The new vice chancellor of London Metropolitan University has announced 165 redundancies. Stunned workers say this could be the “beginning of the end” for the college.
Rob Murthwaite is a branch officer of the UCU union at London Met. He told Socialist Worker, “It’s a massive number of job cuts. In the business and law department, they want to cut 75.1 posts from a total of 130. It’s more than decimation.”
Unions at the college are meeting this week and next to discuss their response and possible strikes against the cuts.
Workers are also approaching the student union. Rob said, “We have the largest number of black students of any college in the country. More than half of our students are from manual, working class backgrounds.
“We have the largest number of women returning to education of any college. You wonder if bosses actually want a college like ours to continue.”
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