UCU and Unison FE Strike report – 24.2.16

Huge congratulations to all those who participated and supported Wednesday’s historic joint UCU and Unison strike action for fair pay in FE!

The day was a great success. Highlights included:

• incredible photos of busy picket lines from colleges all over the country. Some of the colleges spotted in social media pics and at rallies are listed at the bottom of this email.

• in her speech, Sally Hunt, General Secretary congratulated strikers and paved the way for further action: “If we have to do this again, then we do. Every step of the way challenge AoC’s policy. We should be very proud’

• Gorden Marsden, Shadow Skills and FE Minister showed once again Labour support for our strike, for our vision of education and our concerns about the upcoming area reviews

• Hannah Wray from Tower Hamlets College spoke at the London rally on behalf of Action for ESOL, calling on Cameron to fund ESOL and skilled, professional teachers and stop scapegoating migrants

• students from City and Islington and Tower Hamlets College also spoke at the rally, along with Shakira Martin NUS VP FE, about how FE had transformed their lives

• great coverage in the national and local press, even the Daily Mail!

This is a round up of the press from the day, plus online photo galleries :

ITV : Thousands of further education staff strike over pay

TES : https://www.tes.com/news/further-education/breaking-news/college-strike-pictures-picket-line

Daily Mail : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3461253/Lecturers-education-staff-strike-pay-dispute.htmlpay briefing feb 2016

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/thousands-staff-eight-west-midlands-10940365

http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/south-tyneside-college-lecturers-strike-over-pay-freeze-1-7746125

Storify UCU and UNISON FE strike (with images, tweets)

https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/8109/UCU-and-UNISON-back-strike-action-by-further-education-college-staff?list=1676

Staff to strike in further education colleges on 24 February

https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/42206/First+joint+college+strike+in+ten+years+as+staff+take+action+for+pay+and+education

UCU and Unison strike together for fair pay in FE!

https://www.tuc.org.uk/union-issues/tuc-supports-ucu-and-unison-strike-defence-further-education?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Frances O’Grady ‏@FrancesOGrady Feb 24 My support is with the @ucu and @UNISON_FE strikers today. They’re out to defend further education services and learners.

Some of the colleges spotted in photos and rallies : East Durham, Bolton, Birmingham Met, Sandwell, South and City Birmingham, Halesowen, Sussex Downs, Wirral Met, Sussex Coast Hastings, South Downs, Northbrooke, Tyne Met, Telford, Derwentside, Leeds City, Conway Park, City College Plymouth, Manchester College, Truro, Wiltshire, Havering, Hugh Baird, Rugby, Suffolk New College, St Helens, Warwicks, Stafford, Gateshead, Tyne Met, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Darlington, Gateshead, Stratford upon Avon, Oldham, Chesterfield, Kirklees, Bradford, Northampton, Knowsley, Central College Nottingham, Southport, City of Bristol, Hartlepool, Bury, West Thames, Lambeth, Croydon, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Redbridge, CNWL, City and Islington, Westminster Kingsway, City Lit, Lewisham Southwark and Morley College who had their biggest picket ever of 30!!!

The FEC will meet on Friday 4th March where we will discuss next steps in the campaign for a fair £1 an hour for all staff.

 

Join Industrial Action with UCU and UNISON over pay

Support the strike tomorrow. Good blog post by Bradford College UCU.

Defend Education at Bradford College

UCU and Unison National Pay Strike

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Joint Unions Picket outside David Hockney Building from 7.30am onwards

UCU along with Unison (support staff) will be taking action this Wednesday, 24 February, 2016 in support of our claim for fairer pay. We are pleased to say that UCU members will be joined on strike by Unison members who have also voted to support strike action.

Pay is crucial, while we all work for our students, we expect a fair reward. The average further education (FE) member has lost around £5,950 as a result of pay not keeping up with inflation over the last five years.

If you have not visited yet find out how much you have lost here. https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/8086/FE-rate-for-the-job

At Bradford College we have been put on a contract that increased our workloads and delivered, we have been told by senior management, 8% more in terms of…

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Last push to get the election vote out!

Thank you to all the FE and HE branches that have supported getting the vote out for the UCU and VP elections over the last few weeks.

