Merger notes

Your article on the talks between the Association of University Teachers and Natfhe was right to observe that all the principal issues have now been resolved between negotiators ("Merger details go live in slip-up", February 11).

All the papers were temporarily posted on the Natfhe website in time for delegates to regional meetings to see precisely what had been discussed. Such detail, however, is not the best way to explain the proposals to the wider membership, so a more accessible summary will be posted.

Where the merger proposals involve change to much cherished traditions, there are bound to be concerns. But it is our members who will in the end decide whether the change is worth it.

I am sure members of both unions will vote for the new union not because either is in a desperate state, but because united we will be so much more effective.

Paul Mackney
General secretary, Natfhe