Alanah Carey-Peacher, Leicester Socialist Party
Senior management want to cut the staffing budget by £11 million. Yet even the uni’s own data shows that spending on pay has fallen relative to income.
Cuts would mean that hundreds of staff lose their jobs, and students would face course closures. So members of the University and College Union (UCU) are striking.
We marched through campus, clanking instruments and blasting music. Staff, as well as representatives from Leicester Trades Union Council and students, then spoke out.
One worker states: “The uni management elite take £100,000 for making the decisions that mean lecturers must work unpaid overtime. Lecturers do it as they care for their students.”
Another worker emphasised: “We must make a strong case as today chemistry is under threat, tomorrow it could be physics. We won’t take it lying down.”
These sentiments are carried throughout the country, with multiple universities increasingly affected by the funding crisis and greed.
