3 days Ago By Dale Miller
A march and rally will be held by staff striking at Dundee University over hundreds of planned job cuts. Unite the Union have announced the rally will be held outside Dundee’s Caird Hall on Tuesday. The action was organised after an emergency motion on the university’s crisis was tabled at the STUC annual congress, which starts on Monday.
The latest action comes after staff carried out 15 days of strike action in February. Unite said it was backing demands for the Scottish Government's external taskforce to spearhead measures to protect hundreds of staff and sustain the future of the university. Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said earlier this month that Dundee University needed to “think again” about the proposed 700 job losses.
Subscribe today for the best Scottish news via our daily newsletter A month ago the institution announced it was having to cut 635 full-time equivalent jobs to plug a £35 million financial deficit. The rally outside Caird Hall at 12.30pm will involve trade unionists, community activists, students and workers.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite is totally committed to protecting the livelihoods of hundreds of our members at Dundee university. Unite will support our members every step of the way in defence of their jobs.” Katrina Currie, Unite industrial officer, said: “Unite welcomes recent steps to remove an immediate redundancy threat to hundreds of workers.
The threat to our members’ jobs however remains very real. We need every tool in defence of jobs and livelihoods which is why this industrial action mandate is vital.” The Government has handed £22m in emergency funding to the university, after university bosses admitted the institution would have run out of money by the end of June without financial relief.
.
