Staff back strikes at Truro and Penwith College in job cuts dispute

Last week over eight in ten of UCU members who voted (82%) backed strike action, in a ballot that beat the anti-trade union turnout threshold of 50%.

The dispute is over management's plans to axe up to 100 employees in redundancy plans that have already seen some staff given the boot. Financial mismanagement has led to a £4.2m shortfall for 2024/25 and the college is refusing to rule out compulsory redundancies. College expenditure has persistently outstripped income since 2017.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: 'Staff have overwhelmingly backed strike action because they refuse to pay the price for college leadership's years of economic mismanagement. College bosses now need to rule out compulsory redundancies if they want to avoid strike action and severe disruption on campuses.'