Author: Mandy Brown

Posted on

PAY – We need a strategy now!

The UCU’s Further Education committee (FEC) voted on Friday, by two votes, to end this year’s pay campaign. This is a massive mistake.

The majority of FEC members voted to reject joint action with members of the NUT in 6th form and to oppose the call for escalation of the campaign to win £1 per hour extra for all.

All the hard work put in by our members and the achievement of the first joint action with Unison for a decade has been thrown away.

This retreat gives the green light to the employers to continue to hold down our pay and play fast and loose with the future of Further Education.

In a very worrying development for the democratic decision-making processes of our union, the General Secretary intervened into the debate to tell the FEC that if they voted for joint strike action with the NUT on 15 March she would override that decision.

With no strategy in place, unbelievably, the call to hold an FE sector conference to allow members the democratic right to debate the way forward for next year’s campaign was also opposed and voted down.

 

The membership disarmed

This year’s national negotiations with the AoC begin at the end of April. If our leadership gets its way history is going to repeat itself. Last year we walked into negotiations with the AoC knowing that UCU had cancelled its national pay ballot half way through.

The result was last year’s pay offer was 0%.

Unfortunately those who argued to abandon the ballot last year did not learn from that mistake.

Officials argued at the FEC that we should abandon this year’s pay claim campaign and start again with a new campaign over next year’s claim.

This decision makes no tactical sense. It is like destroying all your weapons before you engage in battle.

UCU is now effectively implementing the Tories’ anti-union Trade union bill before it has become law. Every possible potential legal challenge is being interpreted as a certainty and used as a reason to call off effective action.

The decision by the FEC to support a motion calling on the FEC to dump this year’s claim and start afresh will lead to significant demoralisation amongst our members.

UCU members will be told, once again, that their leadership doesn’t believe that we can win a fight to defend our pay and Further Education.

The employers will see this as a sign of weakness and will be more confident to go onto the offensive both at a national and local level. Union members will be left exposed.

We were in a good position going into this year’s negotiations with the AoC.

If we had remained in dispute over the 2015-16 claim and rolled it into next year’s we could have continued to take action over this year’s claim while opening negotiations over next year.

We had a live ballot, two days of successful strike action and growing support from the Labour front bench. We were also receiving significant coverage in the education media.

We had the very real possibility of co-ordinating further action with the NUT in 6th form colleges on 15 March. In Scotland EIS members in FE have just voted by 93 per cent to strike.

All that potential has been wasted.

 

Local deals must not undermine national action

For some time now there has been a false debate that counter-poses local and national action. For UCU to remain relevant and to build its influence it has to be able to organise effective local as well as national action. National action feeds into local action and strong successful local action builds the union’s ability to take effective national action.

The FEC members were told that employers would be able to make challenges to the national ballot because branches had accepted local pay deals since the initial ballot. This was cited as another reason to abandon the fight.

If this is really the case then every time we have a national strike ballot, the strike ballot will be null and void a week or so later if any colleges agree a local deal.

The impact of this interpretation will lead to a ‘Wild West’ approach to negotiations in the sector. Some branches may win local pay awards while less organised branches, or branches with particularly stubborn managements will be left isolated and abandoned by the national union to further years without a pay rise.

 

Levelling up not down

The drive by the national union to allow local deals to take precedence over building a national campaign has led to some bad results for our members that will undermine the union’s ability to defend us locally and nationally.

Some local branches are signing up to deals that gain extra pay at the expense of terms and conditions. Some are allowing the employers to impose inferior new-starter contracts in exchange for pay deals.  This is a disastrous, dangerous and divisive strategy.

In the context of the rationalisation of the sector where employers will be looking to impose new contracts on staff this approach will allow employers to drive all our conditions of service downwards.  This strategy will encourage a race to the bottom.

 

Build a mass campaign to defend pay and education

The strike on the 24 February was a success.

There were some branches that found it difficult to get all their members out and involved. This is not surprising. Where was the campaign? Where were the national leadership tours in colleges? Where were the posters and stickers?

Many members understandably questioned the validity of a series of one-day strikes. Some felt that their national leadership was not putting forward a strategy that meets the severity of the crisis hitting the sector.

