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UCU NEC
FE NEWSLETTER – FEC report 4/3/08 |
Campaign launched- build for the
biggest YES vote in your college
A year ago this week
London Region UCU launched the Manifesto for Further Education at CIC.
It was also the week that elected the first NEC and General Secretary
to the new union. A year on last night 100 activists representing 13
colleges across London turned up at Westminster to launch the joint campaign,
Our
Schools, Our Colleges, Our Communities.
The campaign to
secure a 6% pay rise or £1,500, depending which is greater, including a
catch-up element from last year’s pay cut as well as meaningful national
negotiations over work load is now well under way.
The meeting
heard speakers call for FE members and schoolteachers to stand united in
pursuit not just of their pay claims but also of the need to defend education
against the encroachment of the market, creeping privatisation and a narrow
view of education as providing skills for businesses. UCU President
Linda Newman chaired a panel of speakers including Jeremy Corbyn MP, Kevin
Courtney and Hank Roberts from the NUT Executive, Beth Walker, Vice President for further education at NUS, Barry Lovejoy and Sean Vernell
from UCU. The evening
was rounded off by an inspiring speech from Joe Baden, the ex-offender who
now runs Open Book, a project for helping former offenders into further and
higher education. Joe reminded everyone exactly why education is so
important: ‘Education
is the greatest vehicle there is for social change, it enabled me to become
the person I should have been in the first place and on behalf of
everyone who’s now got a life instead of an existence, I want to thank you’. Ballot
timetable: Despite being requested by the AoC to
put in an early claim for 2008/9, the AoC have informed us that they will not
meet us until May. This is their usual tactic of waiting to make an offer
right at the end of the academic year, one month before it is meant to be in
our pay packets, making it impossible for us to campaign against the offer
until we get back off from our holidays – unless we take strike action in
August!
There is no reason why the AoC cannot
make an early offer. This is why we gave them a deadline of 5th March
to make a meaningful response to our claim, and if they do not then we have
notified all employers that we will be balloting our
members for industrial action from the 14th March.
We have heard nothing more from the AOC
so we will be balloting from this date. The ballot will run longer than
usual, for 4 weeks, because of the unusual way that the Easter break falls
this year. It is important that all branches work out a strategy of
ensuring a YES vote on a maximum turnout to send a clear message to
the government and employers of our intent as well as giving our national
negotiators real leverage when they go into negotiations with the employers.
24th April - unity day.
The date we
have pencilled in to take a one-day strike if the ballot returns a yes vote
will be on the 24th April. This is also the day that the NUT
has pencilled in their first day of strike action if their members vote to
take action. The FEC will
strive to ensure the maximum possible unity of action both within UCU and
with other unions within the Our Schools Our colleges Our communities
campaign. Recruitment day
The national recruitment week got off
with a great start yesterday with over a dozen colleges across
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