University workers across the country are taking action against managements’ cuts and the impact of marketisation in HE, reports Jamal Elaheebocus

Higher education is in crisis. After years of decreases in government funding and increasing marketisation of universities, managements across universities are announcing brutal job cuts and redundancies. In response, UCU members are voting to strike at universities across the UK or are currently involved in strike action.

Newcastle

UCU members at Newcastle University are to begin fourteen days of strike action in March, following management announcing a £20 million reduction in the salary bill, which would be the equivalent of 300 job cuts. The cuts are set to be made using voluntary redundancies but management could not rule out making compulsory redundancies.

Staff will strike on the 4, 6, 10, 11, 17-20 and 24-28 March and continuous action short of a strike will begin on 4 March.

Brunel

Workers at Brunel University, London, began strike action on Friday, with sixteen days of strikes planned over the next six weeks. The strikes are in response to management announcing plans for 423 job cuts, including 282 compulsory redundancies. This will include cuts to student support and counselling services.

UCU members will take action on 12, 18, 20, 24, 25 and 28 March and then from 1 to 4 and 7 to 11 April.

Dundee

Three weeks of continuous strike action began last Monday, with staff to strike every weekday until 14 March. It comes after management announced job cuts in November to reduce a £30 million deficit. However, staff have had no further information on the job cuts and the principal and other members of senior management have been forced to resign over the last three months; 74% of staff voted for strike action on a 64% turnout.

Ballots across the country

UCU branches across the country are also balloting for strike action. In Cardiff, a strike ballot opened last Monday after the university announced 400 job cuts, including the total closure of the schools of nursing, music and modern foreign languages and the merging of several others. Cardiff UCU spokesperson Andy Williams told Counterfire the cuts are ‘cruel and callous’.

UCU members at the University of Sheffield began voting on strike action last Monday following the management threatening up to 1,000 job losses. Management is cutting £23 million from the staff bill, which would equate to around 400 jobs, and around 1,000 workers are set to be issued with risk of redundancy notices. This is despite university accounts showing Sheffield has little debt and strong reserves. Staff at the International College (USIC) have been taking strike action and will strike again on 10 March, with nine more days set to be announced, if

management does not commit to no compulsory redundancies. This was after 36 workers were put at risk of redundancy.

Thirty-six staff at Birmingham City University are to be sacked by the end of July as part of extensive restructuring. Management has said it wants the university to focus on teaching over research, but BCU UCU has declared an official dispute and is threatening strike action over the job losses.

At the University of East Anglia, 84% of UCU members voted for strike action on the highest-ever turnout that UEA UCU has ever received. This is in response to 190 planned job cuts.

Durham UCU will ballot for strike action from 4 March to 1 April after management announced plans to sack 200 professional-services jobs with more job cuts planned next year.

Keele University UCU and University of Kent UCU are also in dispute, with workers at Kent three months into action short of a strike.

In Wales, Bangor University has announced 200 job cuts with an extension to the voluntary redundancy scheme currently in place and possible compulsory redundancies. The University of South Wales has also announced ninety job cuts in the past week. In Scotland, the University of Edinburgh announced £140 million of cuts with management saying ‘nothing is off the table’.

This huge attack on university jobs requires a national and co-ordinated fightback. Support striking workers by visiting picket lines at universities in your area.