Friday September 12th 2025
UCU Edinburgh strike rally at George Square on Monday (8th of September).
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the University of Edinburgh are on the last day of their five days of strike action, after beginning on Monday (8th of September).
The UCU were on picket lines across the university all week due to senior managers’ plans to cut £140 million from the annual budget and cut up to 1,800 jobs including compulsory redundancies.
With the strikes lasting throughout the entirety of this week, it overlapped with the universities welcome week that saw new students arrive on campus for the first time.
Alongside this week’s strike action, members of the UCU have been taking action short of strike since the 20th of June, which includes working to contract and not volunteering for duties or covering for absent colleagues.
UCU’s Edinburgh branch president, Sophis Woodman, explained surrounding the end of the strike:
“Picket lines have been strong, and members are clearly angry and want to fight back against staff cuts.
“Unfortunately, management is still refusing to negotiate with us to resolve the dispute.
“The last dispute resolution negotioatons between UCU and University management were in mid-June, before our 20th of June Open Day strike, and since there, management has not returned to the negotiation table.”
This industrial action follows the earlier strike on the 20th of June when UCU members walked out during a university open day.
On that day, the UCU explained that university management tried to make members of other unions not on strike at the university undertake roles that are not part of their day-to-day jobs or that they were familiar with, including having staff who work in finance give library tours to prospective students rather than library staff.
Putting pressure on the management to reconsider the cuts, this week’s strike was an attempt to save jobs and force the university to consider the agreement to no compulsory redundancies for a set period.
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