A UCU balloon at a trade union march

Staff at UEA are set to take strike action following a ballot of members of the UCU union. 82 per cent of UCU members who voted backed strike action, on a 67 per cent turnout – the highest the UEA branch of the unio has ever achieved. 84% of staff also backed action short of strike, which could consist of working to rule.

The dispute is over plans to cut more than 190 jobs in order to address budget shortfalls. According to a business case published in November 2024, management intends to cut at least 30 staff in the faculty of medicine & health sciences, 25 in the faculty of science, 22 in the faculty of arts & humanities, and at least 90 from departments across professional services.

Following the ballot, the union has now said that the university’s management needs to begin meaningful negotiations to prevent compulsory redundancies if it wants to avoid industrial unrest.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “UEA staff have overwhelmingly backed strike action because they refuse to allow their colleagues to lose their livelihoods because of the financial turmoil management has caused.

“This ballot result reflects the justified anger university staff feel over management’s failings, and university leadership now needs to start listening to their staff and work with us to avoid compulsory redundancies and further unrest on campus.”

In 2023, Bright Green interviewed the chair of the UEA UCU branch about the financial situation at the university.

A spokesperson for the university said: “Regrettably, we need to identify savings of £11m to stay on track with our financial sustainability plan. These are not decisions that any of us want to be taking, but unfortunately, we must make them to secure UEA’s long-term future. We have now concluded our collective Trade Union consultation phase about the overall proposals and move to the next phase, which is individual consultations with staff in impacted areas.

“Staff have been informed that the proposals include a goal for reduction of 163 full time equivalent roles across the University which we hope will be achieved through redeployment opportunities and a voluntary redundancy programme targeted at a minority of selected areas across the University. Compulsory redundancies will always be a last resort.

“We remain committed to high quality student education and experience, and we will work hard to limit any impact on students.

“These incredibly challenging decisions have not been taken lightly and we recognise that this is really difficult news for our UEA community.”

Image credit: It’s No Game – Creative Commons