Cardiff University staff suspend first day of strike action over cuts and agree to talks
Cardiff University staff suspend first day of strike action over cuts and agree to talks
A walk out by Cardiff University staff has been put on hold for talks with bosses chaired by the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service (Acas)
A rally against proposed Cardiff University cuts at the Senedd
Cardiff University staff have suspended the first planned day of strike action over proposed compulsory redundancies. The walk out on May 2 has been put on hold after the Cardiff UCU union agreed to talks with bosses chaired by the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service (Acas).
Cardiff UCU said the union saw "a glimmer of hope" in the meeting but was "not celebrating yet". Cardiff UCU representatives will sit down with Cardiff University bosses in a meeting chaired by Acas on Wednesday April 30.
The union said that as a gesture of goodwill, and to allow time for members to consider any possible outcomes from these talks, it had suspended the first day of its planned strike action on May 1.
All other planned industrial action is still set to go ahead. This includes an indefinite marking and assessment boycott, which could affect graduations, and action short of strike beginning on May 6. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
Cardiff University, like most universities in the UK, relies heavily on foreign students to stay financially viable
(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne )
May 6 will also be a strike day, followed by six further all-out strike days in June, the UCU said.
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More than 1,300 staff remain under threat of losing their jobs at Cardiff University with 286 jobs now earmarked to go after 81 took redundancy following brutal proposed cuts announced by the university in January.
The university put on hold its plans to shut the nursing school early this month, but many staff have already left. The university has faced strong opposition to its proposed cuts. As well as the initial loss of 400 academic jobs, now 286, the university proposed the closure of entire degree courses and academic schools including nursing, modern languages, music, ancient history, translation, religion, and theology. Of these only nursing is safe, for now, but will take fewer students in future and all depends on the ongoing cuts review.
In a statement announcing the suspension of the first strike day, Cardiff UCU stressed other strike days and the marking boycottt remained in place, talks depending: "The key demand of this industrial action remains to make Cardiff University bosses reconsider what union leaders have called their 'cruel and unnecessary' cuts and specifically to rule out compulsory redundancies for the 2025 calendar year," the branch said
"Employers have been forced to offer talks due to the strength of the mandate and proposed industrial action. In a statutory ballot 83% of Cardiff UCU members' votes backed strike action, and 86% backed action short of a strike up to and including an assessment boycott (64% of members voted, giving the union a mandate which far exceeds the anti-union 50% threshold for industrial action).
"This is the biggest mandate in the branch's history. Cardiff University management has been faced with fierce public scrutiny and condemnation of both their proposed cuts and how they have been undertaken. "
Cardiff University UCU branch president Dr Joey Whitfield said: 'After three months of uncertainty and fear at Cardiff University, levels of trust in leadership are very low amongst our members. This meeting represents a glimmer of hope that managers are seeing that their programme of rapid and destructive cuts is not necessary. But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. We are not celebrating anything yet.
'Our independent analysis of the university's finances shows that making staff redundant as part of such a rapid restructuring exercise is not needed. We can turn the university's finances around over a longer period and avoid this kind of pain.
"In the context of the havoc created by the plans to close courses our demand remains modest: A guarantee of no compulsory redundancies this calendar year. If this is not met, then our members may have no choice but to follow through with industrial action.'
The marking and assessment boycott, which is deemed a form of 'action short of a strike,' involves university workers carrying out most professional duties but refusing to do tasks that relate to marking and assessing student work (such as setting exams, marking, and administering assessment for exam boards so that students can progress to the next stage of their studies or, in the case of final year students, graduate at all).
The last time UCU members at Cardiff used this disruptive form of industrial action was in 2023, as part of a UK-wide campaign about pay and conditions. In retaliation, university bosses docked 50-100% pay of staff participating in the boycott, despite staff still performing all other parts of their jobs, the UCU said.
"Some students were invited by the university to graduate without knowing their degree classifications, or even if they''d passed. For many of those who did get their grades, the university lowered academic assessment standards so much that they were accused of letting students graduate with 'bargain basement degrees," the branch said in a statement.
The union said many more members with marking duties had agreed to take part in an assessment boycott this time around with hundreds more pledging to donate a percentage of their wages to a local solidarity fund to support anyone hit by wage deductions.
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The UCU nationally has also confirmed that Cardiff members will be able to access its national strike fund for financial support. The two other campus unions, Unite and Unison, have also agreed to instruct their members (mainly professional services support staff) to not cover work for UCU members engaging in industrial action.
Cardiff University was approached for comment.
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