Labour Morning Star
Glasgow university staff vote overwhelmingly to strike against job cuts and redundancies
STAFF at the University of Glasgow have overwhelmingly voted to strike against management plans for cuts and redundancies, their union UCU announced today. The result comes amid fury over the cancella
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The result comes amid fury over the cancellation of contract extensions and opening of a voluntary severance scheme in August even as, despite UCU research pointing to the ancient university sitting on reserves topping £1.3 billion, bosses fail to rule out compulsory redundancies.
The UCU’s ballot, which concluded on Tuesday, won 75 per cent backing for strike, raising the prospect of the first UCU stoppage at the university, other than national action, in 15 years.
Now the higher education union has called on bosses to learn from that previous dispute, which saw months-long student solidarity occupations before management was forced to back down from its job cuts plan.
UCU branch president Duncan Lowther said: “The last time Glasgow University management went down this route they then had to spend large amounts of time and goodwill making up for bad decisions and re-establishing relations with the university’s staff and students.
“Glasgow University is financially strong with a strong balance sheet and millions upon millions in reserve.
“There is no justifiable reason for senior management to be cutting jobs.”
UCU general secretary Jo Grady added: “Until now Glasgow University has been an exception to the multiple strikes taking place across Scotland over cuts and job losses.
“It’s disappointing therefore to see Professor Schofield now cutting staff when there is no financial necessity to do so.
“Management need to learn the lessons of the past and rule out compulsory redundancies now before students have their teaching disrupted which would impact the support and services they need, alongside putting critical research on hold.”
The University of Glasgow was contacted for comment.