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STRIKE FOR PAY, STRIKE

FOR FURTHER EDUCATION

odays strike by UCU members at

FE colleges in England is the right
response to the insulting behaviour
of the employers, the Association of
Colleges (AoC).
Our claim of 1 an hour extra for all
FE staff is just and progressive. UCU
members should be proud that our union
is challenging the Tory pay freeze.
The AoC has effectively cut our pay by
an average of 19 percent since 2009 and
our workloads and stress have increased
dramatically.
FE has lost thousands of jobs in
that period yet it is staff who are the
real assets, not the glossy buildings and
endless efficiency restructures.
If we dont block Tory plans to
drastically cut the number of FE colleges
in their FE Review, thousands more jobs
will go and genuine further education
could virtually disappear.
We know that the whole sector is
under threat. Thats why over recent
months weve seen a wave of protests
and lobbies to defend Adult Education/
ESOL.
Todays strikes and rallies are the next
step in the battle to defend FE.

Corbyn

We are fighting back against a backdrop

of a new mood of optimism. Jeremy
Corbyns victory as Labour Party leader
has lifted every activist. Its great to see
the shadow chancellor John McDonnell
speaking at the UCU strike rally in
London today.
But as good as the change in the
Labour leadership is there are still four
long years until the general election. We
cant wait that long to fight!
The potential for building a mass antiausterity movement is growing.
Weve seen huge mobilisations on
the streets with hundreds of thousands
joining the Peoples Assembly protest
back in June and the TUC demo in
Manchester at the Tory Party conference.

Unite the Resistance conference

Fight austerity,
defend our
unions
Saturday 14 November, 11am-5pm
@ Bloomsbury Baptist Church, 235
Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H
Speakers include:
John McDonnell MP
shadow chancellor
Natalie Bennett
Green Party leader
Candy Udwin
PCS National Gallery
striker
Ian Hodson
BFAWU national
president

Fast Food strikers

from the US
Keith Ewing Institute
of Employment
Rights president
John Hendy
employment rights
barrister
Paula Peters DPAC
All speakers in a
personal capacity

Tens of thousands of junior doctors

have also been marching against attacks
on unsocial hours payments and are now
balloting to strike.
While we are striking today steel
workers are marching in Scunthorpe
against job losses.
Today is also the date of the third
reading of the Tories anti-union Trade
Union Bill in parliament. The bill seeks
to further erode our right to strike and
organise.
Alongside attacks on the right to
picket, allowing the use of agency workers

to break strikes and attacking the unions

funding of political parties, the new ballot
thresholds seek to make national strikes
all but impossible to organise.
We saw last week the best way to deal
with the anti-union laws.

Victories

At SOAS University in London,

Unison and UCU members walked out
unofficially to win the reinstatement of
union activist Sandy Nicoll they won!
Nobody went to jail and no union funds
were sequestrated.
Weve seen other victories for our side.
PCS members at the National Gallery
in London recently won their dispute
after an all-out strike that also achieved
the reinstatement of their union rep
Candy Udwin.
Just like at Lambeth College last year,
both the SOAS and National Gallery
disputes received overwhelming support
and solidarity from across the movement.
If the AoC dont move on pay, the
UCU leadership needs to organise more
campaigning and more action to press
home our case. We need an imaginative
campaign that really puts the employers
under pressure.
We also need to look for every
opportunity to link up with other workers.
In the end we need co-ordinated action
across the public sector to break the pay
freeze and halt austerity.

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FE strike 09/11/15