From Helen Kelsall

Further Education is overlooked, undervalued and sitting right at the back of the classroom when it comes to discussing the sad state of our education systems. Tired of the lack of acknowledgement, workload pile-on and sickeningly low pay, FE members are pushing back, organising, galvanising and, for the first time in a long time, understanding and recognising their worth. This has never been more apparent than in the achievement, increase in membership and confidence branches and reps have shown over the last year.

Local Bargaining, Coordinated Action

In 2022, the Respect FE campaign – which called for professional respect and improvements in pay and conditions, saw a significant number of FE branches take coordinated action across England. This was the most successful GTVO in UCU FE history. Many of the branches across England smashed anti- trade union laws by building membership and member engagement and running successful GTVO campaigns, notably Norwich City college amongst others. These successes have largely been down to local and regional branches, forming groups and planning collective and coordinated action together with the autonomy to negotiate on part two claims while retaining hard fought for branch autonomy. This is coordinated local bargaining and action at its very best.

How does National Bargaining work in FE?

It doesn’t. The AoC (Association of Colleges) is the ‘national voice’ for FE. However, the AoC is powerless. They can recommend a pay rise but that’s where the buck – so to speak – stops. In fact, when many of the colleges were offering/imposing insulting 2% pay ‘increases’, the AoC came back with an equally insulting recommendation of 2.5%. Colleges often ignore the recommendations. Some colleges are not even members of the AoC.

Therefore, the question is: during this national strike who would we be negotiating with? We go out on strike, the AoC concedes the brilliance of our argument and then what? UCU has no organisation/government body/pay recommendation board to negotiate with!

The AoC agrees with the joint unions on many of the issues and in their most recent statement they have said:

• The AoC want us to have a significant pay rise
• “College leaders are clear that they want to improve pay”
  • “The union claim for over 15% is not at all unreasonable”
• The AoC is willing to discuss national bargaining.

2023/24 Pay Claim -To Aggregate or Not to Aggregate?

We currently have over 240 branches across England who are members of the AoC.

Many branches are building to secure acceptable pay and conditions and workload agreements. We know branches are motivated, we know branches are inspired, but how do we harness this?

We are now at the point where we are making considerable progress. We are building and we are gaining in strength. We must not lose all these hard-fought gains by jumping too soon. It took NEU ten years to build for an aggregate ballot but we’re not at that point yet. And let’s not forget, all colleges have individual budgets. Some colleges are more financially stable than others which means some colleges are in a better position to negotiate and agree pay rises. Others are not. An aggregate ballot is calling for a pay increase of RPI (13.4%) + 2% on all pay points: 15.4% (January RPI plus 2%). All eligible colleges will be calling for this increase in an aggregated ballot regardless of the individual colleges’ financial position. What are the pros and cons of an aggregated vs a disaggregated ballot?

Aggregated Ballot

Pros

• The mood of the country is with us – if not now when?
• This would support the other unions who are fighting,
• Members are engaging in the best numbers we have seen we must act on this now.

Cons

• There is no opt out option,
• No negotiating locally with the employer,
• Many branches are not strong enough yet,
• No branch autonomy,
• No individual deals,
• If we get less than 50% on a national ballot all action would be scuppered.

Disaggregated Ballot

Pros

• Disaggregated coordinated action would allow for colleges to react to their individual circumstances – as happened with the Respect FE Campaign – thereby, allowing branches to continue to build,
• Where it is appropriate,  branches are ready to take this action,
• In branches negotiating with their employers (individual colleges), branch reps have a clear vision of outcomes acceptable to their members,  
• The key power brokers are not at the negotiating table,
• Colleges with better pay and T&Cs drag up pay in their local area.

Cons

• We are wasting time: the mood of the membership is with us.
• We have waited too long to act: why wait while pay differentials dimmish even further?

Entirely my Opinion

The idea of an aggregated ballot seems very appealing – all in it together, one union fighting together – easy rhetoric. When we look at other unions i.e. NEU, UNISON, RMT, CWU, many of us would love to join in to support and fight against this iniquitous government. These strikes didn’t just happen, though. The NEU spent years working towards this action, grafting, building, securing their base. Many colleges aren’t there yet. If we jump too soon, we may lose as much as we win.

I just can’t get past the idea that if you go on strike, you must have a clear route to victory, an idea of what success would look like.  Which brings me back to who are we negotiating with? We would have a national strike against a vacuum. We’d pull in the favours, harness the emotion, stand on the picket lines and then what? We have a rousing emotional rally and then go where? We sit round the table and bang out the details with who? The AoC? The AoC is powerless – that’s what we are in this mess!

Bottom line: if I am going to encourage my members to go out on strike and sacrifice money they don’t have, I want to be clear about what victory would look like, what could they win? Who would we negotiate with to secure this victory? Who has the power to pay us more and are these power brokers around the negotiating table? No one has answered these questions… 

Who am I

Helen Kelsall, Chair Trafford College Group UCU, UCU NEC

I have worked in FE for over 25 years and have been a member of UCU all that time. I have been active in the branch for 15 years and this will be my third term on UCU NEC. I believe in grafting trade unionism, building from the bottom up with small victories, leading to bigger victories.  I do not see the UCU as vanguard to the glorious revolution. I want my members to get more pay and have better working conditions – simples!

Voting Intentions  –  Congress 2023

I’m not going to tell you how to vote. I’m not going to mention every motion at FEC. You’re grown ups: you can listen to the debate. In relation to the details of the pay dispute these are my voting intentions. Read, follow, ignore, consider, bin them – it’s up to you and the members you represent.

This being the case, my voting intentions for the FEC are as follows:

• FE2                        AGAINST
• FE2A.1                  AGAINST
• FEA.2                    AGAINST
• FE2A.3                  AGAINST
• FE3A.1                  AGAINST