Duncan Moore, UCU NEC member, FE UK-elected, personal capacity
The Further Education Committee (FEC) of the University and College Union (UCU) convened for a short, special meeting on 11 September and agreed to proceed with a national ballot of FE members on an aggregated basis for a 10% pay rise, institutional backing for collective pay bargaining, and action on workload. This will be the first aggregate ballot of England FE members in UCU’s history.
At the FE conference this May, members voted for the South Devon College motion, moved by myself, for aggregated industrial action. Socialist Party members defended this decision at the last FEC meeting when attempts were made to postpone a ballot indefinitely (See ‘Socialists safeguard UCU members’ call to fight in further education’).
Burnham claims he has put strengthening vocational and technical training at the top of his agenda, saying: “From today, Britain will value the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap”.
However, the FE lecturers who teach these subjects have seen their pay fall by 40% in real terms since 2010. We have no national contracts, allowing colleges to compete in a race to the bottom on pay and conditions.
This year the Association of Colleges (which brings together the employers) is yet to make a pay recommendation, and due to the lack of national bargaining, any recommendation it does make will not be binding on college principals. The pay disparity between FE lecturers and our counterparts in schools now averages £10,000 per year, leading to massive recruitment and retention issues. If they don’t value the teachers, how can they value the students?
Socialist Party members in UCU have been at the forefront of pushing for a strategy of an aggregate (all-member) ballot this autumn. UCU members want a national fight.
Due to last year’s ballot being disaggregated (ie counted branch by branch), although the national turnout was above the 50% Tory threshold (disgracefully still in place), just 32 of the 70 branches gained a strike mandate. Due to college settlements, in the end just 17 branches came out on strike.
Truly national fightback
Now, with an aggregated ballot, many more UCU branches could come out in a truly national campaign, potentially joining other education workers in the NEU and civil servants in the PCS, putting pressure on Labour to deliver the funding we need.
FEC agreed a five-week ballot to conclude before the end of the Autumn term. Socialist Party FEC members argued, and other lefts agreed, that the committee secretary’s proposal for a four-week ballot window was not long enough.
FEC also approved the grounds of the dispute, and Socialist Party members argued for these to be strengthened. Members don’t take strike action lightly, and they will be more confident to vote ‘yes’ if they know that their action has a clear objective that can begin to solve their problems.
This year’s pay claim was based on the union’s ‘New deal for FE’ demands: a 10% rise and steps towards pay parity with school teachers within three years; national workload agreements, and binding fully funded national bargaining.
Following the FEC, all of these will be part of the dispute following an amendment to include workload. However, as the dispute, despite the aggregation of voting, is still with individual employers, there was a disagreement on the FEC about how to fight for national objectives.
National demands
Since the pay demands are only achievable with a significant increase in government funding, Socialist Party members argued (alone on the FEC) that a demand for funding from the Labour government should be a core part of the dispute. We have a new prime minister – we should demand he reopens the issue of funding.
This point was opposed strongly by the union officials and by other members of the FEC, including other lefts, due to the legal advice UCU sought out. This asserts that FE staff can only have a dispute with individual employers, who don’t control the funding.
Socialist Party member Marco Tesei challenged the legal advice, pointing to the legislation that makes action against the Secretary of State possible.
When it was clear we would not win this at the FEC, I asked the officials to consider how we raise the question of funding in our campaign material, up to and during the ballot. Socialist Party members on the FEC will continue to argue for leveraging all possibilities to ensure successful national action.
In our view, the union could also have gone further on what it is demanding on national pay bargaining, going beyond simply asking employers to make public statements of support.
Nevertheless, UCU FE members now have an opportunity to collectively send a powerful message to college bosses and the government by delivering a resounding ‘yes’ vote.
Clear leadership will be needed to keep branches together, when local employers will be trying to settle local inadequate pay deals. If branches are settling local negotiations, they should add a written caveat stipulating that they will re-open negotiations on pay for 2026-27 once the additional FE funding is confirmed. We should strike together to fight for the government to concede more funding. We cannot let the Labour government off the hook!
