UCU Strike Action Tomorrow at Salford University

Members of UCU at the University of Salford will be out on strike on Tuesday 26 June in their dispute with the university over compulsory job losses.

Staff will be on picket lines from 7am at the Allerton Building on Frederick Road, the Maxwell and Peel buildings on the A6 and the Adelphi and Centenary buildings on Adelphi Street.

The university has placed staff in 'redundancy pools' with dozens of jobs at risk. In the past year the institution has announced seven lots of redundancies and last month over 200 members of staff marched across campus to noisily protest outside the vice-chancellor's office.

Students have backed the lecturers' campaign to save jobs, with the students' union saying redundancies negatively impact upon the student experience. The students' union added that the university's lack of communication and consultation with students had lead to a culture of misinformation.

In the recent industrial action ballot, over 70% (71.3%) of UCU members who voted said they were prepared to take strike action. More than four-fifths of members who voted (82.6%) said they were prepared to take action short of strike, including measures such as working to rule.

UCU regional official, Martyn Moss, said: "UCU members at Salford University have made it clear that they are prepared to take industrial action to defend their jobs. The last thing anyone wants is disruption, but the university has to understand the anger felt by members who have faced round after round of job cuts.

"There is understandably a lot of worry and stress at the moment, which is reflected in members' determination to take action and the mandate they have for more action after Tuesday. However, the door remains open for the university to sit down with us to resolve the dispute without the need for further action

Send messages of support to Anthony Hesketh: a.hesketh@salford.ac.uk

Write to the Vice-Chancellor: m.hall@salford.ac.uk