By Socialist Alternative Sixth Form College NEU members
Following the colossal and unprecedented 97% vote in favour of strike action, Rachel Reeves announced an additional £300 million in funding for the FE Sector – including Sixth Form Colleges. However, despite the NEU’s efforts to seek clarification on whether any part of this funding can be spent on pay, the Department for Education (DfE) has allowed our dispute to go ahead claiming things will be clarified in “due course” Yet, the 33 academised sixth forms have already received funding for the full 5.5% pay award in line with school teachers, even though they don’t fall under the remit of the STRB!
This is an unacceptable attack on collective bargaining in the already fragmented Post-16 education sector, scandalously carried out by a Labour government. This is a perverse decision by the DfE which could push more of the education system towards academisation, and must be fully and collectively resisted by the whole of the NEU
The NEU must link the huge mandate they have been given by our members to fight, not just for the full 5.5%, but to restore the 25% that has been lost in real terms since 2010 and to demand a fully funded, publicly owned education system. Sixth form college teachers should take inspiration from the junior doctors dispute who were prepared to take prolonged action to win a 22% pay rise over two years.
Socialist Alternative is calling for:
- Escalating and sustained action up to the end of term and into the New Year.
- Full pay restoration lost since 2010
- The election of rank and file strike committees in all 32 striking sixth form colleges to coordinate action, organise members and ensure democratic control over our dispute.
- Say to no academisation of all our colleges and schools, for a fully funded education system
