‘Common sense prevails’ as Glasgow Trade Union Education Centre closure is averted

 Hub Editors

AUGUST 28, 2024

Campaigners are celebrating today after a breakthrough in negotiations between the Scottish TUC and the City of Glasgow College over the future of the College’s Trade Union Education Centre. 

In May, it was announced that the centre was earmarked for closure, with claims from the College that the Centre was no longer financially viable despite repeated requests from unions for course places. This resulted in a high-profile campaign being launched to save the Centre which attracted widespread support from academics, politicians, trade unionists, artists and members of the public. 

As previously reported on Labour Hub, the Centre has been in operation in one form or another for over 30 years and has helped educate thousands of trade union reps, shop stewards and members who work in many different fields of the Scottish economy. 

In July, the STUC and staff at the Centre submitted an alternative proposal to College managers that showed how the Centre could be sustained in the long term.

Negotiations that took place over the last week have resulted in a new year-long partnership agreement being signed. 

A spokesperson for the Save the Glasgow Trade Union Education Centre campaign said: “Common sense has prevailed. We know there is demand for courses at the Centre and in recent weeks have had many inquiries from a range of trade unions seeking places on courses. We now need to ensure that all of these inquiries result in students being recruited and that we can now rebuild the Centre so it becomes the ‘go to’ place for all trade union education in Scotland. 

“With the prospect of the long-running national college lecturers’ dispute being settled, we have the opportunity to get back to what we do best: educating the next generation of shop stewards, union reps and members whose work is vital in delivering an economy based on ‘fair work’ ,where workers are respected and valued by employers.

“We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported our successful campaign.”

Image: https://greens.scot/blog/may-day-a-day-for-workers. Creator: Nick Efford. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0. Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported