1. A growing number of branches are facing redundancies – nearly 800 redundancies in just 23 colleges so far. Chesterfield College is balloting on this now, as are Sussex Downs and Croydon. Richmond College held a 3 day strike in March and won a satisfactory settlement.
2. Another form of attack is where colleges are seeking to save money by cutting lecturers’ pay, imposing worse contracts etc. This is happening at Gateshead and City of Sunderland (both branches are balloting and the ballots open on 8th May) and is still threatened at Bradford.
3. An increasing number of branches are in dispute over Lesson Observation Policies and are boycotting observations. This is true for Southwark, City of Westminster, Warwickshire and Waltham Forest, with South Tyneside about to ballot.