THE future of Glasgow’s Trade Union Education Centre has been secured for two more years in a deal hailed as a landmark victory by campaigners.

The centre, based at the City of Glasgow College’s Riverside campus, whose courses focus on equipping trade unionists with knowledge and confidence to enforce fair pay, safer workplaces and collective agreements, was earmarked for closure last year amid an ongoing cash crisis across Scotland’s further education sector.

Despite ongoing TUC funding, bosses at the college had claimed it was financially unsustainable, sparking a campaign of solidarity, not only from lecturers in the EIS-FELA union — who have been in a long-running pay dispute at the institution — but from politicians, community groups and across the wider Scottish trade union movement.

Proving its success, the campaign has now secured a partnership agreement with the college, securing the centre’s future for at least two years.

Centre tutor Rab Wilson said: “This is a victory not just for Glasgow, but for the entire trade union movement in Scotland.  

“Signing a multiyear partnership agreement for the future of the centre was not on the college’s agenda when they announced closure plans. 

“But staff at the centre and unions who use it knew the value of the courses here, and we’ve shown there’s a bright future for trade union education.

“We owe our thanks to everyone who campaigned so passionately.

“This agreement secures the future of our programmes, and it is now down to unions and their members to sign up for the courses which help deliver safer, better-paid workplaces. In doing so, this will cement the long-term future for the centre way beyond the next two years.”