Cuts at Cardiff University must be fought

At Cardiff University 112 academic jobs are under threat after a round of cuts was announced earlier this month. Which staff are to lose their jobs is not yet known.

Edmund Schluessel, Cardiff UCU (personal capacity)

The university refuses to meet with UCU and is attempting to put aside a longstanding recognition agreement with the union. Particularly concerning is the university's assertion that fixed-term, hourly-paid academic staff, those facing cuts, are not represented by UCU.

The announcement of the cuts comes after dozens of jobs were lost at Cardiff University's Lifelong Learning Centre last summer. Cardiff UCU blunted the worst of those cuts with organised action but there are new cutbacks at University of Glamorgan, Swansea University, and elsewhere.

Higher education workers were awarded an insulting 0.5% pay increase after 2009's protracted negotiations, with UCU refusing to sign the pay deal. The union is in need of cross-sector solidarity to galvanise education workers for industrial action.

Cardiff Socialist Party and Youth Fight for Jobs have called a demonstration against education cuts at the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff Bay for 2pm on Wednesday 17 February. Members of Cardiff UCU plan to attend.

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In The Socialist 27 January 2010:

Prosecute the war criminal Blair