England FE Pay Offer

Branches are being asked to convene meetings before 16 September to discuss whether members wish to accept the 1.5% pay offer for 2009/10, or reject and ballot for national strike action. The FE Sector Conference on 19 September will then decide the unions position.


Full details of the conference including venue, delegation entitlements and registration have now been sent to branches as a formal circular which can be downloaded at http://www.ucu.org.uk/circ/html/UCU196.html

Just another cog in the wheel

Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning (CALL)

Latest CALL bulletin out now : fighting cuts in Lifelong Learning

The latest bulletin from the Campaigning Alliance for Lifelong Learning (CALL) is now available online here http://www.callcampaign.org.uk/?cat=16. CALL was founded by a coalition of organisations including UCU, to campaign for lifelong learning opportunities for all, and to fight the cuts in Adult Learning that have seen two million learners’ places lost since 2005.

The bulletin contains all the latest information on how you can support CALL and how UCU members are fighting cuts at institutions like Tower Hamlets college where half of all ESOL, literacy and numeracy courses offered are under threat. You can also find out if your member of parliament is one of the 185 MPs that have signed the early day motion on lifelong learning and what to do if they haven’t!

Support the fight for jobs at Leeds University

Members are asked to support Leeds University UCU’s campaign against 100 job cuts in the schools of Biological Sciences and Healthcare. The branch is building the campaign into a coordinated fightback against cuts in the region, holding a meeting recently attended by speakers from Leeds Metropolitan, which is also cutting jobs, Bradford College and Leeds College of Art and Design.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
Please sign the petition against cuts at Leeds at: www.ucu.org.uk/leedsjobcuts

And you can download the local newsletter with more information on job cuts at Leeds at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ucu/200809/June09.pdf

UCU slams call for tuition fees rise

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, responded to an article in the Guardian from Simon Jenkins that called for a rise in a tuition fees and greater university privatisation. Hunt described the proposal as ‘yet another slap in the face for people who believe in a free and inclusive education sector’. She went on to say that ‘increasing fees or the other financial barriers that so many students and parents come up against when considering university is certainly not the way to deliver a world-class university system.’ Read Simon Jenkins’ article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/11/university-funding-fees-mandelson. To read Sally’s response, click here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jun/15/letters-universities-tuition-fees

FE funding – Sign the online petition

A reminder to members to sign the joint union’s online petition against cuts to FE and adult education funding. As we run up to the next general election it is vital that we raise the profile of the crucial role that further and adult education play in our communities and the national economy. Now is not the time to be putting the infrastructure of FE, both human and capital, at risk with funding cuts.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: SIGN NOW – Let’s send a clear message to all parties that education is vital for our economy and our communities. Click here to sign: http://www.ucu.org.uk/nofundingcuts

FE ‘IOU’: Strike at Askham Bryan College as management torpedo pay talks

Angry members at Askham Bryan College were left with no choice but to take strike action this Tuesday as talks to implement the 2004 pay agreement at the Agricultural college broke down when management introduced a longer pay scale and a series of barriers to progression. Members at the college are particularly furious as management narrowly avoided strike action earlier this year with an 11th hour commitment to implement the improved pay scales. Now, their manoeuvres have forced members into strike action and the college is firmly back in the union's sights. For more on this story and pictures from the picket lines, click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/iou. For the press release and local coverage, click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3943 and here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/8102483.stm

Leeds College of Art Strike press coverage

ITV Calander News



BBC Look North
Apologies for the poor sound quality

Strike Press coverage

Press coverage of our Strike has been excellent. There have been radio interviews with Richard Miles (Branch Secretary) on BBC Radio Leeds and Radio Aire; TV coverage on BBC Look North & an interview with Christian Lloyd (Branch Chair) on Yorkshire ITV's Calendar; web coverage through the BBC online and Indymedia, and press releases and photos going to the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Evening Post. In addition to this visitor numbers to this blog continue to increase.

Staff strike at Leeds College of Art and Design in pay row

Leeds College of Art and Design was brought to a standstill today in a row over its failure to honour a pay deal agreed over four years ago. Classes were cancelled as the college is being targeted for action by members of the University and College Union (UCU).

In 2003/4, a two-year national agreement was drawn up that heralded pay parity for college lecturers with schoolteachers. Thousands of further education lecturers had been unable to reach the higher pay levels enjoyed by schoolteachers, 50% of whom get extra allowances worth between £2,364 and £11,557 per annum on top of their basic earnings. The deal introduced shorter new scales that provided higher salaries for new lecturers and faster progression to the top points. The union has described the failure by colleges still to honour the deal as one of the longest IOUs from management to staff in the history of industrial relations.

Picket lines were held outside the college’s two main sites on Blenheim Walk and Vernon Street from 8am. Support was also shown by UCU members from Barnsley College, Leeds University, Bradford College, Thomas Danby & Leeds College of Technology supporting their colleagues.

Richard Miles, who teaches at the college and is a UCU member, said: “We regret having to taken this action, but we think it’s unfair that our pay is being kept down. It’s only fair that we are paid the same as staff at other colleges and we call upon the college to implement the 2004 deal. The college is already experiencing a high turnover of staff because of the pay and conditions offered by management, and we can’t afford to lose any more of our best people.”

UCU head of further education, Barry Lovejoy, said: “It’s a real shame that things have come to this. The staff are not greedy; they are merely asking for the money they should have been paid four years ago. It is the intransigence of the college that has pushed members' patience too far and forced them into industrial action. Members at Leeds are getting second-class pay for first-class teaching.”