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!"
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In The Socialist 2 April 2005:
No PFI or hospital closures in Bristol!
General election - main parties offer no solutions
Asylum and immigration - what we're thinking
Judge backs false imprisonment of May Day protesters
Kyrgyzstan and the ‘Tulip revolution’
Delegates vote to keep up pressure over pensions
Pensions: postal workers must show solidarity
Fighting cuts at the Housing Corporation
College lecturers fight for pay deal
UNISON National Executive Council elections
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