University actions continue

Across Britain members of the University and College Union (UCU) have opposed their employers who seek to impose job cuts and to hold down their pay.

In many places they have succeeded for now, but their campaign continues against the background of funding challenges and dependency on overseas students.

Improvements

UCU members at Warrington and Vale Royal College won a pay increase of 6.5 per cent from 1 August, along with other improvements. The threat of strikes after a 94 per cent vote in support of action was enough to bring the employer back to the table.

UCU members at the University of the West of Scotland were set to take part in twelve days of strikes from 20 October against a threat to sack 75 lecturers. But the employer withdrew the threat.

Chopping jobs

Earlier this year Leicester University told staff that their jobs were at risk. After a strategic review it aims to chop the staffing budget by £11 million.

This would reduce or close six areas: geography, geology and the environment; education; chemistry; modern languages; history; and film studies. Hundreds of professional services staff were also told that they face a review that may lead to job losses.

As a result, UCU members struck for three weeks from late September and took other action short of strike. So far there’s no resolution. A further two weeks of strikes began on 10 November.

Refusal

At the University of Nottingham the jobs of 95 staff were directly at risk from reorganisation proposals. The union estimated that a further 200 jobs could be at risk too, with the employer refusing to rule out redundancies.

UCU Nottingham members took action in September and October, with further days planned throughout November and December after. This action was suspended after the university agreed to enter meaningful talks and to put a hold on redundancies until at least October 2026.

Talks

At Lancaster University, the employer has held off from compulsory redundancy and agreed to enter talks in the face of threatened action by UCU members. UCU members at the University of the Highlands and Islands have also agreed to suspend action against the latest threatened job cuts to enable further talks to take place.

Elsewhere UCU members are taking action in at Sheffield, Edinburgh and Derby universities over threatened job cuts and compulsory redundancies. Members in Dundee are doing the same, the latest twist in the long-running funding crisis at that institution.

Pensions

Other areas – Northumbria University for example – are fighting against attempts to attack pay pensions. At Southampton Solent University UCU members have entered a formal trade dispute over the employer’s intention to force all staff into worse pension schemes. In effect the employer is adopting fire and rehire practices seen at P&O Ferries and elsewhere – but not so far in the HE sector.