Strike action threatens sector’s new-found unity

News that the NUT is holding an indicative ballot over plans to strike in sixth-form colleges is disheartening at a time when FE has been pulling together
15th January 2016, 12:00am

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Strike action threatens sector’s new-found unity

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/strike-action-threatens-sectors-new-found-unity
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“It’s great to see the sector united and advocating for itself in a way it has never done before.” These words were spoken by Andrew Harden, the University and College Union’s (UCU) national official for FE, back in April 2015. A petition opposing yet more cuts to FE funding had received unprecedented backing from organisations across the sector, ranging from the UCU to its old adversaries at the Association of Colleges (AoC), and was eventually signed by more than 42,000 people.

By and large, this momentum continued throughout the year, culminating in sustained lobbying of ministers in the build-up to the feared autumn statement. It’s true that improved forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility undoubtedly had a massive impact on the better-than-expected hand that FE was dealt, but prolonged and unified campaigning from across the sector certainly made ministers aware of the fury that would have come their way had FE been harshly treated in the spending settlement.

Given that this new-found sense of unity helped the sector through the darkest days of 2015, the lessons learned will surely stand FE in good stead for challenges ahead.

Or so you’d think. This week brought an intervention from the NUT that left most onlookers dumbfounded. Because what better way could there be to celebrate than by going on strike?

The union is holding an indicative ballot over plans to strike in sixth-form colleges across the country. When looked at in isolation, the NUT’s grounds for action appear to contain at least a semblance of reason. The 16-19 budget was cut by 14 per cent under the Coalition; the area reviews are likely to endanger jobs through the closure or merger of colleges; and even the much trumpeted protection of funding in cash terms will, the union claims, likely amount to an 8 per cent cut in real terms.

Certainly, no one could argue that the sector will be overflowing with cash for the foreseeable future. But here’s a small tip for anyone thinking of orchestrating national industrial action: make sure you arrange it when feelings of anger and frustration are at tipping point, not when the overwhelming emotion running through the sector is relief.

There’s a good reason why we haven’t heard a peep out of the other two classroom unions representing staff in the sector, the NASUWT and ATL. There is, of course, another factor behind the NUT’s ire. In the autumn statement, Mr Osborne announced that sixth-form colleges would be allowed to convert to academy status. In NUT circles, using the A-word is akin to waving a red rag in front of a bull. This deep-rooted tribalism seems to have blinded it to the fact that the move effectively amounts to the potential renationalisation of the private sector. Whatever arguments may rage about whether the academisation of schools amounts to creeping privatisation, an incorporated college (classed as private sector by the Office for National Statistics) making the transition is anything but.

The NUT may be keen to give the government a bloody nose. But the only losers from a sixth-form college strike would be the colleges themselves, with their learners missing out on a day’s classes - and their staff losing out on a day’s pay.

General FE colleges are already suffering the consequences of obstinacy in industrial relations. There has been one national strike by UCU over the tabled 0 per cent pay offer; another looks likely.

As AoC chief executive Martin Doel put it last spring: “This is the first time we [in the FE sector] have all been on the barricades together in such a public way.”

Without a little more give and take from all parties, it may also be the last.

Stephen Exley is further education editor at TES

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