|
|
UPDATE: A further report just in:
In Liverpool the United for Education day was the occasion for a historic display of unity between unions in five of the City’s further and higher education institutions. Over one hundred members of UCU, Unite, and UNISON attended a lunchtime rally in the John Foster building at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), having travelled from different parts of the City. Protesters came from five different institutions: LJMU, Liverpool Community College, Hope University, the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA). The rally heard from speakers representing staff at all of these institutions as well as from speakers from the NUS. The LIPA UCU representative spoke about how union recognition was achieved by the newest local branch in the country, having won it only in the last three months. Speeches naturally varied according to the details of the local stories told. The overriding message though was clear: ‘we need to fight together by supporting each others’ rallies, campaigns and picket lines. By standing together we can resist the attacks we know are on the horizon’.
-
Report in from fantastic rally in Liverpool:
UNISON and UCU members and students joined forces yesterday during their lunch time to Conga for Education, with George Osborne masks, vuvuzelas, air horns, balloons, whistles and bubbles. The protest was colourful and noisy, and was focussed on celebrating education and the benefits that Hugh Baird brings to an area of high unemployment and few opportunities. To cut back on the education and training that people need now more than ever during a recession is completely illogical. Hugh Baird has already seen cuts of £734,000 to its budget, mainly in adult places, meaning a reduction in courses and staff redundancies. Further cuts from the current coalition government can only mean more cuts and further redundancies – and even fewer places and opportunities for students and the local community.
Fantastic slideshow of images from the day’s action at the University of Leeds from Nick Efford.
The City College Birmingham demonstration and march through the city coincided with a day of UCU strike action at the college. Members of staff unions were joined by students and the Grim Reaper representing cuts in further education.
BBC Midlands Today carried a news report on events at City College Birmingham.
(starts around 6:14)
Continue reading City College Birmingham makes the BBC news
Newcastle University trade unions collected signatures , held stalls around campus and were joined by the fantastic ‘No Cuts’ steel band!
You can find more photos on Facebook.
 Photo: Dave Beale
North Warwickshire and Hinckley College held a Handshake Walk on the day of action:
“Organised jointly by UCU and UNISON at the college, we were pleased to invite colleagues and learners to support us. We were particularly gratified by the support of passers-by, who clearly understood the importance of education and training to kick-start the economy.”
Julia Wallis, secretary, UCU at North Warwickshire and Hinckley College
Continue reading College handshakes in Nuneaton
College union campaign over course closures
College union UCU is continuing its campaign to stop cuts which will mean about 1,500 learners in the county will have no course to attend next year. Worcester College of Technology is cutting £1.4 million from its budget because of a funding shortfall directed by the previous government. About 30 jobs have been axed at the college, a number of which are compulsory redundancies.
College lecturers took to the streets on Monday to gain signatures for a petition organised by Worcester Trades Union Council to deplore the cuts. Their action mirrored that of colleagues in Birmingham and Wolverhampton who staged a one day strike. The cuts at the college will hit a range of courses, particularly for adults. Classes for people who wish to train for the construction and catering trades have been particularly badly affected. Also hit have been ESOL classes which help people whose first language is not English to improve their skills and to settle more easily in the country.
Lecturers’ leader Bryn Griffiths said “It is ironic that the new Coalition Government has been making warm noises about colleges of further education and vocational training. If they do not do something very quickly there will be nobody left to do the teaching”.
Post on events at Cardiff University from stlemur.blogspot.com:
Seven unions, one message: fight the cuts!
Education institutions across Britain took part in a multi-union Day of Action on the 21st, with lecturers and support staff rallying together in anticipation of savage ConDem cuts and education bosses’ callous “economizing”. UCU, Unite, Unison, GMB, EIS, ATL and students’ union NUS all signed on to the campaign.
As a member of my UCU branch, I organised events at Cardiff University. The weather was favorable and turnout was as expected, with about 15 members each from UCU, Unite and Unison in attendance along with some students. Under the theme “take your full lunch hour”, in protest against the hours of unpaid work educators are implicitly expected to do, speakers from the trade unions as well as Youth Fight For Jobs discussed the necessity of fighting the cuts, demanding the terms and conditions we’re guaranteed by law, and bringing unions together under the banner of a political alternative to Labour-Lib Dem-Tory-Plaid hack-and-slash economics.
At the climax of the event, the assembled trade unionists were presented with dessert, a cake with a pound sign on it — a “pound cake” representing all the wages paid by the university. Onlookers reacted in shock as the first slice, representing Vice Chancellor David Grant’s £240,000-a-year salary, was cut out and thrown in the bin. Slices representing the £10 million paid out to the university’s 80 top administrators, while lecturers and support staff face effective pay cuts, followed, leaving the onlookers to divide up the remaining crumbs among themselves. (Luckily a second cake had been prepared beforehand to make sure there was enough for everyone!)
Camera crews from the BBC, ITV and Welsh-language channel S4/C were all present — but true to form, university bosses denied the media access to the grounds, meaning they had to film us over a hedge!
UCU and Unite are both planning to ballot against pay cuts and for a decent pay offer, and enthusiasm among those two unions was highest. All the unions present planned to appear at the rally against cuts at the Welsh Assembly on the 22nd. Putting the icing on the cake (as it were), incoming Cardiff University Students’ Union president Olly Birrell, currently unaffiliated, promised to join a trade union as soon as he takes office in August.
Report from Barking and Dagenham College:
“Our two hour action went off quite well. We had about 80 staff from UCU, GMB and Unison taking part altogether and we collected several hundred signatures from staff and students.”
|
|
