Update on strike action
On Wednesday 30 April the three unions (UCU, Unite and Unison) met with senior management to discuss collective consultation and industrial action. The meeting was facilitated by ACAS. Senior management were willing to guarantee no compulsory redundancies, and no notices served, in the calendar year 2025 as part of the Academic Futures projects for both academic and professional services staff, in exchange for the suspension of industrial action under our current mandate.
At our Emergency General Meeting (EGM) on Thursday 1 May, UCU members voted on this offer and agreed to call off the notified industrial action, including the Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB), the strike days on May 6, June 9, and June 23-27, and Action Short of a Strike (ASOS). Well done to the over 300 members who joined this meeting to engage in the discussion and make a collective decision for our branch.
Our short-term goal, and our industrial action mandate, was no compulsory redundancies this calendar year under Academic Futures. We brought senior management to this position via sustained work in negotiations, our media campaign, political pressure via the Senedd and MPs, and most critically through an overwhelming mandate for industrial and the impending threat of strikes, ASOS, and a marking & assessment boycott. Thank you to all members who have helped with this work, and to our colleagues from Unite and UNISON who have worked with us in a united front.
The dispute
On 28 January 2025 Cardiff University senior management announced cuts to staff and student provision that are unprecedented in UK higher education. Our union branch has condemned the plans as cruel and unnecessary, and our members are fighting back.
On 25 March 2025 we gained a mandate for industrial action with 64.3% turnout. On 11 April 2025 we served the University Executive Board (UEB) with two weeks’ notice of industrial action. We called a Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) that would start on 6 May; Action Short of a Strike (ASOS) that would start on 6 May; a number of strike days (1 May; 6 May; 9 June; 23-27 June) that would target exam boards and other key dates.
Our demand was simple: to stop any compulsory redundancies in 2025. This was a very reasonable demand. We have given UEB months to slow down and reconsider their rushed plans that risk the future of the whole university. We need to stop the catastrophic pace of change that risks a spiral of decline for the whole university.
We have been trying to avoid strike action. Our union executive committee, your department representatives, and our members have been:
- drafting an initial counter proposal that sets out a positive financial and academic plan for Cardiff University, avoiding compulsory redundancies – read it here.
- lobbying politicians in Wales and Westminster;
- engaging the media – read our press here;
- running open all-member town halls – read our responses to your questions from the 25 February meeting.
- requesting EDI data – see our EDI letter to UEB 4 Feb 2025 and our letter regarding provision of EDI data 26 Feb 2025
- sending cross-university questions and requests for data to the University Executive Board, who are obliged to respond to us as a recognised union. A list of all questions we have sent to UEB over February and March 2025 is here.
- You can read the first set of answers from UEB received on 5 March 2025, the second set of answers from UEB received on 25 March 2025, and the latest set of answers from UEB received on 3 April 2025. We have not yet received answers to all our members’ questions.
We have also opened a No-confidence vote in the Vice Chancellor and the UEB – please vote and share with your colleagues across all staff.