Standing together and standing strong
UCU members from Gateshead College branch are facing pay cuts of up to 25% as senior management seek to tear up the existing conditions of service and impose new ones. The cuts come just months after a Freedom of Information request reveals the levels of pay of senior managment. For more details, go to http://tinyurl.com/gheaducu3
The branch decided that it would use the opportunity of a College Open Event to make their pointhttp://www.gateshead.ac.uk/events/open-events/full-time-course-open-event-april/. They gathered with leaflets and placards and spoke to the public to explain about the dispute. Alan Reynolds, one of the UCU representatives at Gateshead College says:
“We have spoken to the public coming in to the open evening and alerted them to what is going on. They are quite shocked when they hear about the proposals to cut pay by a quarter. The support from staff, students and the public has been very good – and we are sure that this will continue.”
Around 40 staff and students came to the protest, designed to coincide with the advice event. UCU members wore rosettes both inside whilst giving advice and outside whilst handing out leaflets about the dispute.The dispute has already been covered in the media http://tinyurl.com/gheaducu1 and it is clear that this is just the start of things to come.
Commenting on the good support, Alan Reynolds says
“Members of the public were all too willing to lend support to the lecturers saying that the cut in pay and demands for extra work were hardly credible.”
