UCU Chesterfield College Branch Briefing

UCU Chesterfield College Branch Briefing

 Proposals on Pay cuts and pay caps.

 Emergency UCU Chesterfield College Branch Meeting:

 This Thursday 24^th May from 4pm in the Recital Room (North Block);

 Agenda: 

1) Report Chesterfield College’s proposals on pay

2 ) Decision on Strike action for Tuesday 29^th may

 UCU has today given the college seven days formal notice of our intention to take strike action on Tuesday 29^th May over their proposals to introduce a cap on the lecturers salary spine at point 32 and cut the pay of hourly paid lecturers.

Despite having been in negotiations for a number of weeks we have not been able to reach agreement on these issues. A negotiating meeting due to take place last Wednesday was postponed by the college management. The College have said that they will come back to us with alternative proposals but they have not done so as yet. We will meet again with the college this Wednesday ( 23^rd) in the afternoon.

You will recall that UCU members voted in a ballot by 88% to take strike action on jobs and pay proposals, and that a very well attended branch on on Tuesday 8 May meeting voted overwhelmingly ( 1 vote against) to mandate your branch officers to call “escalating strike action” should the college not withdraw their proposal to cap and cut pay.

Q&A:

 Are UCU being unreasonable in challenging management’s plans to cut and cap pay?

Not at all. We have laid out our response in a UCU position paper which we circulated last week and attach again. We believe that Chesterfield College have already saved far more than they anticipated through the VR exercise. Despite the budget projections Chesterfield College remains one of the most healthy FE colleges in the country financially with very significant cash reserves. The college have chosen to spend £3 million pounds on a new entrance to the Infirmary Road site - this should not be paid for by squeezing the pay of lecturers even further.

Why don’t we wait until we hear the college’s proposals on Wednesday before giving 7 days notice of strike action?

Under employment law we have to give 7 days notice if we plan to take strike action and we have to take action within 28 days of receiving our ballot result. If we don’t take action within 28 days the ballot ceases to be legal- in simple terms you have to “Use It or Lose It”. The 28 day rule means that the last day we could take action would be the last Friday of the half term- not a very effective day to take strike action. If we waited until after we had met management on Wednesday then the only option we would have had if they insisted that they still intended on cutting and capping pay, would have been to take action on Thursday 31^st , which is an Assessment Board day (with no teaching) , or on Friday 1^st June.

Does giving 7 days notice of intention to strike on Tuesday 29^th mean that the union has to carry out the strike?

No. If after hearing the management proposals on Wednesday, your negotiators feel that we could reach an agreement with the college, then UCU could agree to settle our dispute, and there would be no strike action. This is why we have called an Emergency UCU Branch Meeting on Thursday of this week so that all UCU members will have an opportunity to decide what course of action the branch should take.

I’ve already taken strike action in May. Will taking strike action again on May 29^th mean that I lose two days pay out of my May salary?

It’s our understanding that if we did take strike action on May 29^th the day’s loss for full time and fractional staff , would be deducted from your June salary. Obviously taking strike action is a strong commitment and we are only contemplating action because we believe that the current management proposals are completely unnecessary and hit teaching staff particularly hard.

UCU Members Briefing

College proposal on pay caps and cuts:

As we have reported back in previous briefings, the unions have been meeting with the college management to discuss their proposals to introduce a cap at point 32 of the salary scale and cut the rate of pay for hourly paid lecturers by 20%.

In our last briefing we reported that having met on 9^th May, the college management had told us that they would meet again with us on 16^th May to put forward new proposals. Unfortunately the meeting that was due to take place on May 16^th has been put back 1 week to 23^rd May. This is regrettable, as we had been told on May 9^th that the college was seeking a speedy conclusion to the outstanding issues. At present therefore we still have on the table the college’s original plans to cut and cap pay.

UCU also committed that we would produce a written response to management’s proposals. This has now been submitted to the college and a copy is attached. We believe that our response demonstrates that there is no coherent case for the college to now go ahead with their proposals on pay for lecturers.

Planning for possible action:

UCU members voted by a margin of 87.8% for strike action over the college’s proposals. Our very strong ballot result was followed up by a very well attended UCU branch meeting where members voted overwhelmingly ( with 1 vote against) to mandate your branch officers to call escalating strike action. Under law we need to take that action within 28 days of the closure of our ballot, or our ballot will no longer be valid. We also need to give 7 days notice of any strike action arising from the ballot that we held.

Since we have not yet had any firm proposals from the college management that shows that they are prepared to remove the threat to the pay of lecturing staff, we will need to submit our notice for strike action very shortly. Your UCU branch officers will be working closely with the UCU regional and national officials over the next few days to discuss possible forms and timings of strike action, should it be necessary.

Thank You

Many thanks to all UCU members who supported your union’s strike call in such large numbers at Chesterfield College. Reports from around the college indicate that the strike was very well supported. UCU had well attended picket lines at both Clowne and at the main site and in particular the Sheffield Road gates had a large and lively contingent who report excellent levels of support form the public. Those UCU members who came out to support their union by joining the picket lines deserve particular thanks.

