{"id":7994,"date":"2026-09-18T17:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/?p=7994"},"modified":"2026-09-18T17:09:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:09:53","slug":"breaking-senior-ucu-official-dismissed-by-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/news\/2026\/09\/18\/breaking-senior-ucu-official-dismissed-by-university\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Senior UCU official dismissed by University"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A senior trade union representative has been dismissed from the University of Aberdeen, halting negotiation with management, <em>The Gaudie<\/em> can report.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The University and College Union (UCU) representative was <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">summarily<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> dismissed from their position, provoking \u201coutrage\u201d from the Aberdeen UCU. The union official has internally appealed the decision, and remained anonymous in UCU communications. <em>The Gaudie<\/em> will not currently be sharing the name of the member of staff involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In official UCU communications, the Aberdeen branch announced:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAberdeen UCU, supported by the other recognised campus trade unions, has withdrawn from participation in the University\u2019s Partnership Negotiation Consultative Committee and the Policy Review Group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThis dismissal represents a breakdown in our already fragile industrial relations with Senior Management that makes business as usual impossible\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This breakdown in negotiation comes after a tense year between Senior Management and the UCU. Earlier this year, the University announced a \u00a310 million saving plan that could result in over 100 jobs being lost. Multiple strikes were carried out by staff as a result of these cuts, with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/news\/2026\/04\/22\/withheld-university-survey-reveals-staff-morale-plummeted-by-35\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">staff morale and mental health<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a continued concern.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The UCU has also requested a conciliation process with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) as a &#8220;necessary first step towards improved relations with Senior Management.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The dismissal will also be addressed in a previously scheduled meeting between the Branch Co-Chairs and UCU Scotland Regional Official Nathan Morrison, and Principal Pete Edwards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The UCU shared a message of support to staff at the University, saying:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAberdeen UCU\u2019s response to what has happened is to stand together, support our colleague and use the collective and legal mechanisms available to us to challenge what has happened.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe will continue to defend the right of every member to do so without fear of detriment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A senior trade union representative has been dismissed from the University of Aberdeen, halting negotiation with management, The Gaudie can report.\u00a0 The University and College Union (UCU) representative was summarily dismissed from their position, provoking \u201coutrage\u201d from the Aberdeen UCU. The union official has internally appealed the decision, and remained anonymous in UCU communications. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":7995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[206,1817,1279],"wf_post_folders":[181],"class_list":["post-7994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-aberdeen-university","tag-staff-strikes","tag-ucu"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Amelia Boag","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/ameliamcg07\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/P1110871-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/s\/news\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">News<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/s\/news\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Aberdeen University<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/s\/news\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">staff strikes<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/s\/news\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">UCU<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Aberdeen University<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">staff strikes<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">UCU<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 16 hours ago","modified":"Updated 16 hours ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 18 September 2026","modified":"Updated on 18 September 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 18 September 2026 17:09","modified":"Updated on 18 September 2026 17:09"},"featured_img_caption":"Photograph of UCU strike by Klaudia Mazur for The Gaudie","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7996,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994\/revisions\/7996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7994"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=7994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}