More strikes possible at Dundee University as union opens new strike ballot

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at Dundee university are being re-balloted from today (5 September) to take industrial action as the financial and management crisis at the university enters its eleventh month.

The ballot will run from today until Monday 6 October.

In November 2024, the then principal announced cuts of £30million and the possibility of compulsory redundancies.  UCU members at the university voted conclusively to take industrial action to defend jobs and to demand university management rule out compulsory redundancies and members subsequently took strike action earlier this year.  Trade union legislation, currently under review by the UK government, requires trade unions to renew mandates for industrial action every six months.

Since the start of the crisis, university senior management twice indicated that they would rule out compulsory redundancies.  Media reports, however, indicate that the most recent version of the university recovery plan - senior management's plan to get the university out of the current crisis - included 390 staff losing their jobs including 170 of them through compulsory redundancy.  The Scottish Funding Council subsequently ruled out the proposed recovery plan and have, reportedly, asked university senior management to think again.

The union said that the volatility of the situation and the ongoing threat to jobs, including through the use of compulsory redundancies, made it essential that the ballot is renewed and that, If necessary, the union is able to use industrial action to oppose cuts, defend jobs and force the employer to work with them to find a credible solution to the crisis. The union believes that a plan proposing such deep cuts to core funded staff will severely hamper the university's chances to recover and continue fulfilling its critical role in Dundee and the surrounding area.

The union called for the employer to finally commit to no compulsory redundancies, increased and ongoing transparency, and meaningful negotiation so that staff and their unions have a genuine voice in shaping the university's future.

Melissa D'Ascenzio, branch co-president, said: "Senior management's failings at the University of Dundee have been laid out in the media and the Gillies report for all to see, in a way that would have seemed unbelievable a year ago.  The university's students and staff have been badly let down. It's wrong that uncertainty and the threat of job cuts continue to loom over staff at a time when the university's finances have been stabilised by the intervention of the Scottish Funding Council and all efforts should be directed towards co-creating a credible and sustainable path to recovery that includes staff and students' voices.  Strike action is always a last resort, but staff at the University of Dundee have proven that they will take action to protect jobs and the future of the university.  Sadly, with the failings of senior managers over the past year and before, we're having to run this re-ballot to extend our mandate for action.  I'm confident that, once again, staff and UCU members will do what's right for the university and for our students."

Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, said: "It's scarcely believable that after almost a year, with the university on its third principal in that period, the university remains in crisis and staff are having to be balloted again to save jobs and secure the future of the university.  The fact that university senior managers have again reverted to their default position of compulsory redundancies means that we need this ruled our once and for all.  The only way to force senior management's hand on this is for UCU members to again deliver a resounding 'yes' vote in this ballot."