Please use your vote. Turn out is traditionally low in these elections yet we can make such a difference to the type of union we have by choosing candidates who will fight to defend the sectors and protect members. Only 15% of members voted in the last General Secretary elections.

It is often the case that HE members do not realise they are able to vote in the Vice President (FE) elections. The VP will also be the President of the union so all members in both sectors can vote for VP.

It has never been more important to vote. Further and Adult Education is on its knees and what happens to FE is making its way towards HE. Privatisation, fearful measuring and league tables, and further increases in workload.

The reason I am standing in the elections is because I have had first-hand experience of successful campaigning through my involvement with Action for ESOL, the fightback at Lambeth College over contracts, and recently the lobbies and marches in London I have helped to organise, which has raised the profile of Further and Adult Education. I have seen how well organised campaigning can work. When we organise together, we can overturn government decisions, change policy and push back attacks.

The candidates I am recommending have an excellent track record of campaigning for members in their respective sectors and for Equality.

If we bring more knowledge and experience of successful campaigning and generalise this across the union then we will have more chance of defending both the HE and FE sectors from further erosion of courses, student places, funding, lecturers’ jobs and worklife balance.

I encourage HE members to register a delegate for the HE Convention on 27th February to discuss the Green Paper. You can register here.

And to send a delegate to the upcoming Pay Briefings. More info here:

I encourage FE members to register now for the Defend Education Conference on 5th March. Confirmed speakers include Shadow FE and Skills Minister Gorden Marsden, NUT Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney and Shakira Martin, VP FE NUS. Register here.

There are six days left to post your ballot paper. I urge all members to take part.

Who I’m voting for:

Rhiannon Lockley from Halesowen College whose blog you can read here: https://100milesfromthesea.wordpress.com/

Elaine White from Bradford College whose blog you can read here: https://elaine4ucunec.wordpress.com

Julia Roberts from Lambeth College

Sarah Foster from Adult and Community Education in Brent

Sean Vernell from City and Islington College

Margot Hill from Croydon College

Mark Campbell from London Metropolitan University

Dawn Livingstone from Lewisham Southwark College

Lee Short from Barnsley College

Sean Wallis from University College London

Sue Abbott from Northumbria University

Sara Weiner from Liverpool John Moores University

Ioanna Ioannou from University College London

Pura Ariza from Manchester Metropolitan University

Allister MacTaggart from Chesterfield College

Rachel Cohen from City University London

Julie Hearn from Lancaster University

All candidate materials are available on the UCULeft website.

 

 

 

Campaigning in Scotland HE

This week I’ve been hosted at UCU meetings in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and St Andrews Universities.

After the meetings we visited offices and spoke to UCU members about the elections and about local issues they are facing. By far the number one issue common to all four places was workload. Members are worried about their reduced work-life balance and  the impact that PDR, REF and TEF will have on their already excessive workloads. There were concerns about the lack of transparency in PDR and how it is too open to subjectivity and therefore to favouritism and discrimination of staff who are applying for promotion.

We heard about the problems facing international lecturers who are having to pay massively increased visa fees and NHS levies, not only for themselves but for their families too. These fees are payable every year and have increased dramatically without any explanation, making the cost prohibitive for some to be able to continue their work in the UK.

PhD students and GTAs (graduate teacher assistants) talked about having to take on tutorials as well as teaching duties, with no time allowed for marking. Many have never marked before and are given no support. Often they are told that the teaching is ‘developmental’, yet there is no-one observing or providing feedback.

Cuts and redundancies are also an issue, and this again impacts on workload as more work is required from the remaining staff after each round of redundancies.

We need to step up the campaign to wipe out casualisation in education. We also need to increase resources to help build branches and regional networks.

Thanks to all the Scottish HE members we spoke to for your time and the very interesting discussions. And solidarity to all those facing the issues described here.

Calais Camp Part Two

The last two days were mainly spent on the camp, speaking to refugees and doing some English lessons. Every day more people in our group arrive to help out: teachers and trade union members from London, Leeds, Wakefield and Birmingham have all brought money and donations for the distribution centres, Auberges and Care4Calais. People are helping out in the centre, sorting clothes, delivering to the camp, cooking lunch for volunteers and teaching.

