Campaign Against Job Threats and For Safe Workloads: £35 million cuts.
The employer has been notified of out intention to undertake industrial action if ongoing negotiations do not address our members’ concerns.
Action short of a strike commences Tuesday 4th March.
Strike action on Tuesday 4th and Thursday 6th March, Monday 10th – Wednesday 12th March, Monday 17th – Thursday 20th March, and Monday 24th – Friday 28th March.
The announcement of £35m of cuts at Newcastle University will have come as a shock to many colleagues and the impact of the cuts is starting to be felt across the University. We do know that finances across the sector are difficult.
Sacrifices needed to start at the top. The last Annual Report for 2022-2023 revealed that there were 212 staff earning over £100k. What is that now? We know that there have been several senior appointments and new posts, with an additional two deputy directors of finance. The total staff cost of our VC was £404k (including pension) in 2022-2023. That salary is set by the remuneration committee of Council. What is that figure now?
The finances of the university that year included a capital spend of £48m, a £31.2m windfall credit from the changes to USS, cash balances of £218m ‘a strong basis for future capital investment’, and total income of £608m entailing a 9% growth. Given our strong historic position, what are our reserves now?
If we pull together we can push back against the cuts as other have branches at Aberdeen, Northumbria, Kent, Sheffield Hallam and others.
We have held numerous Section and all member meetings, and asked members to lobby their MPs and Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education, Minister for Women and Equalities and MP for Sunderland.
We have reached out to other campus unions, to the students’ union, to Senate and Council, and to other branches for a concerted campaign at Newcastle University and beyond.
We have asked the university to share their financial planning with us and justify their cuts.
We have registered a Failure to Agree over the cuts and the failure to consult on other measures to improve the University’s financial position.
We ran an indicative e-ballot between 29th November and 5th December, asking members to vote Yes to Strike action, and Yes to action short of a strike to defend jobs and safe workloads. 74.6% of members supported strike action and 86.7% supported action short of a strike.
UCU negotiators met with the Vice Chancellor and the Executive Director of People Services on 5th December to discuss our failure to agree.
UCU served the employer with a notice of intention to ballot on 10th January and a statutory ballot ran between 20th January and 10th February. Turnout of eligible members in the ballot was 64.29% with 82.76% voting in favour of strike action and 88.37% in favour of action short of a strike.
A well attended Emergency General Meeting was held on 11th February to discuss the form of our action. The results of this discussion are now with UCU nationally to approve and inform the employer of our next steps.
The employer was notified on 14th February of our intention to undertake continuous action short of a strike and discontinuous strike action from Tuesday 4th March (see above for details) .
Our campaign has generated much interest from local and national media and messages of solidarity.