further education: the fight for pay
WORKERS, MARCH 2003 ISSUE
LAST November lecturers and support staff at colleges all over the country joined forces and took industrial action in the form of a strike. The strike affected over 250 further education colleges, catering between them for nearly 4 million students.
The action was to protest against a 2.3% pay offer nationally which was among the lowest in the public sector and does nothing to bridge the pay gap between colleges and schools staff.
The pay claim for 2002/03 has still not been agreed. But negotiations are continuing and progress has been made.
Further industrial action has been suspended pending the outcome of these discussions.
Bolton Community College staff took part in the action. The employers at the college offered 2% stating that they could not afford to meet the national offer. The action was well supported locally by UNISON and NATFHE members.
Behind the national picture lies years of struggle to preserve terms and conditions in colleges. For example, Bolton Community College staff took strike action on 5 November 1999.
Three years ago to the day UNISON members took action to get rid of the senior management team. This followed years of members being lied to about the financial state of the college as well as an erosion of terms, conditions and staff morale.
UNISON stewards, who were requesting information from the management team, were continually put under pressure from management and threatened with redundancy on more than one occasion.
The action in 1999 saw UNISON members picketing outside the college from 8 am until 8 pm. Posters with the faces of the senior management team were on show outside the college as well as a Guy Fawkes effigy of the principal.
The action was successful in that UNISON stewards were informed on the 8 November 1999 that the principal of the college had resigned (on grounds of ill-health) and a temporary principal was to take over.
The major task of the temporary principal was to draw up a three-year plan for financial recovery in order to keep the college open.
The financial state of the college is still precarious and those working at the college are still struggling to maintain decent conditions of service.