UCU members have shown time and again that they will fight. The problem is they need to know that they have a chance to win too.

The UCU leadership believe that members won’t fight. So they constantly pull back from meaningful national action. The failure to give a serious lead becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as after each strike we’re told about every weakness and never about the positive results.

 

The FEC’s decision is a significant step backwards.

The union’s leadership seems to have no strategy to defend pay and to defend second chance education.

Activists have to get organised and apply real pressure on the national union to adopt a strategy that can inspire our membership and win.

 

What can you do?

  • Get your branch to support the call for a Special Further Education conference to debate the next steps in the campaign to defend pay and education.
  • Organise activists meetings in your region to discuss the next steps.
  • Call branch meetings and pass motions calling for a serious escalating strategy over next year’s pay claim that has some hope of shifting the AoC.
  • Contact your local FEC member to ask them how they voted and demand an explanation from the General Secretary on why she intervened to halt joint action with the NUT.

 

 

 

Posted on

London Report of the special Further Education Committee meeting on 11th December 2015

UCU prepares for coordinated strike with Unison for 2nd of March.

Defend pay, defend education: Fund FE.

***Mass lobby the AoC Governance conference on the 2nd of March in London****

The further education committee met to consider the next steps in the campaign to defend pay and education on following the strike on November 10th. The positive press exposure as a result of the strike was noted as well as the commitment made by John McDonnell, Shadow Chancellor, at the London strike rally to make sure UCU was involved in Labour’s policy formation for FE. He said we deserve a pay rise.

Unison balloting: It was reported that Unison will ballot FE workers in the New Year for an improved pay offer. This will include technicians, managers, library, catering, security and other support staff for an improved pay offer. This is the first rejection of a pay offer by Unison since 2002. They will be recommending to their members to vote for action.

Joint action: The UCU FEC agreed to make preparation to strike alongside Unison and will be proposing the 2nd of March for a joint strike in order to lobby the AoC on that day.

The spending review opens up new possibilities on pay and funding. The lobbies, protests and strikes by UCU have helped to raise the visibility of FE and the funding crisis we are experiencing. Many Principals were surprised that the scale of cuts expected in the comprehensive spending review did not happen.

In this context the financial situation has changed and the circumstances the AOC used to determine their 0% pay freeze recommendation no longer apply. The funding situation is better than expected and the possibility of improving the funding landscape can be demonstrated. It was reported to FEC that a number of colleges have made offers of 1% or improvements to increments as part of the unions part 2 claims. It is clear that a number of colleges are in a position to make some form of improved pay offer.

We should demand the AOC lift the freeze and jointly campaign with us for more FE funding.

Opposition to mergers and the rationalization of FE. A short report was given at the end of the special meeting on pay on the work the union is doing to organize opposition to mergers. It was noted that London has launched a series of mergers in advance of the Area Reviews.

This included:

· Encouraging branches to campaign to oppose mergers.

· Producing a model letter to encourage branches to lobby MPs.

· Support the defending further and adult Education conference on Saturday March 5th, SOAS, London.

· Calling on UCU’s Strategy and Finance Committee to call a national demonstration in London in defence of further and adult education, in line with UCU Congress policy. We should invite sister unions to join the demonstration.

· Seek to coordinate ballots against attacks to jobs or terms and conditions resulting from mergers and area reviews.

*Many Colleges in London (and elsewhere) will have decided to merge by March with implementation in August 2016.

Your London FEC members:

Mandy Brown, Lambeth College,mandybrowncow@hotmail.com

Margot Hill, Croydon College,margothill@croydon.ac.uk

Richard McEwan, Tower Hamlets College,richmcewan@hotmail.com

Rose Veitch, Hackney Community College,rveitch0@yahoo.co.uk

Posted on

The Second Convention for Higher Education – Saturday 27 February, 10am – 5pm

The HE Green Paper:
The Threat to the Public University
…and what we can do about it

Christopher Ingold Chemistry Building, University College London

Speakers from: UCU, Campaign for the Public University, Council for the Defence of British Universities & more

Organisation

The Convention will be structured around the stated premises of the Green Paper in order to coordinate a collective collegiate response to it. Sessions are intended to be both informative and participatory.

