Edinburgh University staff on strike over threatened £140 million cuts which could mean 1,800 job losses
Edinburgh University staff are on strike today in the first of a series of walk-outs over plans for £140 million of cuts and a refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) were mounting picket lines across the university and holding a rally in George Square.
The union estimates that £140m cuts could see 1,800 staff lose their jobs. It said the cuts would be the biggest ever made by a university in Scotland, and claimed the university had not made the case for why they were pursuing such massive cuts while, at the same time, planning record capital expenditure.
The union argued there were other areas where the university could make savings that did not involve cutting staff numbers and damaging the teaching and research which are central to the university’s mission. For example, the union said senior management recently announced plans to spend £400,000 on public relations and media consultants, and the university regularly appeared near the top of rankings on principals’ and senior staff pay.
Today’s stoppage, timed to coincide with a university open day, follows a ballot where 84 per cent of UCU members at the university voted for strike action and 93 per cent to back action short of strike. The turnout was 60 per cent.
UCU members overwhelmingly rejected a last-minute management offer to avert the strike as too little, too late with 92 per cent voting to reject.
Further strike action is planned for the start of the new academic year in September. And UCU members will also take part in action short of strike, including working to contract and boycotting administrative work relating to implementing the cuts.
The union is also considering a marking and assessment boycott as well as telling members not to use their personal devices for work.
But it said it was holding off escalation of the dispute to give senior managers the opportunity to end the dispute by ruling out compulsory redundancies.
Sophia Woodman, president of the Edinburgh University UCU branch, said: “Taking strike action is the very last thing UCU members at Edinburgh want to do but the decision of the principal to press ahead with huge cuts and the refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies has simply left us no choice.
“University staff are worried about the future and whether they’ll have a job this time next year. We are striking on Open Day to sound the alarm about the future of research and teaching at the university, because we care deeply about the quality of education we provide to our students.
“Staff are stunned to see university senior management pressing ahead with plans to spend vast sums on public relations consultants and increase spending on buildings while cutting the staff who teach students and carry out world leading research. Even at this late stage it’s not too late for the university to rule out the use of compulsory redundancies and end this dispute.”
A university spokesperson said: “Open Day is a hugely important event in our calendar, and we are delighted to be welcoming thousands of potential students to our campus. While we respect colleagues’ right to take part in industrial action, we are doing our utmost to keep any disruption to a minimum.”