Strike ballot at UWS in dispute over redundancies threat

A BALLOT for industrial action opened this week at a Scottish university, which has a campus in Dumfries, in a dispute over job cuts and university senior management’s refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies. The ballot, which opened at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) on Monday could pave the way for strikes at the university. 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 August 14. It 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. UCU UWS branch president, Jamie Hopkin , said: “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.”