Lobby hits Scottish Parliament

Fat cat at the Scottish Parliament lobby

A highly successful lobby of the Scottish Parliament took place on 24 May with a large turnout from branches.  The lobby was organised by UCU and held jointly with EIS and supported by NUS Scotland.  Due to publicity stunts at the lobby outside the Scottish Parliament the event received extensive media coverage on STV, BBC radio and the popular press.

The lobby sought to emphasis the shortfall in funding and the need for the new Government to meet its pre-election promise to plug the funding gap in Scotland.  However, given this commitment the union also questioned the need for job losses and attacked management and governance procedures.

UCU branches at the lobby

Following the lobby UCU had organised a meeting with MSPs where numerous local examples of poor governance had led to disputes with UCU.
Speakers from the SNP, Labour and the Greens supported the campaigns and agreed to support a review of governance. Apologies were received from the Liberal Democrat and Conservative spokespersons due to the Ash cloud and prior engagements respectively.

Despite the lack of organised business in the Parliament that day both the lobby and the briefing meeting were well attended by MSPs.