The Convention is open to everyone who cares about the future of the Public University and the threat the Green Paper represents to academic freedom.

Sessions on:

  • Teaching quality, social mobility and the TEF – the rise of metrics and the uncapping of fees
  • Opening the market to private providers – easy come, easy go?
  • Measure anything, fail everyone? – the rise of ‘performance management’
  • Deregulation, the attack on governance and statutes – academic freedom under threat
  • The future of research funding
  • Strategies to win: How can we defend the Public University?

Timeline

The closing date for the official government consultation on the Green Paper is 15 January. The Convention will take place three weeks after, ahead of the publication of the White Paper.

In order to facilitate debate we will post responses to the Green Paper from colleagues across the sector on our website.

Publicity resources

https://heconvention2.wordpress.com/paper-and-convention/

Leaflet for event
https://heconvention2.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/convention-poster-a4.pdf

Booking for the event
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/convention-for-higher-education-tickets-19768923382

HE Convention A4 poster
HE Convention A5 leaflet (2-up)

For more information on the Convention, the Green Paper and critical commentary on the GP, go to https://heconvention2.wordpress.com

Please forward widely to your networks.

Sean Wallis, on behalf of the Organising Committee

UCL UCU Vice President, UCU London Region HE, UCU National Executive Committee

Posted on

Report from NEC meeting – 20 November 2016

Report: NEC meeting, 20 November 2016

The union executive met just after the events of Paris (& Beirut, Russian plane in Sinai, Turkey, Mali). The national executive passed a motion of solidarity with Paris condemning the killings, and to oppose the racist backlash and call for war.

The meeting came just a week before the government spending review.


The General Secretary reported on many issues:

The Trade Union Reform Bill is to be law by the end of February if it is not stopped before. The largest ever lobby of parliament, 800 strong led to some parts of the bill involving the new rules on picketing being dropped but the bulk of the bill survived its third reading in the commons. It was reported that during the FE strike day some employers have gained enough confidence to try and challenge members’ actions on the picket line. The raised thresholds for ballots is one of the main concerns for FE members and we have a major task to educate them of the impact of the bill.

A motion noting the success of the ‘lightning strike’ action held at SOAS and supported by UCU members in defence of the victimised unison rep Sandy Nicoll was then put to the meeting. The motion stated the belief that unions must take action to defeat the bill and that UCU must promote the TUC’s call for a general strike. The motion was passed with an amendment to re-join the Trade Union Coordinating Group (TUCG) with a view to gaining as may allies as possible in this fight.

We also congratulated the junior doctors on their excellent ballot result and expressed solidarity for their forthcoming strike action (due to begin 1st of Dec).

The exec congratulated the walk out by the CWU in Bridgewater in defence of a disabled colleague.

The FE pay strike 10 November was well supported across the country and saw thousands of members in FE taking action on pay and in the defence of the sector. John McDonnell addressed the London Rally. The shadow chancellor gave assurances that UCU would be fully consulted in the development of Labour policy affecting further education. A packed West Midlands’ rally included UCU President Liz Lawrence and solidarity greetings from a BMA representative involved in the junior doctors’ dispute. Much of the discussion centred on the Area Reviews taking place in Birmingham. There was excellent media coverage of the action in Liverpool.

The FE Area Reviews will mean the shape of FE will be radically different if the Government’s plans are not opposed. The plans are in place for a massive reduction in the number of FE colleges across the country in a huge programme of rationalisation, which will mean the large-scale loss of members’ jobs and student places. Assurances were made to the GS that UCU would be consulted throughout the process but this has not happened. A number of members talked about the impact of the area reviews. In London colleges were trying to pre-empt the reviews by looking to merge and branches were working together to build a campaign to oppose these mergers. In Birmingham, one of the regions currently under review activists are meeting to build a strategy to resist the proposal of a huge ‘super college’ spanning across the whole city.

***The next steps for how we campaign of pay and area reviews will be developed at a special meeting of the FEC on 11 December.

It was reported, from the floor, that prisoners are now subject to fees/loans for courses they take whilst in prison.

