More special guests on day 4 of the strike

A big thank you to all the members who attended the branch meeting yesterday. Sadly we had to report that we did not received an updated proposal from the university, and that they rejected our very reasonable proposal for avoidance of compulsory redundancies.

We believe that compulsory redundancies can be avoided in LINCS and Scholar by extending the window of opportunity for staff to take up the offer of voluntary redundancy alongside more effort and investment in growing their incomes to ensure long term success.

Unfortunately, offers by our negotiators to meet before the strikes, and even during the strikes if a suitable offer is received, have not been taken up. We have acted in good faith and the behaviour of university negotiating team has been disappointing but we remain committed to working with them in order to find an acceptable solution.

The power of collective action

It sounds like a cliche but an injury to one is truly an injury to all. Collective action has saved jobs at Heriot-Watt before and it will save jobs along with research time again.

Members have a critical role to play in this by ensuring that we have the strongest possible negotiating position. Please continue to participate in both strike days and action short of strike to demonstrate the strength of our resolve to management.

And if you can, drop by and join us on the picket too. We will be there every strike day from 08:00 until 11:00.