Strike against closure at Essex uni
Eleanor Donne, Essex Socialist Party
Academic staff at Essex University started a week of strike action on 12 February to defend their jobs and stop the proposed closure of the Southend Campus of the university (see ‘Stop closure of Essex Uni’s Southend Campus’). Essex Socialist Party members spoke to University and College Union (UCU) pickets at the Southend Campus.
200 teaching jobs are at risk at Essex, plus a further 200 admin and student support roles, with redundancy notices due in May. Unison, representing non-teaching staff, is starting to ballot its members at Southend and Colchester, with Unite also considering action. It is vital that support continues to be built among students too, in preparation for the action that could be necessary if the plans to close the campus continue.
The university has now said it is cutting the ‘Pathways’ programme, which aims to bring working-class ‘non-traditional’ students into higher education. Up to 80% of the Pathways workforce are to go.
The University of Essex ‘Manifesto’ says that it is on the side of “people with guts – rebels with a cause”. This clearly needs a rewrite, though perhaps not by the vice chancellor on her £280,000 salary…
In fact, university management have tried to operate a hostile environment for unions, cutting Unison’s facility time, and removing a Unison regional organiser from the campus!
The main strike rally was at the Colchester Campus, addressed by Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the TUC. He called on the government to ‘step up and end the broken fees system’.
University bosses should of course be held to account for poor planning or even mismanagement of finances. But universities cannot and should not be run like commercial companies. Education should be publicly funded.
Imperial uni joint union fight on pay
Mary Finch, Unison rep, personal capacity
Imperial College London workers in Unite, the University and College Union (UCU) and Unison are continuing our local strike campaign for a real pay rise. Management imposed a 2% pay increase in 2025 – another real-terms pay cut, after years of below-inflation increases.
Management refused to negotiate with the joint trade unions. They claimed that 2% was all Imperial could afford, but we know now that the university’s financial position is far better than expected, with an operating surplus £51 million higher than projected last year!
Pay at Imperial is benchmarked against other London institutions, supposedly meaning that staff are offered higher salaries than other employers. The joint trade unions uncovered serious errors in the benchmarking data used to justify the 2% increase – it produced results which are statistically impossible. Management acknowledges the inaccuracies, but staggeringly, refuses to correct them.
So far, they’ve also refused to negotiate over last year’s pay offer. 2026 pay negotiations will begin in April. It’s clear that Imperial can afford a real pay rise, and united action by all three trade unions can win one.
Real-terms pay cuts, threatened job losses and course closures are becoming commonplace in universities everywhere, not just at Imperial.
Determined action by trade unions can and has pushed back these attacks. The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) imposed a 1.5% pay increase in 2021. Unite, Unison and UCU members rejected the offer and took part in a national, coordinated strike in 2022 – and the pay offer was doubled to 3%! This was nowhere near enough, but it shows what’s possible when workers fight back.
Union members in universities have taken strike action over pay again in 2026, although UCU missed the Tory turnout threshold (disgracefully kept in place by Labour) in a national ballot. Many universities are fighting enormous cuts and closures. Coordinating the national and local disputes is essential. It is vital to build up towards a genuinely national fight in 2026 for the future of higher education.
Solent UCU strike grows
Support continues to grow for the UCU strike at Solent University, where lecturers are facing fire and rehire and attacks on their pensions. Branch membership has increased by 25% since the start of the dispute. Despite the impact the strike has on students, strikers report their students are overwhelmingly supportive. The picket on 17 February was joined by members of Southampton TUC, local Unison branch members, and Socialist Students members building solidarity for the strike. UCU members are discussing how they can escalate the action if management don’t respond.
Nick Chaffey, Southern and South East Socialist Party