Strength In Unity

Solidarity and good luck to all involved in May 10th National Day Of Action .

May 10th

"Thursday's national strike in defence of pensions by up to 500,000 public sector workers across PCS, UCU, UNITE Health, NIPSA, plus some RMT members, will send another message to the Government - already reeling from their election defeats - that trade unionists are not going to accept paying more, to work longer, and to get less when we eventually do get to retire.

Like many other NUT Associations, Lewisham NUT's members' meeting unanimously agreed to send solidarity - including a £100 donation to each of the three strike funds - to local colleagues in UNITE, PCS and UCU and are calling on our members to visit local picket lines on the way to work. Teachers are not on strike tomorrow but some, including myself, will join the demonstration outside St.Thomas' Hospital at 12.00 and march over the river to the strike rally in Westminster.
Teachers will also be holding their own picket of the Department of Education after work at 5.30 pm in Great Smith Street, Westminster to protest against the first wage cuts owing to increased pension contributions imposed last month. It's also part of the joint-union "68 is too late" campaign http://www.68istoolate.org.uk/

The solid action taken by London NUT members on March 28 encouraged strikers to take action on May 10. In turn, the PCS/UNITE/UCU action will encourage NUT members to take further action ourselves.
We know that the message that striking colleagues on May 10 really want to hear is that the NUT will be joining them in the next action, as we step up our united fight to oppose pensions robbery. The NUT Executive will be meeting during the strike, in the afternoon of on May 10. I, alongside others, will again be calling for the NUT to declare that it will be taking further national strike action in June.

Together, we can - and must - defeat both this Government's outrageous robbery of pensions and the cuts and privatisation of the services that we know our young people and communities so desperately need.

Martin Powell-Davies
Member of the NUT Executive

What you should do on the strike day.

All UCU members called out to join National Day of Pensions Action on Thursday May 10th.

• Join The Strike- don’t come into work, or work at home on the strike day.
• Join UCU on the picket lines. There will be UCU picket lines at College sites from 7.30 am. Please contact one of the branch officers Paula Alsop, Allister Mactaggart, James Eaden or Sam Parker to volunteer.

Branch Meeting

Over 80 staff attended a branch meeting today to deliver a unanimously carried mandate of support to UCU branch officials. Calling for ‘appropriate and escalating action’ if college is not prepared to withdraw their current proposals on pay cuts and a pay cap.

Branch officers delivered a clear message to management regarding the outrageous and untrue allegations of ‘union scare tactics ’ that have been directed at UCU officers going about their legitimate and lawful duties.

It was reiterated by Anne O’Sullivan UCU regional officer that it is the college's intention to serve a Section 188 notice to all staff, which would give 90 days notice, after which they could terminate current contracts of employment and reemploy on new contracts incorporating the colleges proposed salary regime. 

UCU Branch Meeting

Please make every effort to attend the very important UCU branch meeting today,  May 8^th at 4pm in the Recital Room. The meeting will be attended by Anne O’Sullivan, UCU’s East Midlands Further Education regional official.

Solidarity to all UCU Chesterfield members

Excellent May Day rally in Chesterfield today, good to see so many colleagues taking the time to show their support .

Solidarity to all UCU Chesterfield College members.

Chesterfield TUC Parade - Local - Derbyshire Times

Chesterfield TUC Parade - Local - Derbyshire Times

May Day March

Monday 7^th May 2012.

Join UCU members and other trade unionists at Chesterfield’s May Day March.  Assemble Chesterfield Town Hall: 10.30 A . M

UCU members vote 87.7% YES for strike action over redundancies and pay cuts.

UCU members vote 87.7% YES for strike action over redundancies and pay cuts.

In the wake of this overwhelming result, your UCU negotiators will again request that the college formally withdraw their proposals to introduce compulsory redundancies and to cap & cut the salaries of staff at the college.

Please make every effort to attend the very important UCU branch meeting this coming Tuesday May 8^th at 4pm in the Recital Room. The meeting will be attended by Anne O’Sullivan, UCU’s East Midlands Further Education regional official.

Many thanks for the continuing support that UCU members at the college have given to your negotiators.

Have a great bank holiday weekend, and for anyone who is in the Chesterfield area on Monday, you might want to join UCU members and other trade unionists at Chesterfield’s May Day March.

UCU held a mass meeting at Salford University

UCU held a mass meeting at Salford University in protest at the threatened redundancies - management has just added another 70 to the 144 already under threat.  There are widespread rumours of oursourcing to private companies-. The turnout to the meeting was so big that a new room had to be sought, and outside a spontaneous demonstration cut the traffic on the A6. Passing cars hooted their support.

The branch has put a series of demands to management and now has a mandate to ballot for strike action if there is no response.

These job losses are about privatisation and providing education on the cheap. What we need is a national strategy over job losses which doesn't leave individual institutions to fight alone, and which allows us to fight for jobs and education.

Pura Ariza

UCU NW RegionalSecretary

Visit : UCU Branch Development Organiser Joe Rooney

Thank you to all staff for making UCU Branch Development Organiser Joe Rooney welcome in your staff rooms today.