· HE Green Paper

(https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/higher-education-teaching-excellence-social-mobility-and-student-choice )

The HE Green Paper outlines plans to radically transform HE along neoliberal lines. Included in these wide-ranging proposals are: reforms to QA; more metrics with the introduction of a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to ‘incentivise’ quality; opening up the sector to private providers to stimulate ‘competition’ and ‘choice’; removal of the cap on student fees.

UCU Left members called for a special HEC to discuss the union’s response to the 105 page Green Paper. Unfortunately this was not agreed.

The initial response from UCU is here:.

Staff at HQ will draft a response before Xmas and seek comments from branches and members by 7 January in order to submit for the Government consultation deadline of 15 January.

Activists will need to hold meetings and engage with this process. Branches should pass motions calling for a national lobby of parliament and a national demonstration alongside NUS on the day of the next parliamentary reading of the bill.


· Comprehensive Spending Review

This will be announced on 25 November and further extensive cuts to post-16 education will be proposed.

· The Open University proposed closures and ballot for action

The OU management plans to close seven of its nine regional centres with up to 500 job losses and degradation of the support it offers its students. The OU UCU branch has won a fantastic 72% for strike action and 82.7% for action short of a strike in its ballot with a 51.5% turnout.

NEC agreed to call on local FE and HE branches to support the OU strikes with motions of solidarity and delegations to picket lines.

The Day of Action on Racism in the Workplace

The union has organised a day of action on workplace racism on 10 February 2016.

A menu of suggestions of activities will be available for the day. The chair of the Black Members’ Standing Committee reported that work is underway and black members at the annual conference, held in the previous week welcomed the focus that the day of action provided to the work that was done.

Local activities may include showings of the BMSC commissioned film, meetings with speakers, campaign stalls linked to recruitment.

· No backlash against refugees, migrants and Muslims

· No to war

· Refuges are welcome here, open the borders.

· Political and negotiated solutions to war and conflict.

The 11-15 Nov UCU Equality conference was a success. The BMSC has been doing a great job in building BME networks.

· National Recruitment Strategy http://btu.web.ucu.org.uk/

The campaigns team reported strong activity during the first national recruitment week with lots of success stories. Falling membership was attributed to a number of factors including FE job losses.

The next two national recruitment weeks commence on 22 Feb and 25 April. Training of reps is part of this strategy.

· Anti casualisation

Reports from the anti-casualisation day of action were shared. See reports on this link:

A motion proposing self-registration for the Anti-Casualistion Conference was passed which will help improve the attendance at this vital event in the UCU’s calendar.

· Other reports and motions

Motions were passed on: solidarity with London Met facing closure of all sites except one (a dispute of national significance); supporting anti-climate change activities; anti-trident; refugees welcome here; transnational education issues. A Report from Education International World Congress was received.

Prevent Duty

There was an acknowledgement from the meeting that UCU had responded to the motion passed at Congress calling for a boycott of the Prevent Duty and that the guidance for branches is useful and produced in a timely fashion. There was a call for a strengthening of the campaign and further advice on the non-cooperation with the duty.

The Campaigns team reported that a joint statement with the other teaching unions was being prepared.

The chair of ROCC requested that materials being used in branches should be submitted to head office.

Posted on

Report from Sue Abbott on The UCU National Equality conference in Eastbourne. 12 November to 14 November.

The UCU National Equality conference in Eastbourne ran from 12 November to 14 November.

The Women’s Conference was on the 12 November. The conference considered the minutes of the 2014 conference as well as the annual report of the Women members standing committee. A keynote speaker was Mandy Brown from Lambeth College who spoke about their recent victory after sustained strike action. The annual report highlighted aspects such as abortion rights, lad culture, congress motions relating to women and casualization and women’s access to education. It also noted areas that had been taken to FE sector (women and the economy and women and work/life balance. HE sectors motions related to lad culture (a motion that I had put up) plus the REF impact upon women. Additionally areas highlighted in the report included the sexual harassment survey. TUC women’s conference, the UCU film for International Women’s Day and the work of the end Violence campaign. Motions taken to the Women’s conference were on domestic violence, child benefits cap and mothers in education, cuts to adult education and gender impact and equality in practice

