University staff vote to strike over job cuts

UNIVERSITY staff have voted in favour of industrial action against job cuts.

About 80 Glasgow University posts in teacher education, biomedical and life sciences and archaeology research are under threat. Details of the job losses will be finalised by the university court today, when voluntary redundancies will also be approved.

In a ballot of 1,050 staff, more than seven out of ten voted for strikes and 88.5 per cent also voted for action short of strikes.

University and College Union spokeswoman Mary Senior said: "There is a clear mandate for industrial action, but we hope that the dispute can be resolved without recourse to strike action.

"The Glasgow University court cannot ignore its staff and must agree to work together to resolve the situation without forcing job cuts.The university is running at a surplus of over 6 million a year and UCU members will no longer swallow financial problems as an excuse to sack staff.

"We are calling on the court to end the uncertainty for staff in the threatened departments or risk damaging the university's proud international reputation."