After three years of being the Branch Secretary at CCB, I have decided it is time for me to step down and let someone else have a go. It's been a fantastic time for the Branch - the membership has trebled and there has been real progress on a number of issues. The biggest of these has been the fight for the rights of sessional staff at the College. This week we will be finalising the new College policy for sessional staff and from now on should see a real and meaningful improvement in the working lives of these employees at CCB.
In the next few weeks there will be a branch meeting to elect a new branch secretary and reorganise the roles of other reps. There will be opportunities for several new people to take on roles (with pay / remission), so if you're interested, please contact me. It will also be a good time to re-think the structure of the branch and make sure that you are getting what you want. It is so important for members to have a say in this - the branch is only what you make it.
I'll be around in an advisory capacity to help out with the new reps and ensure a smooth handover, so I'm not just running out on you. I definitely think we should mark the handover with a night out, though, and celebrate our successes. I'll let you know when a date has been set for the branch meeting.
Take care,
Alison
Summer 2009
Quite a lot going on, as you can imagine. It is very difficult to tell the extent to which FE Colleges are using people's fears of global recession to slip in changes that they wouldn't otherwise be getting away with. To put it in perspective, there are teaching redundancies in about 50 of the 380 FE colleges in the UK. Redundancies at City College Brighton and Hove have taken place amongst support staff, and it is quite possible that the planned reviews for curriculum areas will result in redundancies for teaching staff. We can expect the next five years to be a squeeze, and as a union we need to challenge any indication of an insidious erosion of pay and conditions.
At branch level, this is already happening. So far we have seen:
UCU welcomes 10,000 extra university places but criticises bursary u-turn
UCU has welcomed the announcement by that there will be an extra 10,000 student places at universities but has warned that that just cramming more students into universities while getting rid of staff would result in more trying to be delivered for less, with a damaging impact on the quality of UK higher education. The union was also deeply critical of the Office For Fair Access (OFFA) for reneging on a promise that the poorest students would have their full university tuition fees covered by a government grant and a bursary from their institution. The union said the move let down the poorest students and set a worrying precedent. In 2010-11 the maximum fee will be £3,290, leaving a shortfall of £384 for the poorest students entitled to a maximum loan of £2,906. With a new minimum bursary of just £329, the students will need to find £55 of the shortfall themselves. For more on the extra university places click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4099
For more on the bursary u-turn, click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4102
The Guardian’s coverage can be read here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jul/23/bursaries-leave-poorer-students-shortfall
March and rally at the Labour Party Conference – 27 September
As previously reported the NEC has agreed to hold a march and rally as part of our defend jobs, defend education campaign at the Labour Party Conference on Sunday 27 September. Posters for the lobby can be downloaded here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3787
UCU is in contact with other unions about the rally, and so far PCS, NUT and NUJ have agreed to support a general march and rally for public sector jobs. In response to queries, the national union will fund a coach from each regional committee area that requires one to a value up to £400. Regional Committee secretaries are encouraged to liaise with local officers of PCS, NUJ and NUT where appropriate about sharing local publicity, sharing transport and contributing to transport costs. As usual with events of this nature please sign off any expenditure on the booking of coaches with Matt at mwaddup@ucu.org.uk before committing the union.
UCU condemns London Met for ‘cruel joke’ on staff
UCU has slammed London Metropolitan University (LMU) for using the same discredited student completion records that plunged the institution into crisis as a way of selecting staff for redundancy. The union has learned that management is being told to use student completion rates as one of the criteria to decide which staff will face the axe. UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “The situation at London Met seems to be going from bad to worse. Management shouldn’t be looking to get rid of staff who have the highest number of students dropping out. The university has learnt nothing from its previous mistakes.”: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4105
Tower Hamlets College – sign the petition to reverse the cuts
The campaign to save ESOL and outreach jobs and provision at Tower Hamlets college has received further support with the launch of an online petition on the No.10 website. WHAT YOU CAN DO: You can add your name to the petition by clicking here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/THCollegefunding/
Sign the petition to stop cuts at Leeds University
A reminder to members to sign the union’s petition against job cuts at Leeds. Let’s raise the pressure on the management ahead of the emergency JNC on July 27th. WHAT YOU CAN DO: If you haven’t done so already please sign the petition now: www.ucu.org.uk/leedsjobcuts
Unions call for help to save jobs at National Grid
The GMB, UNITE and UNISON unions are asking trade union members around Britain to help their fight to save 189 jobs in the North East of England at National Grid’s Newcastle office. National Grid are threatening to close their Newcastle operation and offshore the work to low wage economies such as India. This comes despite National Grid making a massive profit of nearly £3billion, a 12% rise from the previous year, and being able to find thousands of pounds to pay for a Senior Executive to park his Ferrari in a dehumidified garage. WHAT YOU CAN DO: You can support this campaign by signing an online petition here: www.nationalgreed.co.uk
Alison Kelly ak@ccb.ac.uk
UCU Branch Secretary
City College Brighton and Hove
Quite a lot going on, as you can imagine. It is very difficult to tell the extent to which FE Colleges are using people's fears of global recession to slip in changes that they wouldn't otherwise be getting away with. To put it in perspective, there are teaching redundancies in about 50 of the 380 FE colleges in the UK. Redundancies at City College Brighton and Hove have taken place amongst support staff, and it is quite possible that the planned reviews for curriculum areas will result in redundancies for teaching staff. We can expect the next five years to be a squeeze, and as a union we need to challenge any indication of an insidious erosion of pay and conditions.
