MTU staff to protest as Taoiseach attends flag ceremony

Workers at the university from the TUI union are set to hold a “silent protest” with placards at the symbolic raising of the MTU flag for the college’s first academic semester tomorrow morning.

The Bishopstown-based university is set to welcome the Taoiseach Micheál Martin together with Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris to the event at 10am on Monday. Picture: Denis Minihane.

A raising of the flag ceremony to be attended by the Taoiseach in Cork tomorrow will be subject to a formal protest by workers at Munster Technological University.

The Bishopstown-based university is set to welcome the Taoiseach Micheál Martin together with Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris to the event at 10am.

However, workers at the university from the TUI union are set to hold a “silent protest” with placards at the symbolic raising of the MTU flag for the college’s first academic semester on the same morning.

The protest stems from a number of issues raised by staff with management at the new university, formed via a unification of Tralee IT and CIT under the same banner.

Susan Flannery, chair of MTU’s TUI branch, says the protest has its foundations in the decision to form a technical university in the first place, with staff members left “frustrated” due to there being “no meaningful engagement with management since January 2019”.

Those grievances relate to unresolved issues concerning recruitment, staff complaints procedures, a perceived lack of proper career frameworks for workers, and the safeguarding of regional provision, “something Tralee would worry about”, Ms Flannery said.

The MTU union branch says it remains engaged in industrial action, “following an overwhelming mandate”, due to a “blatant failure by management to consult with its academic staff”.

In terms of staff recruitment, they claim that “key positions are being created and filled without open competition”.

“It appears that only a chosen few are favoured by MTU’s senior management to be in with a chance to implement plans and policies for the new university and the move has lecturers up in arms,” the branch said in a statement.

Ms Flannery said that the protest would be low in numbers due to the branch being mindful of Covid-19, but that given the “opportunity” to engage with the senior politicians present “we will certainly avail of it”.

“We will have our banner there too,” she said of the union’s planned protest.

“The last time management granted us a meeting was back in May. We have been greeted with a wall of silence ever since.”