Bournemouth University academic staff to take four days of strike action starting today

Bournemouth University academic staff will strike for four days starting today (11th June).

UCU (University and College Union) announced on Monday that staff will strike on the following days: 11th, 12th, 23rd and 24th June. 

This comes in response to the uni’s plans to cut 116 academic staff members in July, as well as some non-academic staff. These cuts would see 15 courses permanently closed, including undergraduate degrees in English, politics and anthropology.

According to the UCU, a number of the strike days coincide with scheduled exam boards, meaning the university’s ability to award degrees is likely to be disrupted and delayed.

Staff will also participate in continuous industrial action, short of a strike (ASOS). This activity will further disrupt university life as it involves staff not taking on any voluntary work, covering for absent colleagues, and not sharing or uploading course material for lectures that have been cancelled due to the strikes. They also don’t plan to reschedule these cancelled lectures and will only complete work that’s in their contracts.

The strikes will occur after 75 per cent voted yes in favour of strike action at a recent ballot, and 91 per cent of voters endorsed action short of a strike. The turnout was 78 per cent at the ballot. 

Dr Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, has described the proposed plans as “corporate style arson”, sharing: “Alison Honour enjoyed a long career leading arts and humanities faculties, yet within months of becoming Bournemouth vice-chancellor, is overseeing a devastating attack on just those subjects.

“Our members will not stand by while they and their colleagues’ livelihoods and vocations are threatened. The whole union is behind them.”

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Bournemouth UCU branch chair William Proctor said: “We have overwhelmingly voted for strike action to stop university bosses destroying the institution that staff have done so much to build.

“If the vice-chancellor and her team succeed in pushing through these attacks, it will not only ruin the livelihoods of more than 100 of our academic colleagues but render the university unrecognisable, irreparably harming students’ education, more akin to an old polytechnic than a university.

“Adding insult to injury, management also want to degrade our research time and further increase our workloads. We have also reported the university to the Office for Students for breaching articles of governance and other agreements. We will be standing firm on the picket line unless management drops these disgraceful plans.”

A Bournemouth University spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that this action is taking place at a time when we are concentrating on securing our university’s future in consultation with our staff, students, Students’ Union and trade unions.