On 1 April, around five hundred students, lecturers and other further education (FE) college staff from across Wales protested and lobbied Welsh Assembly members over threatened redundancies and cuts to funding, pay and conditions.
Alec Thraves
The forecourt of the Welsh Assembly was packed, to listen to trade union reps and Assembly members supporting the demonstration. Assembly members from every political party, including the Tories and the ruling coalition of Plaid and Labour all expressed disgust at the Assembly’s several million pound shortfall for FEs in Wales. It begs the question: if everyone is against it then who is voting for these vicious cutbacks? FFORWM, the employers’ organisation for FE in Wales estimates 500 jobs could go.
Ronnie Job, Socialist Party Wales member and Unison rep at Gorseinon College was the main Unison speaker and received by far the biggest cheers for his demands for the end of incorporation – the colleges to be returned wholly to the public sector and a united militant fightback as the only way to reverse the cuts, and strike action against any compulsory redundancies!
These protests have put huge pressure on the Assembly government which must be followed through by industrial action if any Welsh college makes compulsory redundancies or tries to alter terms and conditions of staff.
