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Website URL : http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3636
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IOU - no more teaching on the cheap
A significant number of English FE colleges are still not paying the recommended pay to teaching staff because they haven't implemented the revised pay scales agreed in 2004 which reduced the pay gap between FE staff and schoolteachers. LATEST
 More progress in the IOU campaign as strike action bites
UCU members at five FE colleges took strike action on 29 September as part of the latest phase of the IOU campaign. Pickets were out in a well-attended strike day at Doncaster College (see report below), Greenwich College, Leeds College of Art and Design (see report here), Rotherham College and Suffolk New College. In the days leading up to the strike, action was called off at Askham Bryan college when management agreed to open up talks to implement the 2004 pay deal. UCU is also very hopeful that talks will begin shortly at Leeds College of Art and Design and Suffolk New College.
The message? Determined action and active campaigning works.
The final bit of good news was the confirmation later in the week that there has been an agreement to implement the 2004 pay deal by Hugh Baird College in Merseyside and accordingly the college will be removed from the campaign. Congratulations to everyone on a good week for the campaign.
Strikes win press profile
The strikes won lots of press profile, being picked up at national level by the BBC and the Morning Star. You can read these pieces here:
Pay row prompts lecturers' strike, BBC
Lecturers to strike over long-delayed pay deals, Morning Star
There was lots of regional coverage too.
Read about Doncaster's strike action here
And Greenwich College's action here
In addition, Jean Nial, branch secretary at Suffolk New College was interviewed on BBC Look East, BBC Radio Suffolk and ITV East Anglia. Tom Donaldson, UCU branch chair at Rotherham College, was interviewed on ITV Calender, Rother FM and BBC Radio Sheffield. Richard Miles and Christian Lloyd, UCU branch officers at Leeds College of Art and Design were interviewed on BBC Radio Leeds, Radio Aire and ITV Calender. And Hazel Raven, UCU branch chair at Doncaster College appeared on BBC Radio Sheffield, Trax FM and ITV Calendar
Campaign blogsites set up
Leeds College of Art and Design and Dearne Valley College UCU branches have both set up campaign blogsites to promote their campaigns for pay justice. You can view these here:
Leeds College of Art and Design UCU
Dearne Valley College UCU
Action suspended at Askham Bryan as talks begin
Some more good news for the IOU campaign as the pressure on managers at Askham Bryan College tells. Following an 11th hour meeting with management on 25 September, the branch were able to confirm to us that management had agreed to a schedule of meetings over the Autumn term with a commitment to resolving the current dispute. The first two meetings have already been scheduled during October with ACAS facilitating. Consequently, the branch have agreed the suspend strike action.
However, with earlier talks having broken down, the branch remain committed to the campaign and will be showing solidarity with their colleagues in the other IOU colleges by making 29 September a day of action on the campus, leafleting and collecting signatures for their branch petition.
IOU colleges prepare for winter term action
UCU representatives at the eight colleges still fighting for the implementation of a pay deal which most colleges received five years ago will be meeting this week to plan the next stages of the campaign. Further strike action will be discussed with the end of the month the most likely time. Members at the College of North West London were out on strike on 25 and 26 August and have voted in favour of more action in the next few weeks.
The remaining IOU colleges are now: College of North West London; Croydon College; Dearne Valley College; Doncaster College; Greenwich Community College; Leeds College of Art and Design; Rotherham College of Arts and Technology; and Suffolk New College.
Five colleges prepare to take action
UCU members at the Doncaster College, Greenwich College, Leeds College of Art and Design, Rotherham College and Suffolk New College will be taking action on 29 September. Please show your support by sending delegates from your branches to their picket lines. As the action at Tower Hamletsshows, every bit of support can help.
You can see the materials for the IOU strike here:
 All you need to know about the IOU campaign (.pdf) [594kb]
Support the strike. No more teaching on the cheap - strike day leaflet (.pdf) [645kb]
Defend education - no more teaching on the cheap - poster (.pdf) [478kb]
FE day of action in support of the IOU strikers
This is not a local campaign – it is about the union's ability to make national agreements stick and that makes it an issue for all of us. These members need your support. The recent FE sector conference agreed to call for a day of solidarity action to support the FE colleges taking strike action. We are asking branches to organise lunchtime protests and take collections to show support for these members. You can download leaflets and posters, with details of how you can support the action via: www.ucu.org.uk/defendeducation Please see below for details about how you can support your colleagues.
 About this dispute
UCU has been asking those colleges to bring their pay into line with others and pay the agreed rates for four years. Initially seventeen colleges were identified as target institutions for UCU, though more have been included subsequently. At these colleges, we ask once again for the new pay scales to be implemented. Where the college still refuses, we will ballot for industrial action to get members what they are owed. The union says that failure to implement the 2004 agreement ranks as one of the longest 'IOU's from management to staff in the history of industrial relations. The agreement provides comparable pay structures for FE teaching staff to those in place for schoolteachers.
