’ industrial action and student protests taken in support of them, spending over £400,000 on additional security over a two-month period last year alone.”

Remembering the IWGB members who supported academics who themselves had to take industrial action against their employers, Dr Georgiou said “Last year, while I was stood on the picket line outside King’s College London (where I myself was then precariously employed) during our strike over pensions, IWGB members supported our action, with some refusing to cross UCU picket lines. Now we must stand with them. We are all in this fight together.”

Read the full article here.

All University of London IWGB members are invited to our Annual General Meeting (AGM), which will be held on Saturday 27 April at 2pm. It is the most important date in the branch calendar and we urge everyone to make the effort to attend. Food and drink will be provided.

It is your once-a-year chance to:

• find out everything the branch has done in the last action-packed year
• approve the union’s finances
• meet colleagues from across the branch
• stand for election and vote for our officers (see full list of current officers and posts)
• thank our volunteers and activists
• make plans for the next year
  

Venue: SOAS Main Building, Room B103, 10 Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG .

The nearest tube station is Russell Square, and the 59, 168, 68, 91 and 188 buses stop nearby.

More information about the AGM and how to stand as an officer, is available from jordilopez-botey@iwgb.co.uk.

Danny Millum, secretary of the University of London’s (UoL) branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), has been reprimanded, in writing, by his employers for accepting an invitation from seminar convenors to discuss the union’s ‘Boycott Senate House’ campaign. 

Below, Rebecca Dooley, an IWGB activist and member of UoL’s Information and Consultation of Employees forum, calls out Professor Rick Rylance for singling out and victimising Danny for his trade union activity. In his 5 February letter the dean of the School of Advanced Study where Danny has been a loyal employee for more than 13 years, made it clear he would not hesitate to instigate disciplinary action in the future.

Dear Professor Rylance, 

I am writing in my capacity as the assistant secretary of the University of London IWGB. I am assistant to our branch secretary, Danny Millum, and I am writing with regard to the letter that he received from you regarding his attendance at an IHR seminar. 

I write with grave concern, as both an employee of the University and as a committed trade union member and activist, that Danny is being singled out and victimised for his trade union activity, despite being an exemplary employee of the university for many years. I am a member of the ICE forum and have publicly stated on more than one occasion at those meetings that the university has recently been showing a degree of disdain towards the IWGB and its members as a result of our in-house campaign, and I fear that this attitude towards our union is now manifesting itself in very real ways in potential disciplinary action against a valued employee.

I would ask you at this time why it was deemed necessary to take such action against Danny for his attendance at this seminar? Whilst I do note that your letter states that no action is being taken, the very fact of it being a formal letter, from yourself, copied to senior management, seems to say the complete opposite. 

For something that I think many would consider to be a very minor matter, this seems to be a wholly excessive response, designed to intimidate Danny into reigning in his trade union activity. The work of union representatives is vital for maintenance of a safe and secure workforce and those who choose to undertake this work (often giving up vast amounts of their free time, unpaid) should be able to do so without the fear of reprisal from their employer.

Kind regards,

Rebecca Dooley