University of Essex strikes escalate over campus closure & job cuts

The full strike days are:

• Week 1:  Thursday 5 and Friday 6 March.
• Week 2:  Monday 9, Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 March.
• Week 3:  Monday 16, Tuesday 17, Wednesday 18, and Thursday 19 March.

UCU members will be on picket lines each strike day. This comes after seven days of action last month and action short of strike that began on Thursday 12 February, including working strictly to contract, boycotting exam boards and open days, and refusing to cover for absent colleagues. 

Staff, students and local community members will hold a rally to save Southend campus on Sunday 8 March meeting at 1pm at the top of Pier Hill and marching to Broadway.

During the previous round of strike action, UCU and Unison held two rallies and were joined by students and members of the local community.

UNISON and Unite will also ballot their University of Essex members for strike action over the cuts.

UCU called on the university to work with it to protect jobs. Management has now confirmed it has made over £10m of savings - more than half of its target - after staff worked together to reduce their hours and many made the tough decision to take voluntary redundancy.

The university originally said it intended to axe 200 academic and 200 professional staff and close the Southend campus, all before the start of the next academic year (September 2026). More than one in ten staff would lose their jobs under those plans. The university has since announced it also wants to shut down its Pathways programme and cut almost eight in ten of the programme's staff.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: 'University staff are back out on strike in an attempt to rescue the University of Essex from the ruinous path management is taking. We won't allow senior managers at the university to decimate the staff body, harm student learning and shut down the only higher education provision in the city of Southend.

'Our members are not only going on strike; many have also cut their hours and pay to reduce the institution's outgoings and help protect it from the financial failings of their own senior managers. Those managers should now look at cutting their own pay, rule out compulsory redundancies and start trying to resolve this dispute.'

UNISON Eastern regional officer Caroline Hennessy said: 'Staff won't sit idly by while senior managers take a wrecking ball to the University of Essex, putting short-term business interests ahead of students' education.

'Unison professional services staff fully support the stand UCU members are taking. They will stand shoulder to shoulder to defend the university on the march next weekend and on the picket lines soon.'