Unions join forces to get a better deal for education staff
4 March 2008
UCU's campaign for a better deal for FE staff has received a major boost after the National Union of Teachers agreed to join forces as part of a wider campaign for all education staff.
Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, said: 'I am delighted that NUT has joined us in a joint campaign to defend education and promote a better deal for staff. Our joint statement shows that there is a positive alternative to the current agenda of pay cuts, privatisation and attacks on the right to learn and together we are determined to make sure the voices of professional educators are heard loud and clear by those who make in power.'
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The campaign was officially launched at a rally in Westminster last night. Almost 100 activists turned out to hear speakers call for FE members and schoolteachers to stand united in pursuit not just of their pay claims, and also of the need to defend education against the encroachment of the market, creeping privatisation and a narrow view of education as providing skills for businesses.
UCU president Linda Newman chaired a panel of speakers, including Jeremy Corbyn MP, who said that: 'this campaign is going places' and had his full support. NUT executive members Kevin Courtney and Hank Roberts pledged to work with UCU in opposing pay freezes and privatisation in education. NUS vice-president for further education, Beth Walker, implored UCU branches to make contact with college student unions so they could work together to defend education.
Barry Lovejoy, UCU head of further education, and Sean Vernell, UCU executive committee member, both focused on the need to ensure that UCU members turn out in large numbers in the forthcoming pay ballot.
The launch rally was rounded off by Joe Baden, an ex-offender who runs Open Book, a project for helping former offenders into further and higher education. Joe, a good friend of UCU, thanked members for their work and reminded everyone exactly why education is so important. He told the rally that: 'education is the greatest vehicle there is for social change, it enabled me to become the person I should have been in the first place and on behalf of everyone who's now got a life instead of an existence, I want to thank you'.
.
The campaign was officially launched at a rally in Westminster last night. Almost 100 activists turned out to hear speakers call for FE members and schoolteachers to stand united in pursuit not just of their pay claims, and also of the need to defend education against the encroachment of the market, creeping privatisation and a narrow view of education as providing skills for businesses.UCU president Linda Newman chaired a panel of speakers, including Jeremy Corbyn MP, who said that: 'this campaign is going places' and had his full support. NUT executive members Kevin Courtney and Hank Roberts pledged to work with UCU in opposing pay freezes and privatisation in education. NUS vice-president for further education, Beth Walker, implored UCU branches to make contact with college student unions so they could work together to defend education.
Barry Lovejoy, UCU head of further education, and Sean Vernell, UCU executive committee member, both focused on the need to ensure that UCU members turn out in large numbers in the forthcoming pay ballot.The launch rally was rounded off by Joe Baden, an ex-offender who runs Open Book, a project for helping former offenders into further and higher education. Joe, a good friend of UCU, thanked members for their work and reminded everyone exactly why education is so important. He told the rally that: 'education is the greatest vehicle there is for social change, it enabled me to become the person I should have been in the first place and on behalf of everyone who's now got a life instead of an existence, I want to thank you'.
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