A well attended meeting of the North West Region Committee (HE Sector meeting) took place on Saturday 13th October in Manchester. Six Higher Education institutions were represented and discussed Friday’s decision of the national negotiators to suspend all action over pay despite a 70% members’ vote calling for Action Short of a Strike in the recent ballot over the HE pay claim. Representatives from all institutions present spoke and voiced their concern over the negotiators’ position. The following motion was passed:
“The NW Regional Committee are very disappointed with the decision of national negotiators to withdraw the immediate threat of ASOS as a means of substantiating the current pay claim.
We call on the HEC to reconvene as a matter of urgency in order to discuss an effective ASOS strategy. The HEC should also discuss strategies of effective strike action that could be implemented in the future and that would be popular with the membership.”
The motion was written in some haste but clearly conveys the meeting’s disappointment with what appears to be an abandoning of members’ wish to take action. The meeting was keen that ASOS should be implemented as soon as possible and within the current mandate for action and that the HEC must consider seriously how to win a vote for strike action in the future.