Suzanne Muna, UCU member in FE in Bristol
Years of real-terms pay cuts, declining staff numbers, and constantly increasing workloads have forced UCU members in 26 further education colleges to take industrial action this week.
Action in Bristol followed the college’s most well-attended union meeting ever. Members expressed deep anger at their treatment, noting a 35% real-terms pay cut over the last decade.
Sharply rising inflation makes such a loss unsustainable. It was no surprise that members resoundingly rejected the pay offer of just 2.5% and opted to strike with a 93.6% ‘yes’ vote.
On the picket line, teachers described constant anxiety over finances, and the toll this is taking on their mental health, as well as the declining quality of life that lost income causes.
A UCU survey recently reported that 70% of its members were considering leaving the profession.
This action is therefore about more than just money. It is about a profession teaching vital life skills, often to young people but also to adults, being undervalued and starved out, while bankers’ bonuses are uncapped. There is plenty of money around. The task for our unions is to make sure it is directed where it is most socially useful.
- The National Shop Stewards Network pre-TUC congress Action Summit on Sunday 16 October in Brighton – a hybrid event – couldn’t be at a more important time. Socialist Party members will be there alongside other workers, strikers and young people, to keep the pressure up on the TUC to act. All strike together! If the Tories attempt to implement their new anti-trade union plans, they should be met with a 24-hour general strike.
We say:
- All strike together for a real pay rise! The Trades Union Congress (TUC) must step up and organise to coordinate action
- If the Tories try to implement their new anti-trade union plans, they must be met with a 24-hour general strike
- The TUC should launch an appeal to build a massive strike fund to assist those unions on the front line
- Kick out the Tories
- Starmer’s New Labour doesn’t speak for us: fight for a new working-class party
- Nationalise rail, mail, energy and utilities under democratic working-class control and management, with compensation only on the basis of proven need Take the wealth off the super-rich. For a socialist alternative to capitalism’s poverty and crisis
