Three unions to strike at once over Glasgow Caledonian job cuts

Staff at Glasgow Caledonian University are staging strike action, with all three campus unions walking out together for the first time over planned job cuts.

Lecturers and support staff say the action by members of the UCU, the EIS and Unison on Thursday could effectively stop the university from operating.

Management at the university plan to cut about 50 posts and say they have not ruled out compulsory redundancies.

They say the cuts are needed to secure Caley's finances and blame a £33m fall in income over two years, partly due to a drop in the number of international students.

The dispute dates back to March when management announced plans to cut up to 100 posts, blaming a sharp fall in income from international students.

Since then, voluntary redundancies have brought that figure down to about 50 but the sticking point is compulsory redundancies.

The unions want a guarantee that nobody will be forced to leave - but the management has refused to rule it out.

Talks at the conciliation service Acas broke down earlier this month and lecturers went on strike last week.

The unions argue the cuts are a choice rather than a necessity.

They point to what they say are £95m in cash reserves as well as the university's purchase of land in the city centre for about £4.5m, which they say is foolish at this time.

The university says buying and selling land is part of a long-standing strategy.

It has previously highlighted that it is facing a £10m financial deficit in the next financial year and said the cuts are needed to put it back on a "sound financial footing".

A university spokesperson said they were "disappointed" the unions had voted to strike.

They said the measures the unions had suggested as alternatives to compulsory redundancies had largely already been taken and that was why the number of job cuts had been reduced.

"While voluntary measures remain our preferred approach, we cannot rule out compulsory redundancies if the required savings are not achieved," they said.

Unison branch secretary Davena Rankin said compulsory redundancies were not the answer.

"Staff want to support students and help the university succeed, but they need confidence that their jobs are secure," Rankin said.

UCU branch president Karen Lorimer said staff wanted to be welcoming new and returning students but the refusal to rule out using compulsory redundancies left them with no alternative but to strike.

Dr Nick McKerrell, a law lecturer and the branch secretary of the EIS, said there were issues across higher education but Caley was in a strong place financially and there was no need for compulsory redundancies.

This is the biggest day so far of what is an ongoing dispute at the university.

For the first time, all three unions are on strike on the same day.

The unions said it was highly unusual for both the lecturers' unions to be on strike at the same university on the same day.

They said that adding the support staff - who run IT, security, catering and cleaning as well as the library and student welfare - would bring the campus and the university to an effective standstill.

The university has said throughout that it wants to keep disruption for students to a minimum but with so many services affected, that will be very difficult.

Further strike dates are planned stretching to the middle of October.

The lecturers' unions are out again next week, and Unison is expected to stagger action among its members.

Glasgow Caledonian is far from an isolated case.

At the University of Edinburgh, about 3,000 staff have begun five weeks of strikes, running until 30 October, over £140m of cuts.

Dundee University staff are also staging a five-week walkout.

It's the latest chapter in a bruising year.

Back in March, staff in Dundee, Aberdeen, Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt all walked out in separate disputes.

The underlying problem is money and funding.

Scottish universities get a fixed amount from the government for each Scottish student they teach, and they're not allowed to charge them fees.

For years they've made up the gap with fees from international students.

But we've seen the number of overseas students falling, while the cost of staff, pensions and energy keep rising.

Just a few weeks ago, an expert group working for the Scottish government's review of university funding estimated that the sector is short of around £200m a year.

It also found a repairs backlog of about £1bn.