On 5 February 2020 at a public event to receive the University of East London’s ‘achievement’ of a bronze Investors in People award, Vice-chancellor Amanda Broderick referred to UEL staff as ‘cockroaches’, stating that ‘staff believed they could scurry out of the light like cockroaches’ but she, Amanda Broderick, would prove them wrong.

UEL staff members also report confirmations from a range of sources that Professor Broderick has referred to UEL staff as cockroaches on other occasions.

Now UEL management is forcing through a small number of compulsory redundancies targeting trade union reps. In her presentation to university staff on seeking appointment as Vice-Chancellor, Amanda Broderick was overt about her antipathy to trade unions, speaking of how in a previous workplace the trade unions were ‘too powerful, but she had addressed that’.

Amanda Broderick makes plain what many of us, across the sector, suspect. Staff are seen as a nuisance, less than human, and certainly not worthy of consideration by overpaid ‘leaders’.

What they forget is that there are many - many - more of us than them.

On Friday 20th November we ask all trade unionists and our allies to join the cockroach army.

Send messages of support and solidarity via twitter, instagram and email to UEL management:

Tag @ProfBroderick @UEL_news @c2hsa @ian_pickup @varvas_v @PMMarshall @AnulikaAjufo @garystew @Janette_Withey #saveUEL

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Please use visuals, memes, songs and other cockroachy messages.