Organising meeting hosted by UCU Left
7.30pm Monday 1 June.
- Louise Regan, NEU National Officer Membership and Equality
- Tom Armstrong UCU Branch Chair SOAS
- Peta Bulmer Anti-casualisation Officer, University of Liverpool
- Mark Abel UCU Left Secretary
- Chaired by Bee Hughes, LJMU
One of the government’s top science advisers, Prof John Edmunds, says relaxing lockdown is ‘risky’ and a ‘political decision’.
There is a battle between the government and parents/teachers over the wider reopening of schools in England on 1 June. Despite the Sage advice, despite 85 per cent of teachers saying it is not safe and despite schools in Wales and Scotland not reopening, The Times on Saturday said “Almost every primary school in England is set to reopen on Monday in defiance of the biggest teaching union”. But the ground is shifting. More councils are not advising schools to open and, in those councils where the advice is ambivalent, more headteachers are saying their school will not reopen. Louise Regan, one of the key NEU officers leading the fightback, will be speaking on Monday evening.
The meeting will also be discussing the fight in both HE and FE in defence of jobs and education.
How do we organise to defend the thousands of casualised workers losing their jobs now?
- How can we support Roehampton and branches who have face attacks on pay, jobs and workload?
- What is happening in the four fights and how do prepare for the assault in higher education?
- How do we deepen the resistance to Johnson push to open the schools before it is safe?
- How can we ensure our own employers in colleges and universities keep us safe?
- How do we ensure UCU rises to the challenges to defend jobs and education?
- How can we build the alternative to failed market model?
We call on all UCU branches to hold a meeting, action or stoppage on June the 1st in support of NEU and casualised workers.
Links and resources:
Petition: Open schools when it is safe
Join the Fight for Higher Education: Stand with Roehampton
We are under attack. This is not the time to end the Four Fights. UCU Left.
Report of Meeting of Higher Education Committee, 27 May 2020. UCU Left.