On Sunday I met a 21 year old man from Ethiopia who wanted help with English vocabulary and writing. He came back again the next day for his second class. Despite the appalling conditions, there is hope and plenty of motivation here.

It is a place of so many contradictions. On the one hand it is good to see that there is a level of community organisation with make-shift wooden structures housing shops, a women and children-only centre offering film-showings and ‘pamper Saturdays’, Afghan and Kurdish restaurants and mouth-watering aromas,  even a Hammam. The determination of the inhabitants to maintain as much dignity as possible. An on-site distribution point organiser told us he refuses to distribute food ‘on the line’, preferring instead to seek out people off the main track, delivering food to their tent homes. He said “people suffer lack of dignity everywhere, they have to get clothes on the line, blankets on the line, even standing in line to wash. At least let them have some dignity to eat in their homes.” This is the same man who hosted us on our first day in a tea-house tent; inviting all eight of our group to a glass of tea, with milk and sugar as preferred, and refusing to let us pay anything towards it. Insistently generous hospitality, and himself a refugee.

But on the other hand there is the desperation, the cold, freezing mud and rain and the uncertainty of the future. The camp epitomises all the worst aspects of the political spectrum: The horrors of war and the hypocrisy of western governments dropping bombs in the name of ‘saving innocents’ yet turning their backs on the same innocents when they come to us for help and safety. Racism and brutality of far-right groups and police, with attacks on the camp, using tear-gas and rubber bullets to intimidate and incite riots. And the injustice and inequality of abject poverty; people with absolutely nothing, through no fault of their own, unable to find food, shelter or work in the richest countries in the world.

A woman at the refugee centre told us “the UK and America are the first countries to jump into war to save Afghan people. But they are the ones who refuse to help us now. It is like we are not Afghan people any more. We have changed.”

On the way out of the camp I saw a tent door flapping open. Inside was an old, dirty mattress, with a teddy bear on it, lying in a few inches of water and soaking wet. Yet in the UK there are entire streets in central London uninhabited: second, third and fourth homes for the rich, lying empty every night.

What union branches need to do now is:

• raise awareness of the Calais camp at every level.
• Write to MPs & lobby surgeries
• keep collecting donations
• publicise the Stand Up to Racism protest outside Downing St on 22nd Feb at 6pm – “Don’t Bulldoze Calais Refugees” https://www.facebook.com/events/1962374183988146/
• build for a massive demonstration on 19th March

We must make it clear that refugees are welcome here; and demand that our government opens the borders and lets them in.

 

 

Day One at the Calais Camp

First day on the Calais camp and the news isn’t good. Half of the camp is being demolished in a week’s time by bulldozers. The refugees are being coerced into moving to containers but the trade-off is that they have to give finger and thumbprint identification. This will mean they are no longer allowed to apply for asylum in the UK as officially France would then be their first port of call. The containers do not have cooking space, water or washing space.

Part of the camp has already been bulldozed and a refugee from Sudan, who’s organising distribution of food and clothing, told us “we didn’t mind that time because we had more space. But now we don’t have space and they are taking away half the camp.” He said this time the refugees will not move, “we will stay here and we will die here”.

A woman from Afghanistan told us that the women and the children are being kept on a separate government-run camp half an hour’s walk away from the ‘jungle’. Many of the women have family in the UK that they are desperately trying to reach. But no-one is helping them or talking to them. One elderly Kurdish woman watched as her family were killed and has been crying in the camp every night since she arrived. But no-one speaks Kurdish so the other women cannot help her. They offer comfort but she needs support and the authorities are not doing anything to help anyone. She said “it was very hard to get here, we risked everything to come here but it is the opposite of what we imagined”.

There are lots of  volunteers coming and going on the site; building an extension to the youth centre, organising English classes, performing a play in the theatre tent, helping with distribution of donations. But no-one knows if the buildings will even still be here after next week.

I spoke to a 21 year old from Eritrea who has been here for six months. He speaks enough English to ask and answer basic questions. Another 15 year old warming himself by a woodburning stove in the youth centre has been here for four months. Both said they knew no English when they came and have learned all they know in the Jungle Books classroom since they came to camp.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to join the teachers already here and start some extra English classes. Our group has brought exercise books, pens and dictionaries. There’s a whiteboard and blackboard already set up in the makeshift classroom.

