Job Cut’s Demo

On the 5th of February Salford University was rocked by one of the loudest and best attended demonstrations in the recent history of the university. It took place in support of Salford University Defend Education (S.U.D.E) campaign, which was started to prevent the proposed job cuts at the university. Staff, students and sympathetic members of the community gathered outside Maxwell house on the main campus and staged a mock funeral, complete with coffin, to represent the “death” of Salford University and free public education. Over 200 people marched through the heart of Salford in a not-so-sombre funeral procession, with the coffin bleakly in tow, and vented their frustration over the redundancies taking place under “Project Headroom” outside the The Old Fire House. Despite the freezing temperatures, the throng of people made their presence felt with chants, drumming and a series of speakers condemning the job cuts well into the evening.


As part of Project Headroom, the University plans to axe 150 jobs in 3 phases to create “financial headroom” to compensate for it’s £40 million investment in MediaCity, as well as other sound investments, such as an executive wet-room for the senior management and the vice-chancellors rent free mansion Bouden. They have also threatened to close down a popular course, Traditional Chinese Medicine, despite the fact it remains a profit-making course which is highly regarded by both students and industry.


The Salford Left Forum, along with S.U.D.E, firmly rejects the job cuts and believes that the university would find the financial headroom it is looking for by spending wisely, rather than through redundancies. People should not be made to pay with their jobs to compensate for the financial incompetence of their bosses.


You can watch the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEKh0zhu1H0