8 February 2016
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
Academic and research staff in CIT have escalated their industrial action against the merger of CIT with IT Tralee.
From today, 8th February, TUI members will work-to-rule, moving into the second phase of a three-phase industrial action which began last year. This action will cause major disruption to the day-to-day running of the college, as members will be restricted to using communications technology between the hours of 9pm-5pm and will be reverting to hard-copy snail mail for communication with management. A raft of other work-to-rule measures, circulated to members last week, will have a dampening effect on CIT management’s plans to merge with IT Tralee and could result in disruption to the examination preparation process which begins in February.
CIT – in Cork – is one of the many institutes where some staff are in dispute
This industrial relations mess is set to continue, as members also unanimously agreed to request sanction from the TUI Executive for the third phase of action which is strike action.
The merger of CIT with IT Tralee is now an issue for the general election in Cork City and County on the back of an unopposed motion passed by Cork City Council last month to oppose the merger and the Technological Universities Bill. There is vehement opposition by CIT academic and research staff to CIT management plans to merge with IT Tralee. The TUI National Executive is currently holding a National Ballot on Institute of Technology mergers, in the run-up to the election on 26th February.
The TUI Branch in IT Tralee has organised a meeting with all politicians in Kerry on this merger for Monday 15th February at 1.00pm in the Meadowlands Hotel in Tralee and at a packed TUI lunchtime meeting in CIT today, it was decided to hold a similar event of Cork politicians in the run-up to election 2016. This is an issue that affects all of the people of Cork – not just the two institutes.
Details of this event to follow.
