BSU Students’ Union Calls the Government to Come Clean on Student Funding

Following a vote at the last Student Council, Bath Spa University Students’ Union will join unions across the country to support the NUS Come Clean campaign and lobby parliament on 18 April.

The lobby will be followed by a rally at Roostein Hopkins Parade Ground with speeches from campaigners and union representatives, including members of UCU.

No more Higher Education Bill

The Government have said that they want to put students ‘at the heart of the system’ – yet the  recent shelving of the Higher Education Bill now leaves students facing higher fees with no additional protections or security.

The decision to treble fees to £9000 was forced through with no legislation to prop it up – rushed through to avoid deep controversy. A bill would have provided us with a platform to obtain additional rights for students – winning protections in the new funding regime and resisting further privatisation.

Backdoor Reforms

Many of the most damaging reforms the Government wants to push through do not require legislation and may never have been included in the bill anyway. This means that the Government is still able to push ahead with many of its most radical reforms – and can potentially continue to do so without opportunity for proper parliamentary scrutiny, public debate, or an opportunity for it to be defeated.

We cannot let this happen. We want a public debate on the issues – out in the open rather than behind closed doors. Over 130 Bath Spa students have already signed a ‘Come Clean’ petition and over 20 have written to local MPs.

If you would like to support our call for David Willetts to ‘come clean’, please find details on the Students’ Union website.

‘Name and shame’ threat to university low-payers

Union-News.co.uk

The active voice for trade unionists

by Tim Lezard - 2nd March 2012, 12.04 GMT

The NUS and UNISON today said they would name and shame universities who pay their staff less than £7.20 an hour.

The campaign, which calls on all colleges, universities and students’ unions – including private contractors on campuses – across the UK to pay at least a Living Wage to all of their employees, is being launched at UNISON’s Higher Education Conference in Brighton.

It will see the two organisations creating a ‘league table’ of the worst offenders – those with the biggest gap between the lowest and highest paid staff.  The unions will also award those that do the right thing by giving a ‘kite mark’ to the colleges and universities that agree to pay the living wage.

JUSTICE FOR ALFIE MEADOWS: DROP THE CHARGES NOW

The Petition

This Petition was initiated by the Defend the Right to Protest Campaign.

Signatories include: Tariq Ali, Gigi Ibrahim (Egyptian activist and blogger), John McDonnell (MP), Liam Burns (NUS President), Zita Holbourne (PCS NEC), Mark Thomas (Comedian) and Jody McIntyre (Journalist and Equality Movement Activist).

On 9th December 2010, tens of thousands of students took part in a national demonstration against MPs voting for £9,000 tuition fees in a mass show of unity against this deeply unpopular policy.

Thousands who wanted to protest were met with police charges on horseback and kettling. A senior doctor from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, who set up a field hospital in Parliament Square, spoke of her experience of being kettled on Westminster Bridge, “It was the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen – it must have been what Hillsborough was like. The crush was just so great.” She recorded people suffering from respiratory problems, chest pains and symptoms of severe crushing.

Jody McIntyre was pulled from his wheelchair and dragged along the pavement.

University student Alfie Meadows came on the demonstration after being involved in a campaign at Middlesex University to save his philosophy department from closure. He was struck so hard on the head with a police baton that he needed emergency brain surgery.

Alfie lost his university department and when he protested he received a life threatening injury. But outrageously Alfie has since been charged with violent disorder and faces a trial on 26th March.

This forms part of a pattern of attacks on protest which has seen hundreds of students arrested and scores either charged or sentenced to long terms in prison. We the undersigned demand an end to political charging and sentencing of protesters and call for all charges against Alfie Meadows to be dropped. We also call for a mobilisation of students, workers and campaigners outside his court hearing on 26th March.

Sign Petition

Companies do far better when the workplace is unionised than when not

A new TUC publication, Unions At Work  shows that individual workers and perhaps more surprisingly, companies themselves, do far better when the workplace is unionised than when not.

In unionised workplaces staff turnover is less, time-off for sickness is less, staff morale is higher and there is less industrial unrest. Contrary to popular belief trade unions save companies and organisations millions every year.

Manchester March For The Alternative

Date: Sunday 2 October
Assemble 12 noon Liverpool Road (off Deansgate)

This year the Conservative Party are having their annual Conference in Manchester and the TUC is organising a march and rally to show opposition to the Coalition Government’s disastrous policies of pay freezes, cuts and attacks on public services that are producing rising unemployment, cuts in living standards and stagnation. The march will also show the support for The Alternative. We need jobs, growth and justice for a sustainable future and this event will send that message loud and clear.

The TUC is calling for the maximum support and are encouraging all union members to attend. More details can be found here

If you would be interested in travelling by a UCU coach could you let me know ASAP and we’ll see what we can do in conjunction with Region and the other Bristol & Bath UCU branches.

Great display of unity on the 30th

The day of action on the 30th June was a great success. UCU@BSU had a good turnout for the picket from 08.00-10.00 and then joined the inspirational march in Bristol. Over 5,000 teachers, lecturers and public sector workers marched together in defence of their hard won terms and conditions. It was a joy to be part of it. The overwhelming wave of support from the citizens of Bristol as we marched through the City was also a very pleasant surprise.

The Picket Line On The 30th

The 5,000 marching in Bristol

The rally & speeches at the end of the march.