The message from the camp residents to us today was very clear – please tell the world to stop the bulldozers. So please pass it on.

Why we must support the junior doctors

Jeremy Hunt has picked a fight with junior doctors and is losing. The government have now even managed to upset the BMA and forced them to take strike action for the first time in 40 years.

The Tories’ quest is to run down the NHS by de-funding it and driving junior doctors away from the profession so that it cannot function. Thus making it ready for privatisation – to be sold off on the cheap to their friends in big business. But they have come up against a massive groundswell of public support. Solidarity has flooded in via social media, the press, packed picket lines and solidarity selfies taken at workplaces, conferences and meetings up and down the country. Student nurses against bursary cuts walked out in solidarity with striking junior doctors.

Last night Hunt announced the imposition of the new contract for junior doctors, which will force them to work longer hours for less pay and will make the NHS unsafe for patients.

This is a disgraceful attack not only on the doctors but on the general public who use the NHS.

We cannot allow the government to destroy our health service.

Furthermore, if they get away with this attack on the BMA then no trade union will be safe from now on.

All unions need to stand together in solidarity with the BMA, and protect the rights of all workers to defend themselves against unfair working conditions and exploitation.

UCU branches should do everything they can to make links with the junior doctors in the BMA. Invite them to speak at UCU meetings and organise delegations to any protests, meetings or picket lines.

Fair pay for Vice Chancellors and Principals…but what about us?

On the 24th February, UCU and Unison members in Further Education will be taking a day of strike action to defend their claim for an extra £1 an hour for all staff. Staff in FE have had a pay cut in real terms of 17%  and the average FE UCU member has lost around £5,950 as a result of pay not keeping up with inflation over the last five years.

In today’s TES Jeremy Corbyn tells the employers it is up to them to stop the strike and demands they get back round the table to offer a real pay offer.

https://www.tes.com/news/further-education/breaking-news/jeremy-corbyn-its-colleges-stop-strike-action

At the same time as our FE unions are being forced to take industrial action in pursuit of a fair pay claim, UCU yesterday published revealing figures about Vice Chancellors’ pay in the Report of senior pay and perks in UK Universities, as reported in the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/feb/11/average-uk-university-boss-vice-chancellor-salary-rises-272000 and the Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12151452/University-heads-pay-hits-average-of-272k-while-staff-salaries-remain-stagnant.html

And earlier this year this article in FE week reported a threefold increase in £200k-plus principal posts.

It is a scandal that Vice Chancellors of Universities and Principals of Further Education colleges have closed courses at their institutions, sold off buildings and made thousands of teachers and lecturers redundant over the last few years in the name of cost cutting and efficiency savings, claiming that their budget does not run to providing ESOL and other vital classes for the local community. But at the same time they are  hiking up their own salaries at phenomenal rates every year.

It is also scandalous that in Further Education, even when the AoC does agree on a pay rise for UCU members, the majority of principals leave the negotiating table, go back to their colleges and refuse to implement the rise they have just agreed to pay.

 

FE members can find out how much pay they have lost in recent years due to low settlements on UCU’s Rate for the Job tool.

HE members are also submitting a pay claim and are being asked to send a representative to these important pay briefings

Wed 17 Feb Birmingham
Thu 18 Feb London
Wed 24 Feb Glasgow
Thu 25 Feb Leeds

and to download and use the excellent campaign materials here

At  last week’s Cradle to Grave Conference, Sally Hunt said ‘winning the argument on pay is winning the argument on education’. Sally is right. Paying teachers, lecturers and support staff a fair wage, which at the very least matches the rate of inflation, is funding and valuing the work that these people do in our colleges and universities : teach and support students.

Please show your support for further and higher education, and value the people who work and teach there, by supporting the FE pay strike on 24th Feb and the HE pay campaign.

Because fair pay is for all, not just for vice chancellors and principals.

UCU Day of Action against Workplace Racism – today

On today’s UCU Day of Action against Workplace Racism, I interview Dave Muritu, Chair of the Black Members Standing Committee and Branch Secretary of Sandwell College:

Me : How did the idea for a day of action on workplace racism come about?