The Women’s Conference included 3 workshops. I facilitated a packed workshop on sexual harassment and lad culture. UCU has recently undertaken a national survey to find out the extent of sexual harassment in the workplace. A total of 2367 replied. 81% were in HE. 48% indicated they had experienced sexual harassment and 68% said this was from a colleague. The worrying aspect here was that only 13% went to the union about their situation. So what the workshop aimed to address was why this was and what we could do about this. There were strong links noted in the workshop between the experiences of the students related to lad culture and sexual harassment experienced by staff. It was felt that HE culture since marketisation of education was largely responsible. What we are considering therefore in the future is likely to be a campaign with posters and stickers. This will be further discussed at the next WMSC in January 2016.Other workshops held at the same time included one on the attack on adult education (Rhiannon Lockley) and one on women and casualization (Christina Paine)

Friday 13 November saw the joint plenary session for all participants from all four groups.
The plenary heard from the Chair of the Equality committee and the UCU president on contemporary areas and concerns related to equality. Then keynote speakers included Quinn Roache from the EHRC. He provided a most interesting overview of a November 2015 survey on discrimination in the workplace. This involved some 3000 women interviewed over the phone as well as interviews with employers. Particularly concerning was pregnancy and maternity discrimination as well as harassment/bullying and a number of other forms of discrimination. EHRC are producing employer’s toolkits and good practice videos. Another keynote speaker was Don Flint (chief Executive of Migrants Rights network). Don drew our attention to education on the frontline and the government offensive on education. Particularly emphasised was the expectation that those of us in education should police students. He also raised concerns about the ‘outsourcing of immigration to the community’ e. g getting driving instructors to check passports. We could also see connections to the Prevent agenda. We also heard from Wilf Sullivan (TUC race equality officer) and Alaa Elaydi from NUS

There were then several workshops. I facilitated a workshop on the participation of equality groups in the union. This workshop had 3 excellent speakers from Disabled Members Standing Committee (Paul Lunn), LGBT members standing committee (Steve Boyce), Black members standing committee (Dave Muritu). There were great ideas about getting members involved and each speaker was particularly encouraging towards getting more active members from their groups.

Other workshops held at the same time included equality bargaining, the politics of hate, sustainable working lives, equality issues in devolved nations.

The other conferences (black members and disabled) followed the plenary and Saturday was for LGBT members. Overall, this was an excellent conference and involved lots of brilliant workshops and lively discussions.

Report from Sue Abbott, NEC member (women’s seat)

Posted on

Higher Education members – support FE members on strike on 10th November – by UCU President, Liz Lawrence

On Tuesday 10th November UCU’s FE members will be taking strike action. This is over the failure of the employers to make a pay offer for 2015. HE members may feel insulted at getting a pay offer of only 1% for 2015. The employers in FE have refused to make an offer at all. This is a deliberate provocation.

Please show your support for your Further Education colleagues. Please make solidarity visits to their picket lines, attend local strike rallies and take a collection for hardship funds. Please show that we value FE and value our FE members, even if the employers do not.

Adult and Further Education are being clobbered more and more by funding cuts. Already the Adult Education sector has faced 25% funding cuts. More are in the pipeline. This is leading to loss of many areas of educational provision, including ESOL courses. The future of this valuable sector of education is being put into question.

Many Higher Education members know the value to society of the FE sector. We know that for some university students the route to Higher Education has come via the FE college and access courses. The current trade dispute over pay occurs in a context of savage funding cuts to the FE sector. Too many of the politicians in Westminster have never been inside an FE college and do not know the contribution FE makes to society. We need to support the fightback to defend the FE sector.

by UCU President, Dr.Liz Lawrence

Posted on

Report from UCU North West Region Equality Network Activists Dayschool – 24.10.15

Defend Education, Defend Equality!

Defend Civil Liberties, Defend Academic Freedom!

Saturday 24 October 2015, Quaker Meeting House, Liverpool

Thanks to Saira Weiner, Liverpool John Moores and Chair of Women’s Committee, and Carol Cody, City of Liverpool College, for organising this event, hosted by the North West Regional Committee, with lunch supplied by the University of Liverpool branch. Thanks also to our two speakers from outside the region, Liz Lawrence, UCU President and Dave Muritu, Chair of the Black Members Committee, and to all of the members who contributed to a fantastic day of learning, sharing and strategizing. The day reflected some of the rich diversity of our membership and increased the visibility of sections that are historically under-represented.

