Passed GUCU branch Meeting 20.08.2020
This branch notes:
- That on Wednesday 12 August Tate has announced 313 redundancies in the publishing, gallery shops, restaurants and cafes services run by its outsourced commercial arm, Tate Enterprises. These redundancies take in all four branches of Tate in London, Liverpool, and St Ives, and are far in excess of the 200 jobs originally projected to be lost.
- That in a situation of budgetary crisis, rather than cut from the top, ‘difficult decisions’ were taken by the institutions’ senior management to end the employment of large numbers of staff who are already casualised and working under inferior conditions. As we have also seen in universities and here at Goldsmiths, these are job cuts that disproportionately affect black and ethnic minority workers.
- That the union representing these workers, PCS Tate United, announced strike action 7 August. Strike action commenced 18 August and will continue this week, with further plans to be announced next Monday the 24th.
- That cultural workers and educators are in solidarity, and that an Open Letter of Support co-written by members of BECTU, UCU and PCS Tate United has been circulated.
This branch resolves:
- To express its solidarity with the sacked Tate workers as a branch, and to communicate this solidarity publicly.
- To boycott Tate’s spaces and events, offers of employment and any other advocacy of the organisation so long as the dispute continues.
- To promote the solidarity fund for the sacked Tate workers https://www.gofundme.com/f/tate-commerce-strike-fund
- To donate £100