This is a vital campaign. UCU members in these colleges have waited four years for the deal agreed with the national employers to be implemented. 'IOU' colleges taking strike action Four colleges originally targeted for action committed to enter negotiations before the ballot and any action took place, and haven't faced industrial action. The colleges then initially balloted were Nelson and Colne, Croydon, Greenwich, North West London, Dearne Valley, Doncaster, Rotherham, Evesham, Sandwell, Sussex Downs, Askham Bryan. Since the ballot, two of these colleges entered talks: at Nelson and Colne College and Evesham College, agreements have been reached in principle and further talks will now talk place between the union and the colleges to discuss the finer details. Ahead of the two planned strike days in March 2009, action was suspended at Sandwell and Sussex Downs colleges following agreement to talk about implementing the 2004 agreement. Subsequently, Canterbury and Peterborough colleges, which were to be targetted for action, themselves entered talks as a result of the campaign. Three new colleges were then targeted: Leeds College of Art and Design, City College Birmingham and Suffolk New College. In September, just before more planned strike action, management at Askham Bryan College agreed to a schedule of meetings over the Autumn term with a commitment to resolving the current dispute. An agreement reached in September 2009 to implement the 2004 pay deal by Hugh Baird College in Merseyside meant the college was removed from the campaign before any member action was taken. This means the following colleges are currently facing action: - College of North West London
- Croydon College
- Dearne Valley College
- Doncaster College
- Greenwich Community College
- Leeds College of Art and Design
- Rotherham College of Arts and Technology
- Suffolk New College
with the threat of action looming at: This is a vital campaign. Our members in these colleges have waited four years for the deal agreed with the national employers to be implemented. They will be followed by further waves of targeted colleges until the union is satisfied that members are benefiting from the agreement we negotiated four years ago.
Campaign in actionReport from Doncaster - 29 September 2009 On the first day of our two-day Annual Monitoring Visit by OFSTED; the UCU official pickets gathered at the main entrances to both the Hub and the High Melton sites. A peaceful picket was held between 7am and 10 am during which hundreds of signatures were gathered in support of the IOU campaign and against further cuts to jobs and education. This was encouraging on a day when hundreds of staff and students had stayed at home! Press coverage included Calendar (local TV news) pictures of marching banner, pickets and an interview with the Branch Chair who was allowed to make a couple of good points. Earlier, The Toby Foster show (BBC local radio) – dipped in and out hearing from our Membership, the Branch Secretary and the Branch Chair. On line there was an article on the BBC news website including comments from Sally Hunt and the Branch Chair. All fair, positive coverage! Thanks to all members, the fair minded press, the community and the team - local and national.
Forward together people! Four further colleges take action: 24 March Members at four of the target IOU colleges delivered two more days of strike action as they escalated their campaigns for pay justice. Members were out in force at College of North-West London, Dearne Valley, Doncaster and Rotherham Colleges. The days' activity included picketing and even an 'Alternative Open Day' at College of North-West London, during which strikers held a day of alternative classes offering the opportunity to 'build a computer in 10 minutes' as well as providing masterclasses in plumbing and how to be a success in enterprise: Pickets out in force again as IOU colleges hit by more strike action IOU branches press their claim for pay justice in Day of Action Wednesday 11 March saw several of the IOU branches taking further demonstrative action, pressing their managers to pay them the money they have been owed for four years. 
Members at Sussex Downs CollegeAt Sussex Downs College, staff and students were forbidden from holding a recruitment stall by rattled managers, but wouldn't be intimidated from holding their protest and sending a clear message that they will not go away until the 8 point pay spine is properly implemented.- At Doncaster and Dearne Valley colleges in South Yorkshire meetings were held and lunchtime recruitment activity took place on both campuses.
- At the College of North-West London, there was high profile recruitment activity and meetings held on all three campus sites. A mass of union freebies were given away and several new members were recruited.
Members at Askham Bryan College - Askham Bryan College held a demonstration to keep the pressure on their management, who agreed to 11th hour talks that kept them out of the last day's strike action. But members made clear that they – and their woolly friends – expect management to deliver.
Colleges on strike 5 February 2009 Activists tell London rally of 'best picket lines ever' 
Members at the strike rally in LondonAround 50 UCU activists gathered at UCU's Britannia Street Conference Centre following the morning's picket duty at Croydon, Greenwich and College of North-west London. UCU president Sasha Callaghan congratulated everyone who had been on the picket lines for their endurance of what she described as the coldest picket lines she'd ever stood on, while national head of FE Barry Lovejoy and NEC member Sean Vernell both emphasised how disgraceful it was that members had to take strike action four years after a national deal had been struck. Both stressed how far the campaign had come, pointing out that 17 colleges had initially been targeted of whom nine had now agreed to implement the pay deal.
Chris Fabby, UNISON national official for further education pledged not just solidarity but active support from Unison members across FE, while activists from all three London colleges sent messages of solidarity to the other colleges taking action today and stressed that members were prepared to continue the action until acceptable settlements were won:
Please support your colleagues Thanks to everyone who sent messages of support and solidarity. Please make contact with your local branches to encourage them and ask how you can help them build for their strike: - Doncaster College: contact Rodney Challis
Dearne Valley College: contact Joan Bland
Rotherham College: contact Chloe Stothard - Donate to the fighting fund: it's always tough to lose a day's pay, so please, show your support by downloading our pledge sheet and using the details to donate or taking it round your colleagues to collect money for striking members: Strike fund donation form (.pdf) [37kb]
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