Pen/Insular_Notes

Another dispatch from the ongoing SOAS library dispute.

It seems that as a result of last week’s extraordinary meeting of the governing body and the anger that has been expressed from right across the school, the management has… taken a tiny step backwards. The GB meeting proposed three ‘initiatives’ (god, how managers love that word): go to ACAS (something the AUT union already proposed), set up a committee to look into HR processes at SOAS and a high level review of library strategy. Looks like they’re playing for time and offering a few things that they know will not hurt them (ie they can probably stitch up the committee/review stuff).

The union has called this a ‘humiliating climbdown’, which seems a bit of an exaggeration, but I suppose the resistance to this disgraceful restructuring has caused a some change - previously they weren’t willing to make any concessions at all. The AUT is demanding (sensibly enough) the reinstatement of the two sacked librarians as a precondition for going to abitration at ACAS. As they point out, there is plenty of work for them to do.

I don’t know what the latest situation is, but I’m not sure that the management will agree to this, as by all accounts it will be nigh on impossible for the sacked libarians and library management to work together (the atmosphere among staff in the library is already quite unpleasant apparently). Of course the union is still urging all members to vote yes to strike action, so it will be interesting to see whether the management’s half-offer has any affect on the result. With the arrogance of the current management and the depth of anger among academics I think there is still a possibility that this could come to a strike.