College staff are balloting for action over redundancies, photo (public domain)

College staff are balloting for action over redundancies, photo (public domain)   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Mike Whale, Hull Trade Union Council

Hull College workers in the University and College Union (UCU) are balloting for strike action to stop the devastating management plans for mass redundancies.

Hull College was held up as a shining example of how privatised management of education would take it forward.

The management is demanding that there will be 231 full-time equivalent redundancies affecting as many as 400 workers.

This is the price that lecturers, support staff and students will have to pay for an alleged £54 million grant from the Educational Funding Agency to try and stabilise the situation.

Part of the plans include major outsourcing of support services in the college. While the ballot is firstly to stop the redundancies, many workers are beginning to raise the demand that the college should be returned to local authority control.

This dispute is an attack on the college but is also an attack on Hull itself. Hull Trade Union Council will be organising action to support the workers and students in the college.