Nottingham university strikers fight jobs massacre

UCU members at Nottingham university strike

Hundreds of University of Nottingham workers struck, marched and rallied on Friday. UCU union members and supporters played samba drums inside the university building and put a “Wanted” sign on the door of vice chancellor Jane Norman’s office.

UCU members are taking part in a marking and assessment boycott (Mab) against job cuts. When bosses escalated by docking 100 percent of their pay for the boycott, they announced two full months of further strikes. 

Nearly 2,700 workers at the university were sent a letter last week warning them that they are at risk of redundancy as bosses seek to make 600 job cuts. 

Strikers explained that this will end careers and transform the university beyond recognition. Courses in languages and music are set to close, and other departments will face deep cuts. 

“We were quite shocked,” striker Carina told Socialist Worker. “I work in the School of English. We are a successful school. We didn’t expect cuts to a third of the staff. 

“We just don’t know how we can deliver the programme. This can only make the school decline.”

Nick from geography said the cuts “potentially put the university as a whole at risk. 

“It’s at risk of destroying the whole reputation of the institution,” he said.

He explained that workers are worried about sending Nottingham into a death spiral where students stop coming and the situation gets worse.

“It’s ideological,” he added. “Austerity has never worked. So why do they think it will work this time?”

Strikers spoke about “cold spots” around Britain, where it will no longer be possible to study languages because so many universities are scrapping it.

There will be courses where there are so many students that teachers won’t be able to meet with them individually. There will be fewer options for students. Lecturers will refocus their efforts on teaching.

But without being able to spend time on research, the quality of the teaching will drop.

Language student Blue told Socialist Worker, “It’s incredibly sad to see workers disregarded when they give so much to us.”

Another student, Amy, added that students understand why workers are boycotting marking. “People realise the situation,” she said.

“They will wait longer to graduate, but they understand that the cuts will affect them more. Every corner of the university is affected.” 

The cuts are a choice by management. Striker Susie told Socialist Worker, “We do realise the financial situation is dire. But this isn’t the way to fix it. The university’s plan is to try to run a big surplus. 

“There is another plan where you don’t have to make 600 staff redundant.” 

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Oscar in the chemistry department told Socialist Worker that the university had refused to listen to alternative plans put forward by the union. 

Nick told Socialist Worker that the redundancy letters had created a “nasty atmosphere” by forcing workers to compete with each other. “It pits people against each other,” he said. 

But, he added, “The response has been incredibly uniting. The union has never been bigger and never had more engagement. It makes me feel more confident that we can win.”

UCU branch vice president Andreas Bieler also said he felt optimistic. He explained that strikes last September and October had been effective at halting compulsory redundancies.

“We are out today as a show of force and a show of our resolve,” he told Socialist Worker.

“The danger with a Mab is it can be an isolating experience. So it’s important to be out and united with each other.”

Donations to the branch from other UCU branches and individuals have started flooding in. 

The strikers have the support of local politicians including left wing Labour MP Nadia Whittome. MPs lobbied the vice chancellor, but she showed them the education White Paper produced by the Labour government to try to justify the cuts. 

Andreas said, “The problem is at a higher political level. There is financial mismanagement locally but the whole marketised higher education model is failing.”

He explained that the branch supports nationwide action, including the idea of starting a dispute with the secretary of state for education.

Two months of strikes at Nottingham are set to begin on 1 June.

• Donate to the University of Nottingham UCU hardship fund here

University workers take action as financial crisis deepens

• At Goldsmiths university in south London, UCU union members are taking part in a marking and assessment boycott (Mab) as they fight plans for £22 million worth of cuts. Bosses announced last week that they plan to deduct 100 percent of workers’ pay. The UCU branch has voted to go on indefinite strike “as soon as is legally practicable”.
• UCU members at Sheffield Hallam university are also due to begin an extended period of strikes. They are set to walk out this Wednesday to Friday and then for the following three full weeks. They are fighting cuts that will mean 130 job losses. Bosses at Hallam also want to evade their legal responsibilities to offer the TPS pension scheme.
• At London Metropolitan University, UCU members are on strike this Tuesday and Wednesday, next Wednesday to Friday and 11, 12 and 15 June. The workers have been holding picket lines on every strike day.
• EIS-ULA union members at Edinburgh Napier University are on strike from Tuesday to Friday this week.
• University of Edinburgh UCU members are taking part in a Mab as bosses try to force through massive job cuts.
• At London South Bank University (LSBU), UCU members have delivered a resounding vote for action. Some 89 percent voted for strikes and 97 percent for action short of a strike, which could include a Mab. Turnout was 61 percent.
  LSBU is facing one of the most extreme assaults on workers’ jobs and conditions.
  Bosses have terminated the contract of every academic member of staff and pitted them against each other to keep their jobs.
  They want to create a two-tier workforce with some workers on new “teaching and research” contracts and others on “teaching and scholarship” contracts without access to the TPS pension scheme.
  One of the union’s concerns is gender inequality. It says that workers in the male dominated engineering school will be on the research contract. In nursing and midwifery, the largely female workforce will be on the other, worse contract.