One of the main themes of the day was how intrinsic equality is to all of the issues that we deal with as a union. It is not an add-on or an after-thought. We discussed four major attacks on equality that we are currently facing in the education sector: the Trade Union bill; Prevent legislation; casualization and deteriorating pay and conditions, particularly in FE. The two pieces of legislation put together represent an incredibly chilling curtailment of democratic rights and freedom of expression.

Trade Union Bill

Liz went through the key features of the bill and talked about the widespread opposition to it within society, not just from the unions, political parties, academics but also from human rights organisations. She talked about the ‘pressure on citizenship rights’ and how the bill would move us from collective bargaining to collective begging. Unions could end up as a place where members came for ‘tea and sympathy’ and nothing else. In the discussion we suggested different levels at which the bill could be challenged and the question was asked if a judicial challenge had been considered by the TUC.

Prevent Legislation

Next we discussed another draconian piece of legislation, Prevent. We started with its terms. What is an ‘extremist’? Who defines it? Who institutionalises it? The suffragettes, the ANC, LGBT campaigners have been seen by those in power as ‘extremists’. Yet these actors were ahead of their times, changing society for the better, ironically, fighting for equality. In a recent Prevent training session, police gave Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, as an example of an ‘extremist’ Again, another term, ‘British values’ is deeply problematic, given Britain’s past and present foreign and domestic policies. Are we all obliged to espouse a revisionist history which air-brushes out the British state’s racism? We know what happens to societies, which rewrite and mythologise their histories.

The consequences of Prevent are to silence dissent and to threaten both student and staff activism on campus. In addition, students who have been the victims of Prevent have felt so intimidated that it has turned them away from education (see articles below). As educators, this goes completely against our job of creating a bond of trust in a safe space. In the discussion, a number of points were made. As educators we also need to defend the right of the learner to make mistakes, that that was integral to the learning process. This legislation not only targeted Muslim students but also those defending academic freedom and civil liberties. UCU have excellent policy and resources in this area and the question was raised if members of GMB, Unite and Unison working in the wider education sector, were equally well prepared and resourced. UCU national policy and how branches could implement it was discussed as has been reflected on the ucu activists list.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/28/prevent-discourage-muslim-fight-extremism-counter-terrorism-university-school-students-suspicion

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/23/prevent-counter-terrorism-strategy-schools-demonising-muslim-children

Black Members

Dave explained to us that the Black Members Standing Committee was an advisory committee and its aim was to address the disconnect that some black members feel towards the union and to access the structures of the union. He reported how the recent New Black Activists workshop was oversubscribed and another one was planned as a result. He also told us that some 700 members had responded to a survey, indicating that they wanted to talk about issues of (institutional) racism and that they want change on them. Other initiatives include re-starting a black members’ network in the West Midlands.

Casualization

Casualization is discriminatory and so widespread that everyone in the room had some experience of it. Liz stressed how damaging stigmatization (hot-desking, excluded from department/faculty meetings, not paid for training) was as making people different then allows the institution to treat them differently. GTAs are more vulnerable because their supervisor is also their hirer. We need to dispel fear of victimisation, identify protection and other benefits of membership. How do we tackle external drivers (research/funding structures) at a national level? We aim for inclusion, dignity and respect for all workers.

FE Pay Strike 10 November

This £1 per hour claim is an equalities pay claim because female, BME and precarious staff are overrepresented at the bottom of the pay ladder.

Action Points

1. FE Pay Strike – 10 November – twinning of branches in the region

2. Invite ‘Students not Suspects’ tour to other universities and colleges in the region

http://roarnews.co.uk/wordpress/?p=18195 Email Pura Ariza for contact details.

3. ‘Unite the Resistance’ conference 14 November, London, includes John McDonnell http://uniteresist.org/2015/08/unite-the-resistance-conference-2015/

4. National Day of Action on Casualization – 19 November 2015 & disseminate the anti-casualisation blog on ucu web-page

5. National Day of Action on Race – February 2016, details to follow

6. Share experiences of case-work, surveys, strategy amongst the branches in the region

7. Regional solidarity to our victimized colleagues at City of Liverpool College and Salford University.

Julie Hearn, Joint VP, Lancaster University UCU

Posted on

Update on the Open University Dispute Over Closure of Regional Centres.

