Scottish college workers are striking for pay equality

Socialist Party Scotland give our 100% support and solidarity to the more than 2,000 Unison members who are taking strike action across 20 colleges in Scotland on September 6th.

College support staff (administration, admissions, funding, catering, cleaning, advisors, security, classroom assistants, technicians and others) are calling for fair pay and parity with their lecturing colleagues.

As a result of successful strike action by the EIS-FELA trade union, college bosses awarded lecturing staff a £450 flat rate rise in May 2016. Most college support staff have been offered a flat rate of £230.

Chris Greenshields, chair of UNISON’s further education committee, said: “Our demand is simple and fair. Pay college support staff the same flat rate rise (£450) that you gave to our teaching colleagues. We work for the same colleges, help deliver the same courses, support the same students and deserve the same cost of living increase.”

While essential college staff are being refused a proper pay rise, top college bosses are raking in huge six-figure salaries.

These include £153,000 for the principle of City of Glasgow, £145,000 for the head of Edinburgh College and £132,000 at Dundee and Angus. If FE bosses refuse to move after the September 6 strike, Unite and the GMB should join the strike action which should be escalated.

The recent victories after strike action by college lecturers and teachers has given confidence to all workers, students and young people to fight back against the cuts. It also shows the strike action works and the potential power of nationally co-ordinated strike action by the trade unions which must be acted upon by the national union leaders across the public sector.

Cuts must end

Driving the anger of all college staff is the increasing workloads and cuts to college funding that is turning the job of adequately teaching and supporting students into an impossibility. Cuts to contact time with students, the cramming of course delivery into fewer and fewer weeks and lack of time for support are all major issues. FE colleges, currently run by management on a cost-cutting business model, play a vital role in training and education for hundreds of thousands of overwhelmingly working-class young people in Scotland.

The SNP Scottish Government have continued to pass on Tory funding cuts to public services in Scotland.

Between 2011 and 2014, cuts to college funding led to more than 150,000 fewer students at college in Scotland. Hours of learning were cut by almost 10 million while staff numbers have also dropped by 7,000.

Politicians who’ll fight austerity

Socialist Party Scotland and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) – whose activists play an important role in Unison – call for MSPs and councillors to refuse to implement Tory cuts and build a mass campaign to fight for the money stolen in austerity by the Tories in Westminster.

A general election is possible and must be demanded. The Tories and the bosses’ are in disarray and it’s vital that the workers’ movement goes on the offensive to oppose all austerity cuts. By using its power and building for a 24-hour general strike it can drive the Tories from office and begin to transform the balance of forces in Scotland and across Britain.