University and College Union strike ballot at University of the West of Scotland in dispute over threat of compulsory redundancies

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at UWS are being asked if they are prepared to take part in strike action and action short of strike.  Action short of strike could include working to contract and not covering for any absent colleagues.  The ballot will run until 14 August.

The ballot follows the announcement in January this year of cuts by the university's senior management of £16.9 million.  Since then, £8 million has already been cut with the loss of over 112 staff positions.  Despite those staff having already left and savings already having been made, senior managers are pressing ahead with plans to cut another 75 jobs and are refusing unions' demands to rule out the use of compulsory redundancies.

The union said that cuts at this scale and the loss of so many jobs in such a short space of time will be devastating both to the remaining staff and to the students at the university.  As well as the impact on staff being put out of work at a time when jobs are being lost across the higher education sector, the cuts will result in higher workload on the already hard-pressed staff who remain. 

UCU UWS branch president, Jamie Hopkin , said: "Management at UWS are pressing on with detrimental plans to make staff redundant that will do nothing other than diminish the university's standing, and harm the students that study here.  Staff do not want to go on strike, but what is being proposed will damage UWS's crucial missions of teaching, research and widening access to higher education.  I can see even in my own work that those staff that remain will be under increasing pressure with unmanageable workloads and will have less time to offer students in need of support with their studies.

"Members at UWS are genuinely angry at the actions of senior managers.   Members need to return their ballots and force the principal to think again and to rule out the use of compulsory redundancies."

UCU general secretary, Jo Grady, said: "UWS is genuinely important to communities across the West of Scotland.  Cutting staff on this scale doesn't sit with the university's responsibility and commitment to local communities in Paisley, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and the South of Scotland.  The principal and senior managers need to change course or else they face the prospects of industrial action and strikes."