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THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL LANCASHIRE’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Monday 3 March 2014
LAW STUDENT WINS AWARD
Kofi Madden wins prestigious law award NEWS, Page 2
SMOKING BACK ON THE TELLY
E-cigs adverts see hard work go up in smoke COMMENT, Page 8
REVIEW:
HER - SPIKE JONZE’S SCREENWRITING DEBUT
CULTURE, Page 15
NEWS: Eating disorder awareness week returns
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FIND OUT HOW SUN CREAM, POTATOES AND A TOOTHBRUSH CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE Page 10
STUDENTS SET FOR MORE STRIKE AGONY AT UCLAN Issue 260
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>> 81% OF UCU MEMBERS WHO VOTED WERE SUPPORTIVE OF MORE STRIKES >> DATES SET FOR THURSDAY 6, FRIDAY 7, MONDAY 17 AND TUESDAY 18 MARCH >> MORE CHAOS PLANNED AS TIMETABLES SET TO BE DISRUPTED ACROSS 4 DAYS
Tom Greggan News Editor
YET more strikes will take place at UCLan this month as staff look to fight back over job cuts and changes to lecturers pay grades. The University and College Union announced that its members at the university voted ‘overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action’. 81% of UCU members who voted were supportive of more strikes. At a meeting last week, strikes were called for 6, 7, 18 and 19 March. These strikes will mean that staff will have staged ten separate protests this academic year after three national strikes and two twohour walkouts in a national row over pay. The UCU is unhappy with the reasons given by UCLan for axing 75 members of staff, pointing out that the university is in a
a very healthy financial position. In a statement, UCU’s regional official, Martyn Moss said: “UCU members have made it clear with this ballot result that they will fight compulsory redundancies and take further strike action to defend their jobs and conditions. “We hope that such an overwhelmingly mandate for more industrial action at UCLan will encourage the university to sit down with us and try to resolve the dispute. “We fear the university's plans are little more than an attempt to get rid of experienced senior academic staff and replace them with cheaper options and casual contracts.” The union is also unhappy that UCLan has gone back on agreements of staff roles and pay grades, which are set to change in reforms
across the university’s schools. In addition, the UCU are putting pressure on the university to reveal the true cost of its overseas projects in Cyprus, Thailand and Sri Lanka, which have been dubbed ‘disastrous’. A planned UCLan campus in Thailand was scrapped after £3.7million had already been spent and the location of the Cyprus campus has been criticised by the United Nations. On the subject, Moss said: “We still have concerns about the large sums of money being spent on a series of international investments and want the books to be properly scrutinised. “When the UN and Amnesty International are drawing attention to your activities, it is surely time for greater transparency?.” In an email leaked to Pluto,
UCLan UCU Chair, Michael McKrell disclosed information about further strikes that are set to go ahead in a matter of weeks. Meaning more disruption and disturbance to timetabled lectures, the email contained details of a dispute between the UCU and management. The threat of academic job losses, the breach of the national framework agreement on academic role profiles in the form of the proposed new academic job descriptions and the breach of the framework agreement on the use of Associate Lecturer grade staff were listed as the three substantive issues. However, in the email, Mr Mckrell spoke of how ‘contrary to the misinformation spread by University Senior Management, they do not take action to damage students’ education. ‘
PRESTON REMEMBERS SIR TOM FINNEY 1922 - 2014
SPECIAL FEATURE, PAGE 6
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