DAVE:

“Among the Black Members Standing Committee (BMSC) it was felt that race had fallen off the agenda within our institutions and, even to some extent, within the union. In the aftermath of the Macpherson/Stephen Lawrence report (1999) there seem to be a concerted effort to tackle what was widely acknowledged as institutional racism within public bodies and institutions and legislation was strengthened by means of the race relations amendment act (2000). Winding on 16 years and many of the lessons previously learned have been forgotten. The BMSC produced a survey that over 600 black members had returned that demonstrated incidents of racism were still prevalent in our institutions and many of the barriers to career progression were still very much in place.

The day of action is therefore the beginning of a process of raising awareness of workplace racism in its many forms and engaging the entire membership in a discussion of how we can effectively challenge it.”

 

Me : What does the Black Members’ Standing Committee hope to achieve with the day?

DAVE:

“I think the key aim for the day is to reinforce the fact that workplace racism can only effectively be tackled by the membership collectively. Too often black members are left to challenge racism individually by means of case work and as nearly all experienced reps will tell you proving a case of discrimination is very difficult. We need to be calling our managements’ out for practices and procedures that disadvantage black members. We would hope to give confidence to both black members and branch officers to raise incidents of racism in their local branches and associations and for the wider membership to feel empowered to support those affected.”
Me : What would you like branches to do for the day?

DAVE:

“We would like branches to do anything they can manage to mark the day and to begin an ongoing discussion of how we make permanent change. Branches could call a meeting to show the ‘Witness’ film produced by the union and use the worksheets provided to prompt debate. We would like to challenge members to think of ways we can maintain a focus on improving the lives of black educators in FE and HE. There will also be the summary of the BMSC survey available and we hope that officers could provide copies for members to take away. It would be great if we could also get feedback on the day in the form of solidarity pictures or suggestions for further events.”

 

Me : How do we explain to members who don’t understand the issues that there is still a problem of racial inequality?

DAVE:

“I think that the film and the survey report will go a long way to helping members understand that there is still a problem of racial inequality in colleges and universities.”

 

Me : What can UCU do to tackle racism in colleges and universities?

DAVE:

“I think UCU can help fight racism in our institutions by engaging with black members in a far more meaningful and understanding way. This means at national level placing equality at the centre of our work, framing industrial campaigns around the needs of all our members including those who face all the difficulties thrown at us by our managements as well as the isolation that discrimination brings. At local and regional level UCU should continue to develop black activists networks to help inform policy and practices from branch level upwards and to bring on more black officers at all levels of the organisation. Training is also key to the fight. I attended an excellent training event in London, at Carlow Street last November aimed purely at new black activists’ training which was over subscribed and is now being rolled out across the country. The next event will be held in Manchester on March 11th.

You can register here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/7990/Getting-involved-in-UCU—a-course-for-black-members-new-to-activism”

*** The new film, Witness, commissioned by UCU and initiated by the UCU Black Members’ Standing Committee, chronicles the experiences of the union’s black members and was featured in an article in the Guardian on .

Branches can support the Day of Action by organising a showing of the film this Wednesday lunchtime, using the link and Anti-Racism materials on UCU’s website

We’re going to Calais in half term..

In four days’ time, a group of 10 NUT teachers and 15 UCU teachers will be going to the refugee camp in Calais for half term.

Lambeth teachers have already been working to get essential supplies to the Calais camp. Now, with support from other local trade unions, a group of local teachers are giving up their half term to volunteer in Calais from 12 – 21 February. They will be teaching, helping to train teaching volunteers, running youth projects, workshops and volunteering in whatever way is useful.

They are liasing with teachers already working in the camp to take much-needed educational resources with them. Money raised will pay for text books, exercise, art materials books, pens, pencils and other equipment requested by the makeshift schools operating in the camps.

The children living in the ‘Jungle’ deserve an education. Let’s help to give them one!

Please support our trip by making donations here:

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/supporting-education-in-the-jungle

Follow Care for Calais on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/care4calais/?fref=ts

Come to the Refugees Welcome Here Public Meeting in Balham on Wednesday 10th Feb: