UCU - UPDATE

Defend Jobs Defend Education@ Chesterfield College UCU Newsletter

Congratulations to UCU members and our colleagues from the NASUWT who took resolute strike action yesterday. Once again we had a very good turn out on our picket lines with great support from students.

UCU and the NASUWT are due to take a further day's strike action tomorrow (Thursday) and UCU members are instructed to strike.

As with Tuesday's action, UCU members who have redundancy selection interviews on Thursday have dispensation to attend college for their interview only.

You will have seen the email from the principal entitled  Strategic Options Review of 14-19 provision. The contents and timing of the announcement raise a number of serious questions for staff at the college.

1. Why, when the college are planning to make teaching staff compulsorily redundant, are they planning yet another development which will require the purchase of property to house the provision ? 

UCU have consistently argued that the college have prioritised expanding and developing their property portfolio above the jobs of lecturers and other staff. This appears to be yet another example of this.

2. Why, if as Trevor Clay states, the new development will provide opportunities for delivering a range of education and training, are they still going ahead with plans to make the very people who could deliver that 

education and training redundant?

3. Why has this been kept a secret from staff? Last Wednesday, the day after this news had been initially revealed to a meeting of the  Local Schools Learning Partnership in Chesterfield, the principal had a Q& A session at which he gave a very full outline of the college's financial plans but failed to make any mention of this new development? Trevor Clay was keen at the meeting to "bust myths" about the college's plans, but was clearly less keen to tell staff about this "exciting opportunities".

4. Why, when UCU contacted the college on Monday to confirm the stories circulating around Chesterfield about the college's plans to build an academy, were we told that these were not true?

5. Why did the college only finally admit to these plans late yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) after UCU had released a press statement ( see below) noting our concerns.

We were promised openness and transparency from the college. What we have got instead is an attempt to keep this news undercover until the college has pushed through its redundancy plans. The news that we now have gives added strength to the unions' arguments about the compulsory redundancies at the college.

Representatives of the UCU and the NASUWT will be meeting with the college again this afternoon and we will raise in the strongest terms our concerns and press the college to withdraw the threat of compulsory redundancies.