College lecturers fight for pay deal


ON 15 and 16 March, college lecturers and members of the NATFHE
union, took strike action. They were fighting to secure the
implementation of the national two-year pay deal, which some further
education colleges are refusing to pay.

IN SHEFFIELD the chair of the Joint College Union Co-ordinating
Committee Clive Hartley said: "It’s a long-running serial called
‘the college that can pay but won’t pay!’"

Branch secretary, Jenny Prideaux, explained that the management had
praised the staff for turning the college round over the last four years
but were refusing to agree a timetable to implement the deal to ‘close
the gap’ with schoolteachers’ pay.

"You can’t spend praise at the shops" quipped Clive.
"No wonder they can’t recruit young lecturers. The Association of
Colleges has admitted that 96% of them have unfilled vacancies, up from
87% last year."

Socialist Party members visited picket lines on both days at Castle
and Norton colleges, selling seven copies of the socialist. The
lecturers realised that more strike action would be necessary but are
determined. "We won’t take no for an answer!"