The UCU branch at the Open University are in dispute with management over their proposals to close 7 of the English Regional Centres in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Gateshead, Leeds, London and Oxford with the potential loss of over 500 jobs.

A consultative ballot received a 38% response with 81% voting in favour of action.
A full ballot for action is now underway and closes on November 5.

Successful rallies have been held at two of the centres, Birmingham and Leeds and a “not a rally” event was held at the Milton Keynes campus to lobby a senate meeting.

Management had said that only ten people were allowed to attend the rally hence the “not a rally” event. It seemed a ridiculous intervention by management but enabled a humorous response. Ten people at any one time rallied, handed out leaflets and lobbied whilst other members were asked to form an orderly queue to take turns at “rallying”. At times there were over 50 people in a long queue waiting to rally. It was excellent for branch morale.

The senate meeting voted by 41 to 33 with 9 abstentions to reject management’s proposals but management have decided to ignore this and are taking the full closure proposals to the University Council in late November.

Two petitions are out on social media including one on 38 Degrees, MPs are being lobbied and the branch is working hard to secure a strong vote for ASOS and strike action. Further rallies and action will be discussed at the weekly campaign meeting.

 

Please support this campaign by:

 

Signing and circulating the online petition

Sending messages of support to ucu@open.ac.uk

Supporting further rallies – info here shortly….

Posted on

FEC votes for national pay strike on 10 November. All out to build it and make sure it is a success.

UCU left statement to defend pay and the sector.

All out for 10th November strike.

  • UCU votes 73.7% yes for strikes to defend pay.
  • All out 10 November to march on BIS.
  • Time is now to rebuild, recruit to the union and develop strategy to defend post-16 education.

Yesterday the Further Education Committee voted for strike action to defend pay and pursue our claim for £1 per hour for all members. This fight underpins the battle for the future of FE.

Further and Adult education is in crisis. This summer, the Government launched a major programme of restructuring and mergers as part of £450m austerity cuts which will see 300 colleges broken up to as few as 70.

This is the biggest crisis in FE since incorporation. It will hasten the decline and marketisation of the sector and, if left unchallenged, there will no longer be a college at the heart of every community. There will be no second, or even first chances for the 3.5 million students we serve. Hundreds of thousands of unemployed teenagers will be barred from a general education and forced down a narrow skills agenda in education factories.

We play a key role in our colleges in transforming lives and opportunities – imagine what our communities would look like without our local colleges. For FE workers austerity cuts have taken the sector to breaking point : job losses, pay cuts, burgeoning workloads, growing class sizes, courses axed. We now face a stark choice – organise for defence of the sector or witness the rapid demise of everything we have stood for.

 

What can be done to reverse this decline and save the sector?

We have an opportunity to rebuild and develop a coherent political and industrial strategy that can take our members with us to defend the sector. An industrial strategy on pay must be linked to a wider political strategy that can build a mass campaign to defend the sector.

The YES vote for strike action for £1 per hour extra for all puts a stake in the ground for respect and recognition of the service we deliver. The unions put in a claim for £1 per hour extra for all to restore pay after 6 years of pay cuts but the employer’s response was unprecedented: recommending a 0% offer, implementing the Tory government’s pay freeze. This is on top of attacks on jobs, the casualization of the sector and mushrooming workloads.

Pay is a real issue for members as the cost of living increases. The average monthly rent is at a record high at £816 per month. Rents are a quarter higher than in 2010, with increases outstripping inflation.

The idea the employers are trying to sell is that if we all tighten our belts we can defend the sector and jobs. This is laughable. By implementing austerity cuts and freezing pay they concede the rationale that there is no money for education. Those Principals are now rushing to carve out their own fiefdoms, accepting this rationale.

A pay strike will be effective if it connects with the political mood. It has to call for more funding for FE. We are the guardians of education, the pay cut is a result of funding cuts. Standing up for pay has to be part of demanding funding for the sector.