At branch level, this is already happening. So far we have seen:
- redundancies for support staff
- reduction in work and pay for many sessional staff
- an increase in annual teaching hours from 828 to 864 for non-sessional staff
- a removal / reduction in hours allocated for course co-ordination
- lecturing posts being replaced by assessor's posts
While some people have seen their hours and pay reduced, others are being asked to do a lot more in less time. More and more people are joining the union every week, and although we welcome the new members with open arms, it is perhaps indicative of people's fears for their jobs. We are currently representing and supporting about 30 members of staff regarding their own individual circumstances, and continue to receive new queries. The situation for sessional staff is particularly dire and has resulted in a relatively large number of complaints about their work for 2009/10. We are working hard to negotiate a new Sessional policy at the College - please click on the link to our Sessional page for further information.
UCU is campaigning alongside other unions such as Unison to fight the cuts in FE. If we fail to challenge the changes, they could result in a downgrading of Further Education that will long out-live the global economic crisis.
At a national level, UCU are working hard on many issues including:
- Beleaguered Manchester College hit by Strike action in Buckinghamshire
- UCU slams cuts in university teaching funding
- UCU welcomes 10,000 extra university places but criticises bursary u-turn
- March and rally at the Labour Party Conference – 27 September
- UCU condemns London Met for ‘cruel joke’ on staff
- Tower Hamlets College – sign the petition to reverse the cuts
- Sign the petition to stop cuts at Leeds University
- Unions call for help to save jobs at National Grid
Beleaguered Manchester College hit by strike action in Buckinghamshire
Teaching staff at the Oakhill Secure Training centre near Milton Keynes (who are employed by Manchester College) walked out on Tuesday over allegations of bullying and harassment. Manchester College took over the contract for teaching at the centre in August 2008 and now only a third (13) of the original staff team of 34 are still in post less than a year later. UCU members had no option but to take industrial action over the failure to deal with serious allegations of bullying and harassment. To read more, click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4098
UCU slams cuts in university teaching funding
The University and College Union (UCU) today (Friday) slammed the decision by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to reduce funding for university teaching by £65 million. The union said that the new efficiency savings would do irreparable damage to quality and provision in the country. The £65 million cut is the first part of government plans to make a £180 million pounds worth of "efficiency savings" from higher education by 2010-2011. UCU today warned that the £65m will equate to the loss of a further 1,500 full time lecturing and support staff just days after the union revealed university staffing cuts affecting 100,000 students. A report by UCU this month shows that nearly 6,000 job cuts are being threatened across higher and further education sector which would affect provision for over 100,000 students:
UCU welcomes 10,000 extra university places but criticises bursary u-turn
UCU has welcomed the announcement by that there will be an extra 10,000 student places at universities but has warned that that just cramming more students into universities while getting rid of staff would result in more trying to be delivered for less, with a damaging impact on the quality of UK higher education. The union was also deeply critical of the Office For Fair Access (OFFA) for reneging on a promise that the poorest students would have their full university tuition fees covered by a government grant and a bursary from their institution. The union said the move let down the poorest students and set a worrying precedent. In 2010-11 the maximum fee will be £3,290, leaving a shortfall of £384 for the poorest students entitled to a maximum loan of £2,906. With a new minimum bursary of just £329, the students will need to find £55 of the shortfall themselves. For more on the extra university places click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4099
For more on the bursary u-turn, click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4102
The Guardian’s coverage can be read here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jul/23/bursaries-leave-poorer-students-shortfall
March and rally at the Labour Party Conference – 27 September
As previously reported the NEC has agreed to hold a march and rally as part of our defend jobs, defend education campaign at the Labour Party Conference on Sunday 27 September. Posters for the lobby can be downloaded here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3787
UCU is in contact with other unions about the rally, and so far PCS, NUT and NUJ have agreed to support a general march and rally for public sector jobs. In response to queries, the national union will fund a coach from each regional committee area that requires one to a value up to £400. Regional Committee secretaries are encouraged to liaise with local officers of PCS, NUJ and NUT where appropriate about sharing local publicity, sharing transport and contributing to transport costs. As usual with events of this nature please sign off any expenditure on the booking of coaches with Matt at mwaddup@ucu.org.uk before committing the union.
UCU condemns London Met for ‘cruel joke’ on staff
UCU has slammed London Metropolitan University (LMU) for using the same discredited student completion records that plunged the institution into crisis as a way of selecting staff for redundancy. The union has learned that management is being told to use student completion rates as one of the criteria to decide which staff will face the axe. UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “The situation at London Met seems to be going from bad to worse. Management shouldn’t be looking to get rid of staff who have the highest number of students dropping out. The university has learnt nothing from its previous mistakes.”: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4105
Tower Hamlets College – sign the petition to reverse the cuts
The campaign to save ESOL and outreach jobs and provision at Tower Hamlets college has received further support with the launch of an online petition on the No.10 website. WHAT YOU CAN DO: You can add your name to the petition by clicking here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/THCollegefunding/
Sign the petition to stop cuts at Leeds University
A reminder to members to sign the union’s petition against job cuts at Leeds. Let’s raise the pressure on the management ahead of the emergency JNC on July 27th. WHAT YOU CAN DO: If you haven’t done so already please sign the petition now: www.ucu.org.uk/leedsjobcuts
Unions call for help to save jobs at National Grid
The GMB, UNITE and UNISON unions are asking trade union members around Britain to help their fight to save 189 jobs in the North East of England at National Grid’s Newcastle office. National Grid are threatening to close their Newcastle operation and offshore the work to low wage economies such as India. This comes despite National Grid making a massive profit of nearly £3billion, a 12% rise from the previous year, and being able to find thousands of pounds to pay for a Senior Executive to park his Ferrari in a dehumidified garage. WHAT YOU CAN DO: You can support this campaign by signing an online petition here: www.nationalgreed.co.uk
.
Alison Kelly ak@ccb.ac.uk
UCU Branch Secretary
City College Brighton and Hove
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)