Sheffield – UCU Sheffield Hallam Uni rally and strike
Staff at Sheffield Hallam University will begin four weeks of strike action in a fight to protect pensions, jobs and working conditions.
The strike will run for 18 days:
- Week 1: Wednesday 27 to Friday 29 May
- Week 2: Monday 1 to Friday 5 June
- Week 3: Monday 8 to Friday 12 June
- Week 4: Monday 15 to Friday 19 June
UCU members will be on picket lines every strike day, will hold rallies at Hallam Square tomorrow from 9.30am and Monday 1 June from 12pm, and also hold a public meeting from 6pm Thursday 11 June at Channing Hall. The strikes will mean no marking will take place for the duration of the strike and may therefore delay student graduations.
The action comes after an overwhelming 88% of UCU members who voted backed the action in a strike ballot with a turnout of 73% in a dispute over a threat from management to cut costs by £27m by the end of the academic year. This includes axing up to 200 academics from across the university, forcing teaching staff from university employment and into a subsidiary company, denying new starters access to the industry standard Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS), increasing maximum teaching hours, and tearing up national agreements on pay progression.
The current cost cutting exercise follows two years of cuts that have already seen 1,000 staff leave the university.
The cuts come after the university invested in a new London campus that was supposed to open last year, as part of an £8bn development, yet remains empty. According to UCU’s analysis, capital expenditure, including on the London campus, amounted to more than a fifth of Hallam’s total income last year.
UCU is demanding the university halts plans to move staff over to a subsidiary employer, continues to allow all academics to access TPS, stops trying to degrade staff working and student learning conditions, and works with it to avoid compulsory redundancies.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: ‘This sustained action shows Hallam’s staff refuse to allow management to gut the university. The current financial woes are down to systemic governance failures, including a London campus that’s been beset by delays and looks more and more like a white elephant each day it remains empty. It is completely unacceptable that staff and students be forced to pay the price for these failings.
‘Staff are fighting to stop the doom loop of decline that management appears wedded to. Senior leaders now need to work with us to protect jobs, conditions and student provision. Failing to do so is going to cause serious industrial unrest and could harm student graduations.’
Staff at Sheffield Hallam University with UCU began a new round of strikes this week over planned cuts to jobs, pensions and working conditions. Workers are opposing proposals to cut £27m from the university budget, including up to 200 academic job losses, increased workloads, attacks on pension access and plans to move staff into a subsidiary company.