caledonianunion

Author: unionadmin

  • We need leaders who live our values

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    A powerful reflection shared this week by a long-standing GCU Professor has struck a chord with many colleagues across the University. Reflecting on recent media coverage, and on almost three decades at Glasgow Caledonian University, he asks a question that goes beyond one news story: what should we expect from those entrusted with leading the…

  • Students: support us and send an email the Principal 

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    We are asking students to contact Professor Mairi Watson and ask her to stop the cuts. Please copy and paste this template email, and sign your name before sending it. Feel free to add anything else – what you’re studying, if the cuts have effected you already, etc.  Email:  VCOffice@gcu.ac.uk Subject: Urgent: Student concerns over proposed…

  • We suspended our action. We went to ACAS. Management offered nothing.

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    At the beginning of the new academic year, GCU’s trade unions made a significant decision. We suspended industrial action. We did so to create the best possible conditions for meaningful negotiations with University management through ACAS. At a point when industrial action could have caused significant disruption at the start of term, the unions chose…

  • £5.4 million for land while staff face compulsory redundancy

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    Glasgow Caledonian University says it needs to make staff redundant because of a financial crisis caused by the collapse in international student income. There is no question that international recruitment has fallen sharply. But financial pressures do not dictate one inevitable response. Universities make choices about how they respond to them. On 29 June, in the…

  • Notes from the Picket Line: A Field Guide to the Modern University Dispute

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    By An Extremely Tired Union Rep 06:12 – Awakening Wake suddenly from a dream in which the Vice Principal has announced a ‘further period of reflective consultation regarding the consultation process.’ Check phone. Sadly, not a dream. Three new emails marked:HIGH IMPORTANCE. One asks whether attending a rescheduled PAB during ASOS constitutes partial labour reconstruction.…

  • Tomorrow We Stand Together

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    Tomorrow, Wednesday 3rd June, UCU members at GCU begin strike action. Staff do not take this action lightly. Over recent months, members have engaged seriously with consultation processes, submitted detailed alternatives, supported colleagues and continued to do their work with professionalism and care throughout an extremely difficult period. Many members believe there is still a…

  • When “Necessary” Cuts Suddenly Become Negotiable

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    Over recent weeks, staff at Glasgow Caledonian University have lived with the possibility of compulsory redundancy hanging over colleagues, teams and services across the institution. Consultation documents presented sweeping proposals as financially necessary and unavoidable. Staff were told significant reductions were required, and that compulsory redundancies were unavoidable. Yet, following sustained pressure from staff and…

  • The Marketisation of the Civic University

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    There is something unsettling about reading a university research restructuring document that repeatedly speaks the language of “financial sustainability”, “income generation”, “strategic alignment” and “performance”, while saying remarkably little about knowledge, intellectual life or the civic purpose of research itself. Like many colleagues across UK higher education, I have now lived through years of restructuring,…

  • For the Common Good? Redundancies and the Hollowing Out of Support at GCU

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    Glasgow Caledonian University is moving towards compulsory redundancies in subjects including economics and history, as well as student support, with staff expected to enter formal selection and scoring processes in the coming weeks. But this is not simply a local staffing dispute. What is happening at GCU reflects a growing national crisis across UK higher…

  • Five points for Court to consider

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    The recognised trade unions have developed a joint response to the University’s consultation on the proposed Targeted Voluntary Redundancy Scheme. As Court members consider the future of the institution, there are several key points that deserve careful attention. 1. GCU is not in an immediate financial crisis GCU currently holds cash reserves of more than…