Steve Score, Leicester Socialist Party
Determined strike action by University and College Union (UCU) members at Leicester University has forced management to finally agree to talks about threatened compulsory redundancies and £11 million proposed cuts to the staffing budget.
This is even though senior figures earning over £100,000 a year cost £10 million to the pay bill themselves!
Management had taken an aggressive ‘union-busting’ approach, saying they would not only deduct all pay for days lost due to strike action, but a further 50% pay if staff do not volunteer to cover student recruitment activities and reschedule lectures cancelled due to the strike.
In contrast, the university spends an average of £46 million a year on capital expenditure and £1.5 million on external consultants.
UCU members are not only defending their jobs but defending education at the university. Socialist Students members, alongside other students, have been down regularly to support the picket lines, despite the failure of the student union to support the strike.
