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| Striking FE lecturers who worry about abandoning their students | Striking FE lecturers who worry about abandoning their students |
| (3 days later) | |
| I don't think I've ever seen a more conflicted strike action in my life. | I don't think I've ever seen a more conflicted strike action in my life. |
| I've interviewed primary schoolteachers, who are – I'm sure they'll take this the right way – a bit too square to really relish industrial action, and only this morning I spoke to some picketing firefighters who so completely identify with their jobs that they can't talk about pensions without looking round for a hose. | I've interviewed primary schoolteachers, who are – I'm sure they'll take this the right way – a bit too square to really relish industrial action, and only this morning I spoke to some picketing firefighters who so completely identify with their jobs that they can't talk about pensions without looking round for a hose. |
| But outside Lambeth College's Clapham site, members of the union UCU have voted (by 89% on a 72% turnout) for an indefinite strike. (I should say for transparency that I have a relative who works at the college, but they're not on strike, because they're not part of the union – long story.) I asked David Tandy, 43, what the hardest thing about it was. "I teach some of the most vulnerable students in the country. They've got learning difficulties; society doesn't treat them very well. College is their life. Some of them probably don't fully understand. They may be feeling that I've just abandoned them." | |
| "I do hope," said one teacher from the art department, "that there's a supply teacher in there who's got the experience to do it right – even though that defeats the object of what we're doing out here." They're holding seminars on the patch of scrubby green outside the doors. They did the rise of racism in Europe last night, and on Thursday had a mock Croatia v mock Brazil football match. "What you're looking at here," said a cheeky, young teacher who wished to remain anonymous, "is task-based learning". | "I do hope," said one teacher from the art department, "that there's a supply teacher in there who's got the experience to do it right – even though that defeats the object of what we're doing out here." They're holding seminars on the patch of scrubby green outside the doors. They did the rise of racism in Europe last night, and on Thursday had a mock Croatia v mock Brazil football match. "What you're looking at here," said a cheeky, young teacher who wished to remain anonymous, "is task-based learning". |
| Further education is, as one teacher put it, "what happens to other people's children". Not quite children – 14-year-olds can study here, but it's mainly young adults, over 17 – who are increasingly nudged towards service industry jobs. Simon Clarke, a teacher at the college, says "It's all about narrow vocational courses. So you can learn how to do a chocolate facial but you can't do an A-level." | Further education is, as one teacher put it, "what happens to other people's children". Not quite children – 14-year-olds can study here, but it's mainly young adults, over 17 – who are increasingly nudged towards service industry jobs. Simon Clarke, a teacher at the college, says "It's all about narrow vocational courses. So you can learn how to do a chocolate facial but you can't do an A-level." |
| At the same time, funding is scarce – English for speakers of other languages has a waiting list of 3,000. The money comes down convoluted routes: an adult ESOL student might be funded by the job centre, but it wants everything done in a 10-week course, funding people only to the level of entry 2. "What that's basically saying is, 'We don't care what your qualifications from anywhere else are. We only want you to be a cleaner.'" | At the same time, funding is scarce – English for speakers of other languages has a waiting list of 3,000. The money comes down convoluted routes: an adult ESOL student might be funded by the job centre, but it wants everything done in a 10-week course, funding people only to the level of entry 2. "What that's basically saying is, 'We don't care what your qualifications from anywhere else are. We only want you to be a cleaner.'" |
| Teachers at Lambeth College have had their pay frozen for five years. The principal, Mark Silverman, is on £149,000. The teachers' pay scale is pretty complicated and, according to the college, the top of it is £40k. It is widely accepted that, in common with everyone in the sector, they do many more hours than they're paid for – it's the unspoken payoff in education, that they get long holidays because they work so many hours in term-time that in effect they are doing compressed weeks. | Teachers at Lambeth College have had their pay frozen for five years. The principal, Mark Silverman, is on £149,000. The teachers' pay scale is pretty complicated and, according to the college, the top of it is £40k. It is widely accepted that, in common with everyone in the sector, they do many more hours than they're paid for – it's the unspoken payoff in education, that they get long holidays because they work so many hours in term-time that in effect they are doing compressed weeks. |
| But none of that is what the strike is actually about. | But none of that is what the strike is actually about. |
