Universities union votes to pave the way for strike ballot
The union representing staff at universities has laid the groundwork for its first-ever strike ballot against a Labour government.
The University and College Union (UCU) has voted in favour of preparing for an industrial dispute with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson at its annual congress in Liverpool on Sunday.
The move is the first step towards a strike ballot of its members.
The UCU, which is the UK’s largest post-16 education union and represents more than 120,000 education staff, is demanding the Education Secretary addresses funding issues in the sector in order to avoid the dispute.
Funding
Shrinking funding for universities, which Labour has not reversed since coming to power, and moves to restrict international students are among the concerns the UCU said its members share.
It has also raised the alarm over some 10,000 jobs at risk in higher education and pushed back against redundancies in Cardiff and Sheffield.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “It is shameful that university cuts have become so severe under a Labour Government that our union is now laying the ground for a trade union dispute with the Education Secretary.
“Our members are fighting to protect jobs and UK academia’s world-leading reputation. But we are being hamstrung by a Government that has refused to deal with the underlying financial issues plaguing our sector and now seems intent on making the crisis worse still with new cuts, levies and restrictions on recruitment.
“The Prime Minister and Chancellor must stop standing in the way of proper funding for our universities.
“This vote sends them a crystal-clear message: if you refuse to listen to the educators responsible for the world-leading reputation of Britain’s universities, then you must be prepared to face a potential strike ballot.”
Financial risk
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “This Government inherited a sector facing serious financial risk and has taken tough decisions to fix the foundations of higher education to deliver change for students and staff.
“Universities are independent from Government, but we remain committed to boosting the sector’s long-term financial sustainability and restoring universities as engines of opportunity, aspiration and growth.
“The Government has refocused the efforts of the Office for Students on monitoring financial sustainability, to help create a secure future for our world-leading sector.”
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University lecturers are consistently undervalued, recent pay rises (if they are implemented) are less than half awarded to teachers.
This is not a serious suggestion. If a labour government is cutting WFA and PiP, it’s clear the countries finances are in an incredibly poor state. Obviously, HE is far down the list of current priorities and they can’t simply come in and provide emergency funding. The fact that all devolved parts of the UK and England are struggling suggests the different financial models aren’t working and there simply isn’t enough funding/students in the sector to support current University sizes. Universities overexpanded, recruited too many staff, built too many buildings, and treated the short-term boost from international students as a… Read more »
Peter – what you describe as ‘unsustainable expansion’ actually constituted a de facto agreement between UK Gov and sector heads. The ‘rub’ determined that VC’s would be free to expand international recruitment (which effectively cross subsidizes teaching and research) in exchange for stagnant public investment. Since then, we have seen the great inflationary cost spike, an acceleration in racist domestic policy, the NI fiasco and (most recently) a touted smash & grab on international fees. Meanwhile, only 30% of Welsh school leavers go to *any* university. This compares to 40% in Northern Ireland and around 50% in the Greater London… Read more »
Great comment, a true reflection of what’s happened to Welsh universities and the likely consequences of not supporting them.