This week the majority of staff across academic departments at Goldsmiths have given their verdict on the approach and the agenda of the current Senior Management Team at Goldsmiths. 87% of participants – that’s 605 of 698 voters – declared they have no confidence in the current SMT.
Collective Change and the Professors Forum, who jointly organised the vote, have called for a change in direction on the part of SMT. This would begin with a pause in the planned restructure now, a brake on any compulsory redundancies, and in due course a democratisation of Goldsmiths’ governance structures to avoid us going down this path again.
The current GUCU ballot is the most powerful means we have of seeing this change of direction realised. Our key demands seek a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies and a halt to the staff cost control measures being proposed in the name of the “Recovery Plan”. While the Vote of No Confidence constitutes a strong public statement of staff disapproval, this must be backed up by the threat of concrete action. In voting YES to strike action and YES to action short of a strike, we can all take a crucial step in maintaining the pressure on SMT to listen to the concerns and needs of their staff, and change course before it’s too late.
If you have voted already – thank you. Please also let us know by emailing goldsmithucu [at] gmail.com with subject line ‘voted’.
For more information about the VONC results, see: https://we-are.gold/2020/11/21/vonc-results/
For FAQs about the GUCU dispute, see: https://goldsmithsucu.org/2020/11/18/gucu-ballot-faqs/