| Outside, this gnawing anxiety about the students gives the strikers the air of people who think they've left the gas on. Inside, the principal and management are adamant that the industrial action demonstrates complete carelessness. Underneath it is the issue itself, which is the part of a strike at which, typically, everybody turns off because it's very dry and contains many differences over apparently small percentage points. | Outside, this gnawing anxiety about the students gives the strikers the air of people who think they've left the gas on. Inside, the principal and management are adamant that the industrial action demonstrates complete carelessness. Underneath it is the issue itself, which is the part of a strike at which, typically, everybody turns off because it's very dry and contains many differences over apparently small percentage points. |
| Industrial action, even more than physics, is an area in which everyone but those directly involved go by their instincts. The alternative is just too boring. Nonetheless, the issues are these: new staff – not, the head of HR, Musrat Zaman, stresses, anybody who is employed now – will be on new contracts. They will lose 10 days' paid holiday (it goes from 60 to 50 days, or 52 to 42 days, depending on whether you count bank holidays) and they have to supply more cover. The management seems genuinely surprised that this has caused such consternation. At one meeting, a spokesperson for the principal said: "These contracts aren't about you. You've never met these people. As far as you're concerned, the people on these contracts don't exist." | Industrial action, even more than physics, is an area in which everyone but those directly involved go by their instincts. The alternative is just too boring. Nonetheless, the issues are these: new staff – not, the head of HR, Musrat Zaman, stresses, anybody who is employed now – will be on new contracts. They will lose 10 days' paid holiday (it goes from 60 to 50 days, or 52 to 42 days, depending on whether you count bank holidays) and they have to supply more cover. The management seems genuinely surprised that this has caused such consternation. At one meeting, a spokesperson for the principal said: "These contracts aren't about you. You've never met these people. As far as you're concerned, the people on these contracts don't exist." |
| That is not the view taken by the staff. One visiting tutor (who won't give her name because she constantly has to reapply for work – indeed, her contract is more insecure than either the existing or the new contracts), explains: "I used to work in a private sector company where this happened. | That is not the view taken by the staff. One visiting tutor (who won't give her name because she constantly has to reapply for work – indeed, her contract is more insecure than either the existing or the new contracts), explains: "I used to work in a private sector company where this happened. |
| All the people on old contracts were told that the new contracts wouldn't affect them, but that's not how it works. They just get squeezed out because they're more expensive, and they end up begging to be on the new contract. It's horrible watching someone feel so worried and scared about their job." | All the people on old contracts were told that the new contracts wouldn't affect them, but that's not how it works. They just get squeezed out because they're more expensive, and they end up begging to be on the new contract. It's horrible watching someone feel so worried and scared about their job." |
| Jim Delaney, the Unison shop steward (UCU is the lecturers' union, but Unison is involved for the support staff) puts it in more union-style language. "Our members don't want a two-tier workforce. It's divisive and it's unfair." | Jim Delaney, the Unison shop steward (UCU is the lecturers' union, but Unison is involved for the support staff) puts it in more union-style language. "Our members don't want a two-tier workforce. It's divisive and it's unfair." |
| Again, the view of the management is miffed astonishment, of that very modern sort. "We cannot afford the old contracts. We were spending more than we were bringing in. It's basic economics." | Again, the view of the management is miffed astonishment, of that very modern sort. "We cannot afford the old contracts. We were spending more than we were bringing in. It's basic economics." |
| In the end, there is nothing modern about these wrangles; they are as old as work itself. Is your workforce an asset in itself, or is it just standing in the way of profitability, with its ceaseless demands? Is it efficient to pay people as little as possible? Or is efficiency just code for reducing wages? The strike is indefinite – and so, in all likelihood, is this conversation. | In the end, there is nothing modern about these wrangles; they are as old as work itself. Is your workforce an asset in itself, or is it just standing in the way of profitability, with its ceaseless demands? Is it efficient to pay people as little as possible? Or is efficiency just code for reducing wages? The strike is indefinite – and so, in all likelihood, is this conversation. |
| • This article was amended on 16 June 2014 to correct the percentage for the ballot turnout and give the correct percentage of those who voted for strike action. |
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