We should march on BIS as part of our campaign to stop the cuts. We should initiate forums and rallies to build an alliance of unions to break the pay freeze. We must put real pressure on the AoC and the government. We know there are colleges that can afford to pay a better pay award. We can target strikes and also highlight the gender pay gap and that of black workers. We can expose disparity between those at the top and those on the bottom. The whole union can rally to support and generalise these disputes.

unnamed

This week saw over 500 ESOL students and lecturers lobby Parliament to fight the £45m cut to the ESOL budget. This vibrant and diverse mass lobby vocalised the anger at the devastation these cuts represent. A break-away group demonstrated against the BIS department responsible for the cuts, taking the argument to the place where these decisions are made. The ESOL campaign is a lesson for all of us.

​The #LoveFE campaign showed the potential for a fightback with two lobbies of Parliament and 42,500 people signing the petition against the 24% cut to ASB budget.

Unfortunately the momentum of this campaign was not sustained beyond local fragmented disputes to defend jobs. By and large these were effective at stopping compulsory redundancies locally, but there was no serious attempt to locate this as part of a national campaign. So far, UCU has failed to mobilise this potential to build a mass campaign to defend the sector or adequately campaign to convince members angry about pay that we can win. Materials and publicity produced for this pay campaign were good and the union reached out to members in a way it had not done in recent years. There is a potential to rebuild confidence among members if we learn the lessons of the past but it must offer a convincing strategy on pay to members. We want no more stop-start approaches to one day strikes, no more retreats like the one from the mass mobilisations of the pension strikes, no more missed opportunities to unite with the NUT and other unions to defend pay. These retreats set us back, gave confidence to the employers and demoralised our members.

With more cuts to be announced in November and the acceleration of mergers, the union must refocus on building a national campaign for the defence of the whole of the sector. This means building for a mass national demonstration with the students and other education unions to defend Education from the Cradle to the Grave.

The CWU recently held a rally with Jeremy Corbyn in Manchester that saw 7000 people attend to defend “the people’s post”. Labour’s new Shadow Ministers have said that there needs to be a battle for post-16 education and called for a National Education Service.

There is potential to engage tens of thousands of UCU members in activity. We can recruit new reps, who joined the mass demonstrations against austerity, welcoming refugees and defending education, and who are excited by the idea of a pay strike.

TUC Congress passed a motion for coordinated, joint and sustained industrial action to break the pay freeze. FE Unison members voted by 95% to reject the pay cut and are writing to Principals asking them to make a significant offer or face ballots. UCU can play a role in reaching out to sister unions to unite to break the pay freeze.

All out for the 10 November strike – Fund pay – Fund FE.
The following motion was carried at the FEC on Saturday 17 October

Pay motion (amended to strike on 10 November)

FEC notes:

1. The 73.7% vote yes for strike action in the ballot for £1 extra per hour for all.

2. The motion passed at the TUC calling for coordinated, sustained, joint action to break the pay freeze.

3. The successful mobilisation for the ESOL and adult education lobby of Parliament.

FEC believes:

1. That for a pay campaign to be successful we need to locate it as part of the wider defence of further and attack education.

2. That further targeted action will be required to force concessions from the employers.

FEC resolves:

1. Call a national strike on 10 November.

2. To book a venue close to Parliament for a national rally at 1pm in London. We should invite speakers including MPs, sister unions, NUS, adult education campaigning bodies e.g NAICE, Action for ESOLl, and Labour leadership Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, and shadow education ministers such as Gordon Marsden and Angela Eagle. Where appropriate regions or cities should call their own local rallies.

3. Demonstrate at BIS in London following the rally.

4. Contact the NUS to join their protest later on the same day.

5. Invite branches to take part in coordinated targeted action in November.

6. Ensure campaigning materials are produced to make the case for funding pay as part of the campaign for funding FE. In these materials we should make the case for our pay claim, including highlighting inequality by gender and ethnicity, the lowest paid and those in casual contracts, the rising cost of living, principals pay and the need for parity with school teachers pay.

7. Contact sister trade unions to discuss and develop a coordinated strategy on pay.

8. To reconvene FEC at a time to be agreed today to review the pay campaign and agree the next steps, which could include how to implement the targeted action.

9. We should also explore how to take a national campaign forward such as organising for a national lobby of Parliament in the new year to defend pay and fund FE.