Durham UCU have declared a dispute with our management over its plans to make £20 million of savings in staff costs. The stated aim is £10 million by August this year and £10 million in 2025–2026. The employer has refused to rule out compulsory redundancies. We are seeking a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies.
Redundancies at Durham are not inevitable. We are balloting for industrial action to defend jobs and protect workloads. We urge members to vote yes to strike action and yes to action short of a strike.
The ballot opens Tuesday 4 March and runs through Tuesday 1 April.
How did we get here?
Durham University has announced a planned £20M cuts to staff costs in 2025 and 2026. They estimate this will mean losses of around 200 professional services jobs by August 2025, followed by further cuts to both professional services and academic staff in 2025–2026.
Durham UCU does not accept that staffing reductions are inevitable. Cutting costs by cutting jobs is a choice.
In February 2025, Durham UCU ran a local consultative ballot on moving to a formal industrial action ballot to protect jobs and workload.
On the question
I support my UCU branch moving to a local formal industrial action ballot in pursuance of the below claim, if the employer does not make a satisfactory response by 4 February 2025:
- Job security
- Rule out compulsory redundancies
- TU-negotiated measures like pooling and bridging funding to decouple research staff job security from individual grants
- Manageable workload
- 100% workload (35 hours a week on average or pro rata) is the limit
- Fair, TU-negotiated workload models for all salaried and hourly-paid staff
- A democratic university
- Recommend to Council that all four TUs are invited to nominate representatives to Council with full voting rights
- Honour TU recognition (implement agreements, open comms, engage cost-saving/cost-neutral TU proposals)
- Promotions for everyone
- Formal PS promotions procedure
- Appeals procedure for all promotions
- Pay spine review
- Open local negotiations
- Commit to local implementation
Members voted
Yes: 87.0%
No: 8.1%
Abstain: 4.9%
Turnout was 61.49%
If you are a DUCU member, please check that your membership details and preferred mailing address are accurate and up to date via My UCU.
New members can register for an account here.
And if you’re not yet a member, join a union!
