Union warns Goldsmiths of ‘unprecedented unrest’ as strikes loom

Staff at Goldsmiths, University of London have voted to take strike action over plans to cut more than 100 academic jobs, but a union dispute at Northumbria University could soon be over after the institution ruled out compulsory redundancies.

Eighty-seven per cent of University and College Union (UCU) members who voted at Goldsmiths said yes to strikes and other forms of industrial action – including a potential marking boycott – on a turnout of 69 per cent.

The university has begun a consultation on plans to reduce its staff team by 91.5 full-time equivalent posts, with more than 130 jobs impacted in total.

UCU said cuts on this scale would halve the number of academics in the Schools of Arts and Humanities; Culture and Society; and Professional Studies, Science and Technology.

Subjects including history and sociology would be worst affected – losing half their staff teams – with more than a third of English and creative writing academics also departing.

High-profile academics at Goldsmiths – including children’s book author Michael Rosen – have vocally opposed the plans, which come less than two years after a previous 10-month-long dispute was finally resolved.

Frances Corner, warden of Goldsmiths, said earlier this week that the university was having to make difficult decisions “because of a funding model that is widely acknowledged to be unfit for purpose”.

She said creative institutions had “borne the brunt of chronic underfunding of arts in schools” which was impacting students’ university choices, but Goldsmiths was “fully committed to retaining the arts, humanities and social sciences as core elements of our educational offer”.

However, UCU general secretary Jo Grady said the cuts being proposed at Goldsmiths were “almost incomprehensible” and therefore it was “no wonder that staff have overwhelmingly voted for industrial action”.

“If management succeeds in steamrolling these devastating cuts through, Goldsmiths will be unrecognisable from the great creative powerhouse it currently is,” Dr Grady added as she warned the college could soon face “unprecedented industrial unrest” unless management “think again and work with us to protect courses and jobs”.

At Northumbria, the UCU branch said it was considering ending its dispute after the university’s vice-chancellor, Andy Long, confirmed to staff on the 28 March that it was now in a position to “formally rule out the possibility of compulsory redundancies” for academic staff. 

The university has been seeking to slash staff costs to save £12.5 million and will instead make up the money via voluntary severance and early retirements.

UCU at Northumbria had opened a strike ballot after the university’s management previously declined to rule out compulsory redundancies and claimed the development was a “testament to the strength of its members’ industrial organising”. The branch will now consult its members with a recommendation to end the dispute.

The union’s regional official, Jon Bryan, said it was a “shame” the announcement had not come sooner but will “give comfort to many people who have been rightly concerned about their livelihoods”.

He called on Professor Long to go further and rule out compulsory redundancies for all the university’s staff and reconsider the plans for cuts in general.

A Northumbria University spokesperson said it had always been the aim to avoid compulsory redundancies as part of its cost savings work.

“Because of the progress we have made in this work, Northumbria University is now able to rule out possibility of compulsory redundancies for academic colleagues in relation to our current cost management exercise,” they added.

“We are also continuing to do all that we can to avoid compulsory redundancies within our professional support staff and we are very confident that the actions we are taking will make this achievable.”

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com