FE BRANCH OFFICERS UPDATE #28 Issued on Thursday 4th February 2016
Topics: UCU & UNISON Joint Strike : Wednesday 24th February
Contact: Andrew Harden, Head of Further Education
UCU & UNISON Joint Strike 24 February
UCU and UNISON Further Education branches in England will take joint strike action over pay for the first time in over a decade on 24 February. UCU is in dispute with college employers because they failed to agree our pay claim of £1 extra per hour.
A special meeting of UCU’s Further Education Committee in December voted in favour of proposing coordinating action with UNISON at a National Joint Forum (NJF) Trade Union Side meeting to be held in January. UCU’s proposal was accepted and it was agreed at the January meeting that should UNISON’s ballot result be in favour of taking action, then UCU and UNISON would seek to take action on the same day during the week after the February half term.
Formal notification of the strike action will arrive in colleges on Tuesday 9 February and materials to support the strike will arrive in branches in the first half of next week. Branches are encouraged to hold joint branch meetings with UNISON next week in support of the action, to discuss arrangements for pickets etc and in support of the TUC’s www.heartunions.org campaign and in opposition to the Trade Union Bill.
A joint UCU/UNISON rally will be held in London on the strike day with speakers invited from the shadow cabinet, sister unions, NUS and other sector organisations. Venue and further details will follow in an FE News as soon as they are finalised. Branches outside of London are encouraged to organise and attend regional rallies as appropriate.
Michael MacNeil
National head of bargaining and negotiations
