National fight on cuts and pay needed
The enormous funding crisis in higher education is also in new Labour prime minister Andy Burnham’s inbox.
Even as universities were winding down in July, struggles against devastating cuts were continuing.
- University and College Union (UCU) members at London South Bank University were on strike against fire and rehire, which would involve moving some staff into a sham company to remove them from the standard pension scheme and put them outside the national pay framework
- A strike ballot began at the University of Exeter against cuts which put 500 research and teaching jobs at risk, with 200 compulsory redundancies
- A ballot started on 1 July at the University of Sussex over plans to cut 200 jobs – despite more than 500 staff having already left Sussex over the past two years
- UCU members at the University of Lincoln are preparing to ballot over threats that put more 140 jobs at risk
- London Met UCU members continued their fight against huge cuts – their battle has led to some success, but there are still 47 compulsory redundancies
- Action continues at Goldsmiths in London and Nottingham University
- In Scotland, workers at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh have been on strike, and UCU members are preparing to strike in Dundee in September
- 20 other universities are in dispute, undertaking action short of strike, or preparing to ballot
Time to press ahead
Instead of simply praising Andy Burnham’s supposedly “excellent team”, as UCU general secretary Jo Grady has done, the union should be using this moment to press ahead with preparing for the national strike ballot against job cuts that was agreed at the union’s conference in May.
The right-wing-dominated Higher Education Committee decided not to go ahead – but dozens of branches around the country are passing motions challenging this decision and demanding a recalled Higher Education Sector conference.
At the same time, the university employers’ body UCEA has made an insulting pay offer of just 2% – a real-terms pay cut even before the effects of the Middle East crisis really kick in.
Consultative ballots of members of the education unions UCU, Unite and Unison are ongoing – preparation for coordinated action is essential!
