UNISON condemns savage cuts being imposed on Glasgow’s colleges

Friday 21 January 2011

UNISON says the savage cuts being imposed across Glasgow’s colleges will have a devastating impact on employers, families and entire communities.

Last month the Scottish Funding Council announced that colleges across the country must reduce their budgets by more than 10 per cent this year alone. College bosses have already indicated that this will lead to a loss of courses, a loss of staff and, in turn, a loss of educational opportunities for students.

UNISON’s City of Glasgow branch says it will continue to oppose cuts and says it will not rule out industrial action if forced job cuts are imposed.

Jim Snell, of UNISON’s City of Glasgow branch, said:

“Cutting funding for higher and further education will not help to rebuild the economy. These cuts will not only affect students, it will affect employers, families and entire communities.

“We want to work with colleges to protect our services and ensure there is no need for forced job cuts, however, if compulsory redundancies are imposed we will not rule out industrial action.

“UNISON will continue to oppose cuts, as every cut affects the services we can provide to our students. Scotland’s students didn’t cause this crisis, so why should they be left to pay the price for the bankers’ mistakes?”



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UNISON welcomes withdrawal of Accenture jobs threat

UNISON has today welcomed the announcement by Accenture of its withdrawal of redundancy proposals from employees working on its ScottishPower contract.

This outcome means that hundreds of employees – based in East Kilbride (South Lanarkshire) and Queensferry (North Wales) – who were facing redundancy and the insecurity of unemployment as Christmas approached can now look forward to a more stable flow of work and job security for the foreseeable future.

The announcement by Accenture follows months of detailed negations and discussions between trade unions, Accenture, ScottishPower and parent company Iberdrola.

Accenture told staff this week it had secured significant new project work and had therefore extended the scope of its support contract with ScottishPower.

Gerry Crawley, regional organiser for UNISON, said: “This is great news for our members who have gone through a difficult time and suffered a lengthy period of uncertainty about their jobs.

“This decision is testament to the hard work of all those involved, together with the support of local politicians, in preventing job losses at a time of great economic uncertainty.”

In a statement to its ScottishPower workforce, Accenture said: “We consider this to be a very positive outcome. It is a position that saves jobs for the foreseeable future and will result in a stable demand position for additional project work to at least the end of 2011 and hopefully beyond.”